Intelsat I.
| Intelsat I - F1 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Engineers check Intelsat I. |
|
| Start date | April 6, 1965, 23:47:50 UTC |
| Launcher | Delta D |
| Launch site | LC17A , Cape Caneveral |
| COSPAR-ID : | 1965-028A |
| Takeoff mass | 68 kg at take-off 34.5 kg in space |
| Manufacturer | Hughes |
| model | HS301 |
| lifespan | 3.5 years |
| operator | Intelsat |
| Playback information | |
| Transponder | 2 C-band transponders (4/6 GHz down- / uplink) |
| Transponder performance | 2 × 6 watts |
| Bandwidth | 2 × 25 MHz |
| Others | |
| Electrical power | 40 watts |
| position | |
| First position | 28 ° west |
| Actual position | 38 ° West (1966), drifting today |
| List of geostationary satellites | |
Intelsat I F1 (“Early Bird”) was the first commercial geostationary communication satellite and the first of the International Telecommunication Satellite ( Intelsat ).
Intelsat I was built for the Communications Satellite Corporation ( COMSAT ) by the Space and Communications Group of the Hughes Aircraft Company , later Hughes Space and Communications Company and today part of Boeing Satellite Systems based on NASA's Syncom satellites and built on April 6, 1965 launched into space with a Delta-D rocket from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in Florida.
The satellite was christened "Early Bird" by the New York Times for lack of a catchy name. It was acquired by the US news company Comsat and years later sold on to the global news satellite organization Intelsat . "Early Bird" broadcast the television entertainment program "Premiere in Space" on both sides of the Atlantic on May 2, 1965 from its position 35,800 km above the equator at 28 ° west longitude. On June 28, 1965, it officially began its commercial service. Despite the planned lifespan of only 18 months, it worked for more than three years and was only switched off in January 1969, but reactivated again for two months in June 1969 for the Apollo 11 mission . Many years later (1984) it was briefly reactivated for the 20th anniversary of the ITSO .
“Early Bird” was cylindrical, spin-stabilized and could transmit 240 phone calls or a television broadcast. Without a drive, it weighed only 34.5 kilograms. The transmission power of the two transponders (one for each direction Europe-America and back) was 6 watts each, the total output 40 watts. It was 72 centimeters in diameter and 59 centimeters in length.
Web links
- Boeing: Early Bird: World's First Communications Satellite ( Memento of October 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Intelsat 1 in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on March 15, 2011 (English).
- ↑ Intelsat 1 Quicklook. NASA, accessed December 23, 2012 .
- ↑ DI Dalgleish: An introduction to satellite communications , Institution of Electrical Engineers, ISBN 0863411320 (English)
- ↑ Gunter's Space Page: Intelsat 1 (English)