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64-553: PAS-1 was a communications satellite owned by PanAmSat located at 45° West longitude , serving the Americas market. PAS-1 was also the first, privately owned, international telecommunication satellite. It was originally built for Contel ASC as ASC 3, but purchased before launch. It was primarily used for the main television channel of Panama . It was the first satellite to be able to service to five different American countries. This article about one or more communications satellites

128-511: A Christmas greeting from President Eisenhower . The performance was nominal with experiment operation for 12 days, planned orbit lifetime 20 days, actual orbit lifetime 34 days. The tracking beacon operated at 108 MHz. The SCORE communications package was designed and built by Kenneth Masterman-Smith, a military communication research engineer, along with other personnel with the U.S. Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory (SRDL) at Fort Monmouth , New Jersey . The overall program

192-451: A data network aiming to provide a „Lunar Internet for cis-lunar spacecraft and Installations. The Moonlight Initiative is an equivalent ESA project that is stated to be compatible and providing navigational services for the lunar surface. Both programmes are satellite constellstions of several satellites in various orbits around the Moon. Other orbits are also planned to be used. Positions in

256-514: A medium Earth orbit satellite is about 16,000 kilometres (10,000 mi) above Earth. In various patterns, these satellites make the trip around Earth in anywhere from 2 to 8 hours. To an observer on Earth, a satellite in a gestationary orbit appears motionless, in a fixed position in the sky. This is because it revolves around the Earth at Earth's own angular velocity (one revolution per sidereal day , in an equatorial orbit ). A geostationary orbit

320-580: A more precise match for the capabilities of geosynchronous comsats. Two satellite types are used for North American television and radio: Direct broadcast satellite (DBS), and Fixed Service Satellite (FSS). The definitions of FSS and DBS satellites outside of North America, especially in Europe, are a bit more ambiguous. Most satellites used for direct-to-home television in Europe have the same high power output as DBS-class satellites in North America, but use

384-678: A number of satellites for various purposes; for example, METSAT for meteorological satellite, EUMETSAT for the European branch of the program, and METOP for meteorological operations. These orbits are Sun synchronous, meaning that they cross the equator at the same local time each day. For example, the satellites in the NPOESS (civilian) orbit will cross the equator, going from south to north, at times 1:30 P.M., 5:30 P.M., and 9:30 P.M. There are plans and initiatives to bring dedicated communications satellite beyond geostationary orbits. NASA proposed LunaNet as

448-617: A period (time to revolve around the Earth) of about 90 minutes. Because of their low altitude, these satellites are only visible from within a radius of roughly 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) from the sub-satellite point. In addition, satellites in low Earth orbit change their position relative to the ground position quickly. So even for local applications, many satellites are needed if the mission requires uninterrupted connectivity. Low-Earth-orbiting satellites are less expensive to launch into orbit than geostationary satellites and, due to proximity to

512-532: A radio signal to a telephone system. In this example, almost any type of satellite can be used. Satellite phones connect directly to a constellation of either geostationary or low-Earth-orbit satellites. Calls are then forwarded to a satellite teleport connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network . As television became the main market, its demand for simultaneous delivery of relatively few signals of large bandwidth to many receivers being

576-450: A small, highly focused and versatile research group with appropriate resources was an ideal method to achieve the scientific and technological advances necessary to succeed in the emerging global space race. SCORE's technical objectives were two-fold. In addition to showing that an Atlas missile was capable of satellite payload launch, the payload itself was a hundred times more massive than any previous US satellite. The program demonstrated

640-455: A tape recorder to carry a stored voice message, as well as to receive, store, and retransmit messages. It was used to send a Christmas greeting to the world from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower . The satellite also executed several realtime transmissions before the non-rechargeable batteries failed on 30 December 1958 after eight hours of actual operation. The direct successor to SCORE was another ARPA-led project called Courier. Courier 1B

704-441: A test launch of the rocket. The night before launch, however, Rear Adm. John E. Clark, deputy director of ARPA, was asked at a news conference whether he could deny that Eisenhower's voice was on the recorder. He replied, "No", and news reports that day suggested the voice might well be the president's. This first purpose-built communications satellite experiment consisted of 2 identical communications repeater terminals mounted in

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768-533: A voice message from Army Secretary Wilber M. Brucker . When the President learned this fact, hours before lift-off, he said he would like to provide the message. His tape-recording was hand-carried to Cape Canaveral, but by then the payload was locked and ready for launch. The ARPA program director decided to launch with the Army message, then erase it while in space, and upload the President's message to replace it. This effort

832-485: A wide range of radio and microwave frequencies . To avoid signal interference, international organizations have regulations for which frequency ranges or "bands" certain organizations are allowed to use. This allocation of bands minimizes the risk of signal interference. In October 1945, Arthur C. Clarke published an article titled "Extraterrestrial Relays" in the British magazine Wireless World . The article described

896-413: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Communications satellite The radio waves used for telecommunications links travel by line of sight and so are obstructed by the curve of the Earth. The purpose of communications satellites is to relay the signal around the curve of the Earth allowing communication between widely separated geographical points. Communications satellites use

960-548: Is also possible to offer discontinuous coverage using a low-Earth-orbit satellite capable of storing data received while passing over one part of Earth and transmitting it later while passing over another part. This will be the case with the CASCADE system of Canada's CASSIOPE communications satellite. Another system using this store and forward method is Orbcomm . A medium Earth orbit is a satellite in orbit somewhere between 2,000 and 35,786 kilometres (1,243 and 22,236 mi) above

1024-550: Is carried out under the auspices of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). To facilitate frequency planning, the world is divided into three regions: Within these regions, frequency bands are allocated to various satellite services, although a given service may be allocated different frequency bands in different regions. Some of the services provided by satellites are: The first and historically most important application for communication satellites

1088-492: Is highly inclined, guaranteeing good elevation over selected positions during the northern portion of the orbit. (Elevation is the extent of the satellite's position above the horizon. Thus, a satellite at the horizon has zero elevation and a satellite directly overhead has elevation of 90 degrees.) The Molniya orbit is designed so that the satellite spends the great majority of its time over the far northern latitudes, during which its ground footprint moves only slightly. Its period

1152-553: Is known as a satellite constellation . Two such constellations, intended to provide satellite phone and low-speed data services, primarily to remote areas, are the Iridium and Globalstar systems. The Iridium system has 66 satellites, which orbital inclination of 86.4° and inter-satellite links provide service availability over the entire surface of Earth. Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX , that aims for global satellite Internet access coverage. It

1216-566: Is one half day, so that the satellite is available for operation over the targeted region for six to nine hours every second revolution. In this way a constellation of three Molniya satellites (plus in-orbit spares) can provide uninterrupted coverage. The first satellite of the Molniya series was launched on 23 April 1965 and was used for experimental transmission of TV signals from a Moscow uplink station to downlink stations located in Siberia and

1280-410: Is that a MEO satellite's distance gives it a longer time delay and weaker signal than a LEO satellite, although these limitations are not as severe as those of a GEO satellite. Like LEOs, these satellites do not maintain a stationary distance from the Earth. This is in contrast to the geostationary orbit, where satellites are always 35,786 kilometres (22,236 mi) from Earth. Typically the orbit of

1344-485: Is useful for communications because ground antennas can be aimed at the satellite without their having to track the satellite's motion. This is relatively inexpensive. In applications that require many ground antennas, such as DirecTV distribution, the savings in ground equipment can more than outweigh the cost and complexity of placing a satellite into orbit. By 2000, Hughes Space and Communications (now Boeing Satellite Development Center ) had built nearly 40 percent of

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1408-547: The Earth-Moon-Libration points are also proposed for communication satellites covering the Moon alike communication satellites in geosynchronous orbit cover the Earth. Also, dedicated communication satellites in orbits around Mars supporting different missions on surface and other orbits are considered, such as the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter . Communications Satellites are usually composed of

1472-550: The SHF X band spectrum. An immediate antecedent of the geostationary satellites was the Hughes Aircraft Company 's Syncom 2 , launched on 26 July 1963. Syncom 2 was the first communications satellite in a geosynchronous orbit . It revolved around the Earth once per day at constant speed, but because it still had north–south motion, special equipment was needed to track it. Its successor, Syncom 3 , launched on 19 July 1964,

1536-461: The US ARMY was a 24.3 metres (80 ft) long, and 3.1 metres (10 ft) diameter Atlas missile used as a platform for the communications relay experiment. The spacecraft body served as antennae. This satellite was to demonstrate the feasibility and explore problems associated with, operation of a satellite communication system. It carried messages on a tape recorder which was used at one point to carry

1600-423: The Earth faster, they do not remain visible in the sky to a fixed point on Earth continually like a geostationary satellite, but appear to a ground observer to cross the sky and "set" when they go behind the Earth beyond the visible horizon. Therefore, to provide continuous communications capability with these lower orbits requires a larger number of satellites, so that one of these satellites will always be visible in

1664-415: The Earth's surface. MEO satellites are similar to LEO satellites in functionality. MEO satellites are visible for much longer periods of time than LEO satellites, usually between 2 and 8 hours. MEO satellites have a larger coverage area than LEO satellites. A MEO satellite's longer duration of visibility and wider footprint means fewer satellites are needed in a MEO network than a LEO network. One disadvantage

1728-415: The K u band. The Intelsat Americas 5 , Galaxy 10R and AMC 3 satellites over North America provide a quite large amount of FTA channels on their K u band transponders . SCORE (satellite) SCORE ( Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment ) was the world's first purpose-built communications satellite . Launched aboard an American Atlas rocket on December 18, 1958, SCORE provided

1792-497: The Moon, Earth's natural satellite, acting as a passive relay. After achieving the first transoceanic communication between Washington, D.C. , and Hawaii on 23 January 1956, this system was publicly inaugurated and put into formal production in January 1960. The first satellite purpose-built to actively relay communications was Project SCORE , led by Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and launched on 18 December 1958, which used

1856-819: The Russian Far East, in Norilsk , Khabarovsk , Magadan and Vladivostok . In November 1967 Soviet engineers created a unique system of national TV network of satellite television , called Orbita , that was based on Molniya satellites. In the United States, the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) was established in 1994 to consolidate the polar satellite operations of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). NPOESS manages

1920-472: The SCORE mission occurred just three weeks after the first successful Atlas test launch on 28 November 1958. SCORE was launched on 18 December 1958 into an orbit with a perigee of 185 kilometres (115 mi), an apogee of 1,484 kilometres (922 mi) from LC-11 at Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex , Florida, inclined at 32.3°, with a period of 101.4 minutes. Its batteries lasted 12 days and it reentered

1984-437: The atmosphere on 21 January 1959. The communications repeater installed on the missile received, amplified and retransmitted signals. Two redundant sets of equipment were mounted in the nose of the SCORE missile. Four antennas were mounted flush with the missile surface, two for transmission and two for reception. SCORE's other equipment included two tape recorders, each with a four-minute capacity. Any of four ground stations in

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2048-403: The completion of a fully global network with Intelsat 3 in 1969–70. By the 1980s, with significant expansions in commercial satellite capacity, Intelsat was on its way to become part of the competitive private telecommunications industry, and had started to get competition from the likes of PanAmSat in the United States, which, ironically, was then bought by its archrival in 2005. When Intelsat

2112-455: The edges of Antarctica and Greenland . Other land use for satellite phones are rigs at sea, a backup for hospitals, military, and recreation. Ships at sea, as well as planes, often use satellite phones. Satellite phone systems can be accomplished by a number of means. On a large scale, often there will be a local telephone system in an isolated area with a link to the telephone system in a main land area. There are also services that will patch

2176-684: The equator and therefore appear lower on the horizon as the receiver gets farther from the equator. This will cause problems for extreme northerly latitudes, affecting connectivity and causing multipath interference (caused by signals reflecting off the ground and into the ground antenna). Thus, for areas close to the North (and South) Pole, a geostationary satellite may appear below the horizon. Therefore, Molniya orbit satellites have been launched, mainly in Russia, to alleviate this problem. Molniya orbits can be an appealing alternative in such cases. The Molniya orbit

2240-453: The feasibility of transmitting messages through the upper atmosphere from one ground station to one or more ground stations. The result of the program, which used both real-time and store and forward techniques, was a major scientific breakthrough which proved that active communications satellites could provide a means of transmitting messages from one point to any other on Earth. The SCORE (Signal Communication by Orbiting RElay) satellite of

2304-626: The first transatlantic transmission of television signals. Belonging to AT&T as part of a multi-national agreement between AT&T, Bell Telephone Laboratories , NASA, the British General Post Office , and the French National PTT (Post Office) to develop satellite communications, it was launched by NASA from Cape Canaveral on 10 July 1962, in the first privately sponsored space launch. Another passive relay experiment primarily intended for military communications purposes

2368-479: The following subsystems: The bandwidth available from a satellite depends upon the number of transponders provided by the satellite. Each service (TV, Voice, Internet, radio) requires a different amount of bandwidth for transmission. This is typically known as link budgeting and a network simulator can be used to arrive at the exact value. Allocating frequencies to satellite services is a complicated process which requires international coordination and planning. This

2432-487: The fundamentals behind the deployment of artificial satellites in geostationary orbits to relay radio signals. Because of this, Arthur C. Clarke is often quoted as being the inventor of the concept of the communications satellite, and the term 'Clarke Belt' is employed as a description of the orbit. The first artificial Earth satellite was Sputnik 1 , which was put into orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. It

2496-404: The ground, do not require as high signal strength (signal strength falls off as the square of the distance from the source, so the effect is considerable). Thus there is a trade off between the number of satellites and their cost. In addition, there are important differences in the onboard and ground equipment needed to support the two types of missions. A group of satellites working in concert

2560-447: The guidance pods along the sides of the launch vehicle. The experiment was to test the feasibility and explore problems associated with using satellites for communications purposes. No modulation was received on the carrier wave from experiment package no. 1. Voice and teletype messages were sent and returned in real-time, and also from experiment tape recorder no. 2. The tape recorder was loaded with new material 28 times and failure finally

2624-464: The ionosphere. The launch of Sputnik 1 was a major step in the exploration of space and rocket development, and marks the beginning of the Space Age . There are two major classes of communications satellites, passive and active . Passive satellites only reflect the signal coming from the source, toward the direction of the receiver. With passive satellites, the reflected signal is not amplified at

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2688-515: The late 20th century. Satellite communications are still used in many applications today. Remote islands such as Ascension Island , Saint Helena , Diego Garcia , and Easter Island , where no submarine cables are in service, need satellite telephones. There are also regions of some continents and countries where landline telecommunications are rare to non existent, for example large regions of South America, Africa, Canada, China, Russia, and Australia. Satellite communications also provide connection to

2752-556: The more than one hundred satellites in service worldwide. Other major satellite manufacturers include Space Systems/Loral , Orbital Sciences Corporation with the Star Bus series, Indian Space Research Organisation , Lockheed Martin (owns the former RCA Astro Electronics/GE Astro Space business), Northrop Grumman , Alcatel Space, now Thales Alenia Space , with the Spacebus series, and Astrium . Geostationary satellites must operate above

2816-487: The next two years, international negotiations led to the Intelsat Agreements, which in turn led to the launch of Intelsat 1, also known as Early Bird, on 6 April 1965, and which was the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit. Subsequent Intelsat launches in the 1960s provided multi-destination service and video, audio, and data service to ships at sea (Intelsat 2 in 1966–67), and

2880-467: The northern hemisphere. This orbit provides a long dwell time over Russian territory as well as over Canada at higher latitudes than geostationary orbits over the equator. Communications satellites usually have one of three primary types of orbit , while other orbital classifications are used to further specify orbital details. MEO and LEO are non-geostationary orbit (NGSO). As satellites in MEO and LEO orbit

2944-1036: The same linear polarization as FSS-class satellites. Examples of these are the Astra , Eutelsat , and Hotbird spacecraft in orbit over the European continent. Because of this, the terms FSS and DBS are more so used throughout the North American continent, and are uncommon in Europe. Fixed Service Satellites use the C band , and the lower portions of the K u band . They are normally used for broadcast feeds to and from television networks and local affiliate stations (such as program feeds for network and syndicated programming, live shots , and backhauls ), as well as being used for distance learning by schools and universities, business television (BTV), Videoconferencing , and general commercial telecommunications. FSS satellites are also used to distribute national cable channels to cable television headends. Free-to-air satellite TV channels are also usually distributed on FSS satellites in

3008-468: The satellite, and only a small amount of the transmitted energy actually reaches the receiver. Since the satellite is so far above Earth, the radio signal is attenuated due to free-space path loss , so the signal received on Earth is very weak. Active satellites, on the other hand, amplify the received signal before retransmitting it to the receiver on the ground. Passive satellites were the first communications satellites, but are little used now. Work that

3072-514: The second test of a communications relay system in space (the first having been provided by the USAF / NASA 's Pioneer 1 ), the first broadcast of a human voice from space, and the first successful use of the Atlas as a launch vehicle. It captured world attention by broadcasting a Christmas message via shortwave radio from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower through an on-board tape recorder. The satellite

3136-402: The sky for transmission of communication signals. However, due to their closer distance to the Earth, LEO or MEO satellites can communicate to ground with reduced latency and at lower power than would be required from a geosynchronous orbit. A low Earth orbit (LEO) typically is a circular orbit about 160 to 2,000 kilometres (99 to 1,243 mi) above the Earth's surface and, correspondingly,

3200-503: The southern United States could command the satellite into playback mode to transmit the stored message or into record mode to receive and store a new message. These redundancies proved invaluable as one of the tape recorders malfunctioned and was rendered inoperable during the 12-day mission. According to an official history of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), SCORE was originally programmed to broadcast

3264-409: Was Project West Ford , which was led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology 's Lincoln Laboratory . After an initial failure in 1961, a launch on 9 May 1963 dispersed 350 million copper needle dipoles to create a passive reflecting belt. Even though only about half of the dipoles properly separated from each other, the project was able to successfully experiment and communicate using frequencies in

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3328-399: Was an aluminized balloon satellite acting as a passive reflector of microwave signals. Communication signals were bounced off the satellite from one point on Earth to another. This experiment sought to establish the feasibility of worldwide broadcasts of telephone, radio, and television signals. Telstar was the first active, direct relay communications commercial satellite and marked

3392-488: Was begun in the field of electrical intelligence gathering at the United States Naval Research Laboratory in 1951 led to a project named Communication Moon Relay . Military planners had long shown considerable interest in secure and reliable communications lines as a tactical necessity, and the ultimate goal of this project was the creation of the longest communications circuit in human history, with

3456-426: Was conducted in such secrecy that only 88 people were aware of its existence. Before the date of the SCORE launch, 53 of the 88 people had been told the program had been canceled and they were not to mention to anyone that it had ever existed. That left only 35 people who knew of the mission of Atlas 10B with the rest of the engineering crew, including the launch crew, under the impression that they were working solely on

3520-501: Was developed by Mikhail Tikhonravov and Sergey Korolev , building on work by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky . Sputnik 1 was equipped with an on-board radio transmitter that worked on two frequencies of 20.005 and 40.002 MHz, or 7 and 15 meters wavelength. The satellite was not placed in orbit to send data from one point on Earth to another, but the radio transmitter was meant to study the properties of radio wave distribution throughout

3584-442: Was due to battery depletion. The experiment receiver and transmitter operated on 150 and 132 MHz, respectively. The payload weighed 68 kilograms (150 lb), and was built into the fairing pods of the Atlas missile. Combined weight of the total on-orbit package was 3,980 kilograms (8,770 lb). As with Sputnik 1 , which was launched by its R-7 Semyorka ICBM shortly after the missile had made its first operational flight,

3648-428: Was in intercontinental long distance telephony . The fixed Public Switched Telephone Network relays telephone calls from land line telephones to an Earth station , where they are then transmitted to a geostationary satellite. The downlink follows an analogous path. Improvements in submarine communications cables through the use of fiber-optics caused some decline in the use of satellites for fixed telephony in

3712-560: Was launched on 11 February 1965 to explore the feasibility of active solid-state X band long-range military communications. A total of nine satellites were launched between 1965 and 1976 as part of this series. In the United States, 1962 saw the creation of the Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT) private corporation, which was subject to instruction by the US Government on matters of national policy. Over

3776-524: Was launched on 4 October 1960 to explore whether it would be possible to establish a global military communications network by using "delayed repeater" satellites, which receive and store information until commanded to rebroadcast them. After 17 days, a command system failure ended communications from the satellite. NASA 's satellite applications program launched the first artificial satellite used for passive relay communications in Echo 1 on 12 August 1960. Echo 1

3840-487: Was launched, the United States was the only launch source outside of the Soviet Union , who did not participate in the Intelsat agreements. The Soviet Union launched its first communications satellite on 23 April 1965 as part of the Molniya program. This program was also unique at the time for its use of what then became known as the Molniya orbit , which describes a highly elliptical orbit , with two high apogees daily over

3904-516: Was popularly dubbed " The Talking Atlas " as well as "Chatterbox". SCORE, as a geopolitical strategy, placed the United States at an even technological par with the Soviet Union as a highly functional response to the Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 satellites. The Air Force had initially proposed using their Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) as early as 1955, when the United States government

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3968-586: Was reviewing proposals for an orbital satellite during the International Geophysical Year (IGY). This proposal was rejected because it would redirect resources from the ICBM's development, and it was also feared that the rocket would not be ready in time for the IGY. SCORE, a six-month effort, was the first endeavor of the then-new Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) headed by Roy Johnson, and proved that

4032-470: Was successful, and accordingly SCORE's transmitted message from space to Earth was as follows: This is the President of the United States speaking. Through the marvels of scientific advance, my voice is coming to you from a satellite circling in outer space. My message is a simple one: Through this unique means I convey to you and to all mankind, America's wish for peace on Earth and goodwill toward men everywhere. The broadcast signal for Eisenhower's greeting

4096-654: Was the first geostationary communications satellite. Syncom 3 obtained a geosynchronous orbit, without a north–south motion, making it appear from the ground as a stationary object in the sky. A direct extension of the passive experiments of Project West Ford was the Lincoln Experimental Satellite program, also conducted by the Lincoln Laboratory on behalf of the United States Department of Defense . The LES-1 active communications satellite

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