Satellites

---

When the Soviet Union launched the first spacecraft in October 1957, it proved that a man-made object could survive in space. The faint, crackling beeps received from the satellite, named Sputnik, were used to track it as it made its solitary orbits to Earth. Sputnik lasted just ninety-two days before it fell back to Earth and burned up. But the fact that signals could be received from outside Earth's atmosphere marked the beginning of a new age of communications. Within twenty years, satellites would become a billion-dollar link in a global communications chain.

Although it made history by being first, Sputnik was a crude machine. Technicians in the United States worked on a more complex satellite that would transform the communications industry. Telstar, as it was known, was launched into a 3,000-mile-high orbit on July 10, 1962. On July 11, American television (see entry under 1940s—TV and Radio in volume 3) viewers had the dubious pleasure of watching French entertainer Yves Montand (1921–1991) singing "La Chansonette," broadcast live from France. Telstar's main disadvantage was that it could only be used as it passed through a certain part of the sky over the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, Telstar could relay signals for only 102 minutes in every day. In 1963, Sycom II became the first "geosyncronous" satellite, meaning it held a fixed position above a point on the Earth's surface—in this case, 22,235 miles. This heralded the opening of permanent communication links around the globe.

In 1962, AT&T (see entry under 1910s—Commerce in volume 1) ran an advertising (see entry under 1920s—Commerce in volume 2) campaign that ensured Telstar's fame for decades to come. Yet satellites are so much a part of everyday life in the twenty-first century that they are almost forgotten. Silently working miles above the Earth, spy satellites gather military information and monitor the decommissioning of nuclear weapons. Weather satellites make long-term weather forecasts more reliable, while TV signals travel around the globe. Hand-held global positioning devices benefit travelers from arctic explorers to car drivers lost in a strange part of town. Because of satellites, the cost of transatlantic telephone calls has dropped from over ten dollars per minute in 1965 to just a few cents in 2002. Today, the miracle of Telstar's first transatlantic broadcast seems as commonplace as talking to a neighbor across the garden fence.

—Chris Routledge

For More Information

Bunch, Bryan H., and Clint Hatchett. Satellites and Probes. Danbury, CT: Grolier Educational, 1998.

Gavaghan, Helen. Something New Under the Sun: Satellites and theBeginning of the Space Age. New York: Copernicus, 1998.

Herda, D. J. Communication Satellites. New York: F. Watts, 1988.

Whalen, David. "Communications Satellites: Making the Global Village Possible." NASA Headquarters.http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/satcomhistory.html (accessed March 12, 2002).