Satellite Communications: History
Launched on October 4, 1957, the first artificial satellite was the Soviet Sputnik 1. It was equipped with an on-board radio (the tranmission of signals through the free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies significantly below those of visiblie light) transmitter, an electronic device which in electronic and telecommunications, with the aid of antenna , produces radio waves, that worked on two frequencies, 20.005 and 40.002 MHz.
In 1958, the first American satellite to relay communications was Project SCORE (Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment), which used a tape recorder to store and forward voice messages. Store and forward is a telecommunications technique in which information is sent to an intermediate station where it is kept and sent at a later time to the final destination or to another intermediate station. SCORE was used to send a Christmas greeting to the world from the 34th U.S. President (1953-1961) Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), an agency of the United States government responsible for the nation's civilian space program and aeronautics and aerospace research, launched an Echo satellite in 1960. Project Echo was the first passive communications satellite experiment. NASA also introduced the 100-foot (30 m) aluminized PET film balloon as a passive reflector for radio communications. BoPET (Biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate) is a polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET) used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, reflectivity, gas and aroma barrier properties and electrical insulation.
Courier 1B is the world's first active repeater satellite after launch on 4 October 1960. It was built by Philco, the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company (formerly known as the Spencer Company and later the Helios Electric Company), a pioneer in early battery, radio, and television production as well as former employer of Philo Farnsworth, inventor nof cathode ray tube television.
With the launch of Alouette 1 in 1962, Canada, a North American country, became the third country to put a man-made satellite into space. Because Canada did not have any domestic launch capabilities of its own (and still does not), Alouette 1, which was entirely built and funded by Canada, was launched by the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from Vandenberg AFB in California.