The Birth Of Satellite Communications

EE 20 November 1987 THE BIRTH OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS Twenty-five years ago worldwide communications entered a new era. Telstar, the world"s first commercial communications satellite, was launched on July 10, 1962, and the first live television signals via satellite were received by British Telecom"s Goonhilly earth station in the early hours of the following morning. In October 1945, the magazine Wireless World published an article by Artur C. Clarke, today probably better known as the autor of 2001-A space Odyssey, entitled Extra-terrestrial re- lays-can rocket stations give worldwide radio coverage? Arthur C. Clarke commented in his article: "Many may consider the solution proposed in this discussion too farfetched to be taken very seriously." Yet his idea was to prove the blue-print for today"s satellite communi- cations network. He accurately predicted the or- bital velocity that a rocket would need to become an ar- tificial satellite, or second moon, circling the wor...