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74-467: Telstar is the name of various communications satellites . The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962. It successfully relayed through space the first television pictures, telephone calls, and telegraph images , and provided the first live transatlantic television feed. Telstar 2 was launched May 7, 1963. Telstar 1 and 2—though no longer functional—still orbit

148-422: A Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral on July 10, 1962, Telstar 1 was the first privately sponsored space launch. A medium-altitude satellite, Telstar was placed into an elliptical orbit completed once every 2 hours and 37 minutes, inclined at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the equator, with perigee about 952 km (592 mi) from Earth and apogee about 5,933 km (3,687 mi) from Earth This

222-557: A H2A204 variant of the H-IIA rocket, and it commenced service in December 2015. Telstar 19V was launched on 22 July 2018. Telstar 18V was launched on 10 September 2018, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 . 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

296-451: 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

370-466: 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

444-580: 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

518-678: 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

592-617: 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

666-504: A pointing error of less than 0.06 degrees as it moved across the sky at up to 1.5 degrees per second. Since the transmitters and receivers on Telstar were not powerful, ground antennas had to be 90 ft (27 m) tall. Bell Laboratory engineers designed a large horizontal conical horn antenna with a parabolic reflector at its mouth that re-directed the beam. This particular design had very low sidelobes , and thus made very low receiving system noise temperatures possible. The aperture of

740-532: 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

814-464: A transistor failure, this time irreparably, and Telstar 1 went back out of service on February 21, 1963. Experiments continued, and by 1964, two Telstars, two Relay units (from RCA ), and two Syncom units (from the Hughes Aircraft Company ) had operated successfully in space. Syncom 2 was the first geosynchronous satellite and its successor, Syncom 3 , broadcast pictures from

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888-548: 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

962-550: 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

1036-492: 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

1110-464: Is in contrast to the 1965 Early Bird Intelsat and subsequent satellites that travel in circular geostationary orbits . Due to its non- geosynchronous orbit , similar to a Molniya orbit , availability of Telstar 1 for transatlantic signals was limited to the 30 minutes in each 2.5-hour orbit when the satellite passed over the Atlantic Ocean. Ground antennas had to track the satellite with

1184-553: 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

1258-566: 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

1332-410: 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

1406-525: Is to relay the signal around the curve of the Earth allowing communication between widely separated geographical points. Communications satellites use 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

1480-485: 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

1554-660: The 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The first commercial geosynchronous satellite was Intelsat I ("Early Bird") launched in 1965. Telstar was considered a technical success. According to a US. Information Agency (USIA) poll, Telstar was better known in Great Britain than Sputnik had been in 1957. Subsequent Telstar satellites were advanced commercial geosynchronous spacecraft that share only their name with Telstar 1 and 2. The second wave of Telstar satellites launched with Telstar 301 in 1983, followed by Telstar 302 in 1984 (which

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1628-584: The BBC Television Centre , London. The French ground station was at Pleumeur-Bodou . The Canadian ground station was at Charleston, Nova Scotia . The German ground station was at Raisting in Bavaria . The Italian ground station ( Fucino Space Centre ) was at Fucino , near Avezzano , in Abruzzo . The satellite was built by a team at Bell Telephone Laboratories that included John Robinson Pierce , who created

1702-547: 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

1776-560: The Seattle World's Fair ; then to Quebec and finally to Stratford, Ontario . The Washington segment included remarks by President Kennedy, talking about the price of the American dollar , which was causing concern in Europe. When Kennedy denied that the United States would devalue the dollar it immediately strengthened on world markets; Cronkite later said that "we all glimpsed something of

1850-460: The British magazine Wireless World . The article described 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

1924-423: 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

1998-607: The Earth's Van Allen Belt where Telstar 1 went into orbit. This vast increase in a radiation belt , combined with subsequent high-altitude blasts, including a Soviet test in October , overwhelmed Telstar's fragile transistors. It went out of service in November 1962, after handling over 400 telephone, telegraph , facsimile , and television transmissions. It was restarted by a workaround in early January 1963. The additional radiation associated with its return to full sunlight once again caused

2072-415: 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

2146-501: The Earth. Belonging to AT&T , the original Telstar was part of a multi-national agreement among AT&T (USA), Bell Telephone Laboratories (USA), NASA (USA), GPO (United Kingdom) and the direction générale des Télécommunications (France) to develop experimental satellite communications over the Atlantic Ocean. Bell Labs held a contract with NASA, paying the agency for each launch, independent of success. Six ground stations were built to communicate with Telstar, one each in

2220-407: 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 . Intelsat I Intelsat I (nicknamed Early Bird for the proverb "The early bird catches the worm") was the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit , on April 6, 1965. It

2294-670: The Lincoln Laboratory on behalf of the United States Department of Defense . The LES-1 active communications satellite 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

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2368-763: 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

2442-590: The US, France, the UK, Canada, West Germany and Italy. The American ground station—built by Bell Labs—was Andover Earth Station , in Andover, Maine. The main British ground station was at Goonhilly Downs , Cornwall. The BBC , as international coordinator, used this location. The standards 525 / 405 conversion equipment (filling a large room) was researched and developed by the BBC and located in

2516-457: The antennas was 3,600 sq ft (330 m). The antennas were 177 ft (54 m) long and weighed 380 short tons (340,000 kg). Morimi Iwama and Jan Norton of Bell Laboratories were in charge of designing and building the electrical portions of the azimuth-elevation system that steered the antennas. The antennas were housed in radomes the size of a 14-story office building. Two of these antennas were used, one in Andover, Maine, and

2590-403: 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

2664-541: The dipoles properly separated from each other, the project was able to successfully experiment and communicate using frequencies in 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

2738-438: The direction of the receiver. With passive satellites, the reflected signal is not amplified at 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

2812-561: The earth station in Andover, Maine. The message was relayed to the earth station in France, where it was decoded by a second IBM 1401 in La Gaude, France. Telstar 1, which had ushered in a new age of the commercial use of technology, became a victim of the military technology of the Cold War era. The day before Telstar 1 launched, a U.S. high-altitude nuclear bomb (called Starfish Prime ) had energized

2886-455: 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

2960-684: 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

3034-469: The first artificial satellite used for passive relay communications in Echo 1 on 12 August 1960. Echo 1 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

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3108-412: The first privately sponsored space launch. Another passive relay experiment primarily intended for military communications purposes 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

3182-524: The first satellite used to synchronize time between two continents, bringing the United Kingdom and the United States to within 1 microsecond of each other (previous efforts were accurate to only 2,000 microseconds). The Telstar 1 satellite also relayed computer data between two IBM 1401 computers. The test, performed on October 25, 1962, sent a message from a transmitting computer in Endicott, New York , to

3256-479: 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

3330-404: 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

3404-706: The handover. The others were renamed the Intelsat Americas 5, 6, etc. At the time of the sale, Telstar 8 was still under construction by Space Systems/Loral , and it was finally launched on June 23, 2005, by Sea Launch . Telstar 18 was launched in June 2004 by sea launch. The upper stage of the rocket underperformed, but the satellite used its significant stationkeeping fuel margin to achieve its operational geostationary orbit . It has enough on-board fuel remaining to allow it to exceed its specified 13-year design life. Telesat launched Telstar 12 Vantage in November 2015 on

3478-515: 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

3552-556: 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

3626-467: 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

3700-432: The other in France at Pleumeur-Bodou . The GPO antenna at Goonhilly Downs in Great Britain was a conventional 26-meter-diameter paraboloid. Telstar 1 relayed its first, and non-public, television pictures—a flag outside Andover Earth Station—to Pleumeur-Bodou on July 11, 1962. Almost two weeks later, on July 23, at 3:00 p.m. EDT , it relayed the first publicly available live transatlantic television signal. The broadcast

3774-432: The project; Rudy Kompfner , who invented the traveling-wave tube transponder that the satellite used; and James M. Early , who designed its transistors and solar panels. The satellite is roughly spherical, measures 34.5 inches (880 mm) in length, and weighs about 170 lb (77 kg). Its dimensions were limited by what would fit on one of NASA's Delta rockets . Telstar was spin-stabilized , and its outer surface

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3848-461: The radio transmitter was meant to study the properties of radio wave distribution throughout 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

3922-503: The receiver on the ground. Passive satellites were the first communications satellites, but are little used now. Work that 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

3996-1036: 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

4070-406: The satellite's "equator" received 6 GHz microwave signals to relay back to ground stations. The transponder converted the frequency to 4 GHz, amplified the signals in a traveling-wave tube, and retransmitted them omnidirectionally via the adjacent array of larger box-shaped cavities. The prominent helical antenna received telecommands from a ground station. Launched by NASA aboard

4144-639: The signal was acquired before the president was ready, so engineers filled the lead-in time with a short segment of a televised game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field . The Phillies' second baseman Tony Taylor was seen hitting a ball pitched by the Cubs' Cal Koonce to deep right field, caught by fielder George Altman for the out. From there, the video switched first to Washington, DC; then to Cape Canaveral , Florida; to

4218-402: 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,

4292-621: The true power of the instrument we had wrought." That evening, Telstar 1 also relayed the first satellite telephone call , between U.S. vice-president Lyndon Johnson and the chairman of AT&T, Frederick Kappel . It successfully transmitted faxes, data, and both live and taped television, including the first live transmission of television across an ocean from Andover, Maine, US, to Goonhilly Downs, England, and Pleumeur-Bodou, France. (An experimental passive satellite, Echo 1 , had been used to reflect and redirect communications signals two years earlier, in 1960.) In August 1962, Telstar 1 became

4366-492: The ultimate goal of this project was the creation of the longest communications circuit in human history, with 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

4440-515: Was Project SCORE , led by Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and launched on 18 December 1958, which used 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

4514-547: Was Sputnik 1 , which was put into orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. It 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

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4588-458: Was a Thrust Augmented Delta (Delta D) . After a series of maneuvers, it reached its geosynchronous orbital position over the Atlantic Ocean at 28° West longitude, where it was put into service. It helped provide the first live TV coverage of a spacecraft splashdown, that of Gemini 6 in December 1965. Originally slated to operate for 18 months, Early Bird was in active service for 4 years and 4 months, being deactivated in January 1969, although it

4662-429: Was another ARPA-led project called Courier. Courier 1B 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

4736-674: Was briefly activated in June of that year to serve the Apollo 11 flight when the Atlantic Intelsat satellite failed. It was deactivated again in August 1969 and has been inactive since that time (except for a brief reactivation in 1990 to commemorate its 25th launch anniversary), although it remains in orbit. The Early Bird satellite was the first to provide direct and nearly instantaneous contact between Europe and North America, handling television , telephone , and telefacsimile transmissions. It

4810-495: Was built by the Space and Communications Group of Hughes Aircraft Company (later Hughes Space and Communications Company, and now Boeing Satellite Systems ) for COMSAT , which activated it on June 28, 1965. It was based on the Syncom series of satellites that Hughes had previously built for NASA to demonstrate that communications via synchronous-orbit satellite were feasible. Its booster

4884-439: Was covered with solar cells capable of generating 14 watts of electrical power. The original Telstar had a single innovative transponder that could relay data, a single television channel, or multiplexed telephone circuits. Since the spacecraft spun, it required an array of antennas around its "equator" for uninterrupted microwave communication with Earth. An omnidirectional array of small cavity antenna elements around

4958-454: Was fairly small, measuring nearly 76 cm × 61 cm (2.5 ft × 2.0 ft) and weighing 34.5 kg (76 lb). Early Bird was one of the satellites used in the then record-breaking broadcast of Our World . A full-scale model, or a flight test model, hung in the main lobby of the Intelsat headquarters building, Washington, D.C. before moving to McLean, VA in 2014. It

5032-428: 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

5106-436: 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

5180-481: Was needed to track it. Its successor, Syncom 3 , launched on 19 July 1964, 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

5254-627: Was renamed Telstar 3C after it was carried into space by Shuttle mission STS-41-D ), and by Telstar 303 in 1985. The next wave, starting with Telstar 401 , came in 1993; which was lost in 1997 due to a magnetic storm, and then Telstar 402 was destroyed shortly after launch in 1994. It was replaced in 1995 by Telstar 402R, eventually renamed Telstar 4 . Telstar 10 was launched in China in 1997 by APT Satellite Company, Ltd. In 2003, Telstars 4–8 and 13— Loral Skynet 's North American fleet—were sold to Intelsat . Telstar 4 suffered complete failure prior to

5328-767: Was shown in Europe by Eurovision and in North America by NBC , CBS , ABC , and the CBC . The first public broadcast featured CBS's Walter Cronkite and NBC's Chet Huntley in New York , and the BBC's Richard Dimbleby in Brussels . The first pictures were the Statue of Liberty in New York and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The first broadcast was to have included remarks by President John F. Kennedy , but

5402-628: Was subject to instruction by the US Government on matters of national policy. Over 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

5476-571: Was the first active, direct relay communications commercial satellite and marked 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

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