mcdowell@cfa250.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell) (11/14/88)
From article <1988Nov13.062139.1075@utzoo.uucp>, by henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer): [First comsat..] >Take your pick of SCORE, Relay, Telstar, or > Syncom II, in -- I think -- that order. I would go for Courier IB, a 1960 satellite which was the first active repeater. Like SCORE, it was a US Army Signals Corps effort. (Courier IA didnt make it to orbit.) I agree that the 1958 SCORE doesnt really count; the Soviet Korabl'-Sputnik in 1960 did much the same thing, too. The NASA/RCA Relay in 1962 wasn't that much of a gain on Courier; AT&T's Telstar I does have the honor of the first transatlantic messages. The first Molniya-1 went up in Apr 1965. > Syncom II (dunno what happened to Syncom I, launch failure?) was the first > more-or-less Clarke-orbit comsat, Syncom I had its apogee motor blow up. Syncom II was inclined 33 deg to the equator, Syncom III was really the first GEO sat, in Aug 1964 I think. Jonathan McDowell.
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (11/15/88)
In article <1158@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu> mcdowell@cfa250.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell) writes: >I would go for Courier IB, a 1960 satellite which was the first active >repeater... @#@#%$#, I forgot about Courier. You're right. >> Syncom II (dunno what happened to Syncom I, launch failure?) was the first >> more-or-less Clarke-orbit comsat, > >Syncom I had its apogee motor blow up. Syncom II was inclined 33 deg... Yes, that's why I said "more-or-less Clarke-orbit". It was close enough, with its apparent motion in the sky slow enough, to demonstrate that the idea was workable but that an equatorial orbit was in order. -- Sendmail is a bug, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology not a feature. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu