J ban the man

Satellite Communications

By Purdos

  • Extra - Terrestrial Relays Article

    Arthur C. Clarke's paper on geostationary orbit of a spacecraft enabling 24 hour radio coverage on a global scale.

  • Orbital Radio Relays - Radio Signals Possibilities

    John Pierce of American Telephone and Telegraph Company's Bell Laboratories published an article on the precise power requirements to transmit signals to satellites in various Earth orbits. He developed the traveling wave tube amplifier which was essential in enabling a satellite to receive, amplify and transmit radio signals to achieve wide coverage of radio signals to listeners on Earth.

  • Sputnik 1 Launched

    First artificial satellite launched by the Soviet Union, orbiting Earth in an elliptical orbit and transmitted signals for 22 days until its battery ran out.

  • Project SCORE relays voice signals

    First satellite to relay voice signals of "peace on Earth and goodwill toward men everywhere" from US President Eisenhower from US government's Project SCORE (Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment)

  • NASA's first project - Echo 1 Passive Satellite

    Echo 1 passive satellite contained no instruments and only reflected signals at random back to Earth, showing little practicality in other applications of communication. Echo 2 in 1964 was NASA's last passive satellite.

  • Telstar 1 - First Two Way Satellite

    John Pierce developed Telstar 1 as the first active satellite capable of two-way communications. It was the first satellite to transmit live television between Europe and North America, and the first phone call via satellite.

  • Syncom 3 - First Geostationary Orbit

    Syncom 3 made by Hughes Aircraft successfully did a broadcast of the 1964 Olympic Games from Tokyo to the US, a first in broadcast via satellite.

  • Intelsat Formed - Intelsat Interim Agreement

    11 original countries, Austria, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, UK, US, the Vatican and West Germany signed the Intelsat Interim Agreement to cooperate in further satellite communications development.

  • Early Bird - First commercial operating satellite

    Intelsat's first satellite Early Bird (A.K.A Intelsat 1) was launched and provided regular telecommunications and broadcasting services between North America and Europe.

  • Molniya Satellites reaching full Soviet Union coverage

    The Soviet Union developed a series of Molniya satellites in a highly elliptical orbit to reach further north of Russia. Molniya 1 was launched April 23 1965