The rocket that lifted Sputnik into orbit was four stories high. Such heavy-lift launchers used tech

Early Theories. In 1895, a Russian scientist, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, gave the world its first vision of a stationary satellite. He observed that an object orbiting Earth at 22,300 miles up would match the angular rotation of Earth and thus provide a seemingly stationary star overhead.
Fifty years later, the English science fiction writer and Royal Air Force electronics officer Arthur C. Clarke expanded on this vision. In 1945, he indicated that such an object orbiting Earth at 22,300 miles up must also have its orbit in the equatorial plane to be considered stationary. Clarke called the object a satellite and further noted that providing a satellite in this orbit with a communications repeater could produce a very valuable communications capability. Clarke named such satellites geostationary communication satellites. Clarke postulated that three geostationary satellites spaced 120° apart would provide full global communications coverage for telephone and television service to the world s population (1,2).
Clarke s concept was ahead of the technologies needed to make it a reality. In 1945, the science of rocketry was still crude, and radio communications depended on large, unreliable vacuum tubes. However, rocketry and electronics technologies both began to advance rapidly, particularly after the development of the transistor in 1947. The first satellite launches, into a low Earth orbit (LEO), occurred during the Cold War following vacation rentals in maine World War II. The United States and Soviet vacation rentals in maine Union were intent on achieving military vacation rentals in maine and technological superiority over each other. Satellites were seen as potentially valuable Cold War tools for reconnaissance and for maintaining reliable communications among far-flung troops.
The Earliest Satellites. vacation rentals in maine On 4 October 1957, a Soviet satellite named Pros-teyshiy Sputnik ( Simplest Satellite ) was launched into a low Earth orbit and began transmitting telemetric information for what would turn out to be 21 days. Sputnik weighed 184 pounds and was a sphere two feet in diameter. vacation rentals in maine This dramatic Soviet achievement shocked the world, and particularly the U.S. public, which perceived it as a threat to national security. The event was likened to the surprise attack vacation rentals in maine on Pearl Harbor, and it sparked a flurry of U.S. government activity in rocketry and satellites (3).
The rocket that lifted Sputnik into orbit was four stories high. Such heavy-lift launchers used technology similar to that of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), so it was perceived that the launch vehicle was at least as important as the actual satellite. In the United States, the public feared that the Soviet Union s ability to launch satellites translated into the capability to launch ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear weapons from Europe to America. The Space Race had begun (4,5). The Sputnik launch led directly to the creation of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (6). In October 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Act launched NASA out of the old National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which had existed since 1915. NASA became responsible for civilian space science and aeronautical vacation rentals in maine research, whereas the U.S. Department of Defense continued to carry out defense work.
The launch of Sputnik II on 3 November 1957, was a second blow to America s perception of itself as technologically superior to the Soviet Union. A third blow came on 6 December 1957, when the first U.S. satellite, Vanguard, exploded on launch. But on 31 January 1958, the United States launched Explorer vacation rentals in maine I, which successfully transmitted telemetric data for 5 months. Shortly thereafter, in December 1958, America launched Score, the first satellite to transmit a radio broadcast, President vacation rentals in maine Eisenhower s Christmas message. In 1960, two more satellites followed, Echo I and Courier. vacation rentals in maine On 10 July 1962, NASA launched the first non-government-built satellite, AT T s Telstar 1, a LEO spacecraft for relaying transatlantic television and data. In that same year, Telstar was used for the first transoceanic television ever transmitted, a live broadcast that commemorated the first anniversary of the death of U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold vacation rentals in maine by a link-up of simultaneous ceremonies held at the United Nations in New York and Paris and Hammarskjold s tomb in Sweden (7). Relay I, launched by NASA in December 1962, was built by RCA, also for transoceanic communications. Meanwhile, in May 1958, Sputnik III was placed into orbit by the Soviet Union. This was a large satellite for the time and demonstrated that the Soviets were ahead of the United States in heavy-lift rocketry.
Geosynchronous Satellites. All of these early satellites were nongeostationary and nongeosynchronous [a geosynchronous (GEO) satellite vacation rentals in maine orbits at 22,300 miles, but is not necessarily geostationary, that is, limited to the equatorial plane—see discussion later]. They were launched into low-altitude Earth orbits because the rockets of the day could not propel the satellites into an orbit 22,300 vacation rentals in maine miles up.
