dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (08/19/84)
This is the anniversary of the launch of Echo 1. More on the first NASA communications satellite -- right after this. August 12: Observation of an Echo The first NASA communications satellite was Echo 1, launched on this date in the year 1960. If you happened to look up at the right time, you might have seen this satellite. Many people saw Echo 1, simply because it was very bright. The satellite was launched in a compact capsule. But, when it reached its designated orbit, it unfolded into a 100-foot silvery balloon. The mirror-like surface of the satellite reflected the light of the sun. At night, it traveled across the sky like a brilliant moving beacon, easily visible to observers on Earth. So many people saw it -- but even more importantly, the Echo satellite proved the feasibility of bouncing radio signals around the world. Echo 1 re-entered the atmosphere in 1968. There are plenty of satellites still in orbit -- and on any night in a clear sky, you can probably see one. Because they're hundreds of miles above the Earth, satellites reflect sunlight long after sunset -- or just before sunrise. A satellite looks something like a star -- but a moving star. It's the movement that'll catch your attention. Satellites can move in any direction -- north to south, east to west, or whatever. They sometimes start out fairly bright, and get dimmer just before they disappear in the shadow of the Earth. And they don't make any noise. Instead, they move silently and steadily across the dome of the stars. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1983, 1984 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin