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Fifty years ago on 10 July 1962, Telstar, the World's first satellite was launched, by a modified missile rocket. Telestar was built by Bell Telephone Laboratories for use by AT&T - was also the first privately sponsored space mission.
In that era, the US had a large number of microwave towers, to terrestrially retransmit TV signals. However it was impossible to build such towers over the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, to transmit TV content. A satellite in the sky was created as a concept to act a 'A Tower In The Sky'.
Two days after its launch, Telestar beamed the first television satellite signal -- carrying images of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower -- through bases in Andover, in the northeastern US state of Maine, and Pleumeur-Bodou in the Brittany region of France.
Telestar kicked off a new era of global communications decades before the Internet. Telestar flew in a low Earth elliptical orbit and the signal could only be picked up during the 20 minutes or so that it was overhead.
"This satellite must be high enough to carry messages from both sides of the world, which is, of course, an essential requirement for peace," said president John F. Kennedy on July 23, 1962.
source-http://www.scatmag.com/article14.htm
However, reality has not always reflected the soaring rhetoric, and Telstar's onboard electronics failed a few months after it launched due to radiation from high-altitude US and Soviet nuclear testing.
The satellite carried over 400 telephone, telegraph, facsimile and television transmissions before its mission came to an end.
The US Space Objects Registry says the 75 Kg Telestar is still floating as debris in orbit.
GEO SATS
Telestar was not in Geostationary orbit, which is an almost essential requirement for all modern day TV broadcast satellites.
The concept of a geostationary satellite was first proposed by Herman Potocnik in 1928 and popularised by the science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke in a paper in Wireless World magazine in 1945. Working prior to the advent of miniature electronics, Clarke envisioned a trio of large, manned space stations arranged in a triangle around the Earth. he calculated the orbital height and location of the geosynchronous orbit.
Widely known as the "father of the geosynchronous satellite", Harold Rosen, an engineer at Hughes Aircraft Company, invented the first operational g e o s y n c h r o n o u s satellite, Syncom-2. It was launched on a Delta rocket B booster from Cape Canaveral July 26, 1963. A few months later Syncom-2 was used for the world's first satelliterelayed telephone call. It took place between United States President John F. Kennedy and Nigerian Prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
The first geostationary communication satellite was Syncom-3, launched on August 19, 1964 from Cape Canaveral. The satellite, in orbit approximately above the International Date Line, was used to telecast the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo to the United States. It was the first television program to cross the Pacific Ocean. The Tokyo Olympic Games became the first to be broadcast internationally.
Fifty years later, hundreds of satellite transponders will carry the London Olympics live, to every corner of the Earth.
source-http://www.scatmag.com/article14.htm
In that era, the US had a large number of microwave towers, to terrestrially retransmit TV signals. However it was impossible to build such towers over the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, to transmit TV content. A satellite in the sky was created as a concept to act a 'A Tower In The Sky'.
Two days after its launch, Telestar beamed the first television satellite signal -- carrying images of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower -- through bases in Andover, in the northeastern US state of Maine, and Pleumeur-Bodou in the Brittany region of France.
Telestar kicked off a new era of global communications decades before the Internet. Telestar flew in a low Earth elliptical orbit and the signal could only be picked up during the 20 minutes or so that it was overhead.
"This satellite must be high enough to carry messages from both sides of the world, which is, of course, an essential requirement for peace," said president John F. Kennedy on July 23, 1962.
source-http://www.scatmag.com/article14.htm
However, reality has not always reflected the soaring rhetoric, and Telstar's onboard electronics failed a few months after it launched due to radiation from high-altitude US and Soviet nuclear testing.
The satellite carried over 400 telephone, telegraph, facsimile and television transmissions before its mission came to an end.
The US Space Objects Registry says the 75 Kg Telestar is still floating as debris in orbit.
GEO SATS
Telestar was not in Geostationary orbit, which is an almost essential requirement for all modern day TV broadcast satellites.
The concept of a geostationary satellite was first proposed by Herman Potocnik in 1928 and popularised by the science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke in a paper in Wireless World magazine in 1945. Working prior to the advent of miniature electronics, Clarke envisioned a trio of large, manned space stations arranged in a triangle around the Earth. he calculated the orbital height and location of the geosynchronous orbit.
Widely known as the "father of the geosynchronous satellite", Harold Rosen, an engineer at Hughes Aircraft Company, invented the first operational g e o s y n c h r o n o u s satellite, Syncom-2. It was launched on a Delta rocket B booster from Cape Canaveral July 26, 1963. A few months later Syncom-2 was used for the world's first satelliterelayed telephone call. It took place between United States President John F. Kennedy and Nigerian Prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
The first geostationary communication satellite was Syncom-3, launched on August 19, 1964 from Cape Canaveral. The satellite, in orbit approximately above the International Date Line, was used to telecast the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo to the United States. It was the first television program to cross the Pacific Ocean. The Tokyo Olympic Games became the first to be broadcast internationally.
Fifty years later, hundreds of satellite transponders will carry the London Olympics live, to every corner of the Earth.
source-http://www.scatmag.com/article14.htm