In the early 1960s, when U.S. rockets could at last boost a satellite into geosynchronous orbit, one of the most important questions centered on which was the best orbit to use for a communications satellite, low Earth orbit or geosynchronous. vacation rentals in maine Low-altitude systems had the advantages vacation rentals in maine of lower launch costs,heavier payloads, and relatively short radio-frequency propagative times. The main disadvantages were that many orbiting satellites were required to achieve continuous global communications, and these needed continuous tracking. Geosynchronous satellites, in contrast, had two key advantages. Only three satellites were needed for global coverage, and only minimal tracking was required. Their one primary disadvantage was relatively long radio-frequency propagative times. No one knew how the one-quarter-of-a-second transmission delay would affect the feasibility of using this orbit for telephony (see extended discussion later).
By 1959, a small team of scientists led by Dr. Harold Rosen from the Hughes Aircraft Company (now Hughes Electronics Corporation) was moving ahead, determined to create a geosynchronous communications satellite. By 1960, they had built a satellite prototype (8,9). Meanwhile, at AT T s Bell Laboratories, similar work was taking vacation rentals in maine place under the direction of Dr. John R. Pierce and with at least as much zeal. Arthur Clarke would later name John Pierce and Harold Rosen the fathers of communications vacation rentals in maine satellites. Pierce s team demonstrated the first active communications repeater, but Rosen and his team at Hughes are credited with making vacation rentals in maine it possible, technically and economically, to have a continuous communications capability by satellite earlier than anyone thought vacation rentals in maine feasible (10).
In August 1961, NASA contracted with the Hughes Aircraft Company for the first geosynchronous communications satellite, called Syncom (Fig. 1). Though the first Syncom launch failed in February 1963, a second attempt, the launch of Syncom II in July of the same year, succeeded. Syncom I had just one voice channel and was designed vacation rentals in maine to weigh 86 pounds at the beginning of its life. Though it never attained orbit, it paved the way for Syncom II and Syncom III, satellites that, by August 1964, proved the feasibility and cost-efficiency of domestic and international satellite communications. The Syncom series also validated the concept of geosynchronous vacation rentals in maine satellites, and by 1964, government and other users turned away from LEO satellites for voice, data, and video communications (11).
COMSAT, INTELSAT, and INMARSAT. The 1962 U.S. Communications Satellite Act had a profound impact on international satellite communications. It provided for the establishment of the Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT) (12), a privately financed and managed organization that had a minority of U.S. government representatives on its board of directors. AT T emerged as COMSAT s largest shareholder. COMSAT vacation rentals in maine was created (1) to govern the operation of communications satellites and ground facilities used to transmit to and from the United States and (2) to develop and manage a new international vacation rentals in maine communications satellite organization, which, in 1964, emerged as the International Telecommunication vacation rentals in maine Satellite Organization, or INTELSAT. COMSAT wasresponsible vacation rentals in maine for the procurement, vacation rentals in maine testing, and launch acquisition of all INTELSAT satellites, and it owned 61% of the organization (13,14). The global, commercial INTELSAT cooperative was formed on the initiative of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, who, at the time COMSAT was created, said, I invite all nations to participate in a communications satellite system in the interest of world peace and closer brotherhood among peoples of the world. INTELSAT was the first organization to provide global satellite vacation rentals in maine coverage and connectivity. In its role as a commercial cooperative and wholesaler of satellite communications capacity, vacation rentals in maine INTELSAT provides service through vacation rentals in maine its signatories in member countries. Currently, COMSAT is the only U.S. signatory, though pending deregulation will encourage others (15).
COMSAT s initial capitalization of $200 million was considered sufficient to build a system of dozens of medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites. These orbit the Earth at about 3000 to 7000 miles up; fewer MEOs are needed for global coverage than LEOs. In 1964, when COMSAT was in the process of contracting for its first satellite, two Telstars, two Relays, and two Syncoms had operated successfully in space. For a variety of reasons, including cost, COMSAT ultimately rejected a joint AT T/RCA bid for a MEO system that incorporated the best of Telstar and Relay. Instead, COMSAT chose the geosynchronous satellite offered by Hughes, based on Syncom technology. Procured by COMSAT but transferred to the newly formed INTELSAT, the Early Bird satellite (also called INTELSAT I ) was launched on 6 April, 1965, as the first commercial communications satellite. Built by Hughes, it was lau