Part I Genesis--In the Beginning Was An Idea  

Part II From Vision to Reality

Part IIIWhat Hath Sputnik Wrought? The Impact of the Space Race on the Developments of the Satellite Communications Industry

Part IV The Birth of a Global Industry: COMSAT, INTELSAT and INTERSPUTNIK

Part V From Global to Domestic: Communications Satellites Go Local

Part VI Satellites and Development

Part VII Regulation and Deregulation

Virgil Labrador is the Vice-President of Satnews Publishers. He is responsible for all editorial and marketing functions of the organization. He is the editor of Satnews Online Magazine, and Associate Editor of the International Satellite Directory and Satnews Asia. He has worked in various capacities in the industry, more recently, as marketing director of the Asia Broadcast Centre in Singapore--a full-service teleport owned by CBS. He has co-written several books on Media Management and Communications Policy. He holds a master's degree in communications management from the Annenberg School of Communication of the University of Southern California.

Peter Galace is editorial director of Satnews Publishers. He has written extensively on the telecommunications developments in Asia for numerous publications. Currently he is the editor of Satnews Asia (http://www.satnewsasia.com) and associate editor of Satnews Online Magazine and Sateprofiles (http://www.sateprofiles.com).

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Genesis--In the Beginning was an Idea

(Part I of a series on a Brief History of the Satellite Communications Industry)

By Virgil S. Labrador and Peter I. Galace

 The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre

Observe, degree, priority, and place,Insisture, course proportion, season, form,

Office, custom, in all line of order.

-William ShakespeareTroilus and Cressida

 

 For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,

Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails...

-Alfred, Lord TennysonThe Lord of Burleigh (1842)

There is no resisting an idea whose time has come.

-Victor HugoHistiore d'un Crime

 

The Germans have a catchy word for it--weltanschauung--worldview. While its modern connotation usually means a socio-cultural, philosophical or political view of the world--there was a time when a worldview was just that -a view of the world we live in. To the ancient Greeks and Romans and for most of Western civilization until the 16th century that meant a view of our world as the center of the universe--with the moon, planets and the sun orbiting the earth as its satellites.

There really is something about being the center of everything and having satellites orbiting around you--especially such powerful icons such as the moon and the sun. So much so, that the idea stuck for a very long time--with a the imprimatur of the official church authorities. One might even say even to this very day, figuratively at least, the idea that everything revolves around the earth still holds for some.

One of the great civilizations, China, in its heyday considered itself the center of the world and thereby by extension the center of the universe. Indeed its name to this very day, in the Chinese language, Chung Kuo, literally means "Middle Kingdom."

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The main proponent of the geocentric view of the universe was an astronomer, mathematician and geographer from Alexandria, Egypt, Claudius Ptolemy, who live from 87 -150 AD. Ptolemy systematized the Greek view of the universe propounded in his seminal work, Mathematical Syntaxis (also called the Almagest ). He believed that the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, in that order, orbited the earth. This system became widely known as the Ptolemaic system.

While there was a small minority who disagreed with the Ptolemaic view of the world (such as Aristarchus of Samos), the Ptolemaic system was the worldview for almost a millennium and a half until the Polish astronomer, Nicolas Copernicus proposed a heliocentric view of the universe in 1513. What has since become known as the Copernican theory, propounded a revolutionary idea that the planets including earth revolved around the Sun. This work was later published near his death as De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, Nuremberg, 1543).

For another hundred years, the Ptolemaic System was to be vigorously defended by the church hierarchy as the official worldview and to differ was fatal. The Italian philosopher and ex-Dominican priest, Giordano Bruno was burned to the stake for his defense of the Copernican geocentric view of the universe in his works Cena de le Ceneri (The Ash Wednesday Supper) and De l'Infinito, Universo e Mondi (On the Infinite Universe and Worlds), both published in 1584.

Of course the experience of the Italian scholar, Galileo Galilee is well known. Galileo in his book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems--a defense of the Copernican heliocentric theory, criticized the worldviews of Aristotle and Ptolemy, which was the basis of official church doctrine. Galileo was the first to extensively use the telescope for astronomical observation and he discovered four moons of Jupiter--the first satellites viewed by man apart from the moon. In a highly-charged public trial before the Catholic Inquisition in 1633, Galileo was charged with heresy and forced to recant his views. Galileo lived the rest of his life in exile eventually losing his eyesight. He died under house arrest in 1641.

But the days of the geocentric view of the world was numbered. On Christmas Day in 1642, Isaac Newton was born in Lincolnshire, England to family descended of farmers. Newton was to totally revamp the scientific view of the world in his groundbreaking Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica or popularly know as the "Principia." In it Newton laid the foundations of scientific method and thinking that was to dominate the scientific world for almost 350 years until a young Swiss patent clerk by the name of Albert Einstein published his Theory or Relativity in 1907.

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With the scientific world set on the right tack-a series of discoveries and inventions followed that ignited the greatest technological leap humankind has ever seen. It also saw a flourishing of creative energy and imagination that created a new genre of writing called science fiction. And naturally, the earth's only satellite (at the time) and closest neighbor--the moon--was a favorite topic.

One of the first works of science fiction was by a learned astronomer who also subscribed a heliocentric worldview--the German Protestant, who was trained as a cleric, Johannes Kepler. Published four years after his death in 1634, Somnium (Dream) described a voyage from the earth to the moon and life in the moon.

This was followed by an English cleric writing under the pen name, Domingo Gonsales (his real name was Francis Godwin, Bishop of Hereford) who wrote in 1638, The Man in the Moon: or a Discourse in the Voyage of Thither. And followed by a litany of writers notably the great French author Hector Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac who wrote Voyage dans la Lune (Voyage to the Moon) in 1649. In 1705 the Irish writer Daniel Defoe (author of Robinson Crusoe) wrote The Consolidator, a story of travel to the earth and moon in a spaceraft invented by a Chinese scientist by the name of Mira-cho-cho-lasmo.

A rendition of Hale's fictional proposal for a brick satellite in polar orbit.  People from earth threw books and other debris to the satellite and missing their mark, some objects ended up orbiting the satellite--creating more satellites of a satellite!

One of the most amazing stories to come out of this long line of moon tales is a fictional account of a proposal for a manned satellite written by Edward Everett Hale published

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in the Atlantic Monthly in 1869. Titled "The Brick Moon," Hale proposed a satellite made of bricks launched in polar orbit where inhabitants send Morse code signals back to earth to guide mariners in navigation (a precursor of the "Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system now in place worldwide).

There are a host of others--some more fantastic than others. This lunar mania in its any different forms (including the legend of the werewolf) is probably the root of the term lunatic--luna being the Latin word for the moon. However, the one work of greatest impact and that inspired many a scientist and would-be scientist is Jules Verne's classic De la Terre a la Lune (From the Earth to the Moon) first published in 1865, which provided ideas that blur the distinction between fiction and possibility.

One who was inspired by Jules Verne was the pioneering German scientist who also happens to dabble in science fiction, Herman Oberth. Oberth wrote the classic Die Rakete zu den Planetenraumen (The Rocket Into Planetary Space) in 1923. This work first put forth the notion that with the right velocity a rocket could launch a payload into orbit around the earth and that space stations can be used for worldwide communications. A passage from the book (as quoted by Arthur C. Clarke in his own accounting of what he calls the "Pre-History of Comsats" in How the World Was One,1992) is very illustrative:

"...With their powerful instruments they would be able to see fine detail on earth and could communicate by means of mirrors reflecting sunlight. This might be useful for communication with places on the ground which

have no cable connexions and cannot be reached by electric waves. Since, they, provided the sky is clear, could see a candle flame at night and reflection from a hand mirror by day , if they only knew where to

look, they could maintain communications between expeditions and their homeland...ships at sea... The strategic value is obvious especially in the

case of war in areas of low population density..."

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Arthur C. Clarke as a young RAF officer in 1943

But the man who effectively bridged fiction and speculation into workable reality--and the man rightly credited as the father of the communications satellite industry (an honor that he modestly denies being the father, acknowledging instead as being the godfather of the industry in his later speeches accepting numerous honor accorded him--more on this later)--is an accomplished science fiction writer himself, Arthur C. Clarke. Indeed, the geostationary orbit 22,366 miles (or 35,786 kms.) from the earth is named by the International Astronomical Union. after him--"Clarke's Orbit." His calculations led him to discover the precise location where an object orbiting the earth would be moving at the same speed as the earth rotates on its own axis --precluding the need for sophisticated tracking devices to link equipment on the ground to a satellite.

Arthur Charles Clarke was born in the seaside town of Minehead, Somerset, England on December 16, 1917. In 1935 he moved to London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society (BIS). In the BIS, Clarke's fertile imagination was given free rein and he developed his lifetime fascination for space travel. During World War II, as a Royal Air Force (RAF) flight lieutenant, he was in charge of the first radar talk-down equipment, the Ground Controlled Approach, during its experimental stage.

From 1943-45, Clarke had a relatively routine job of training even younger RAF recruits on the maintenance and operation of the Mark II GCA equipment. He was assigned in the idyllic countryside near Shakespeare's birthplace of Stratford-on-Avon--far from the ravaging effects of the war. As he described it, his war was "very peaceful," giving him time to pursue his real interests--space flight and science fiction. Much like Albert Einstein coming up with his "Theory of Relativity" while working in a dead-end job at the Swiss Patent Office, Clarke made very productive use of his spare time.

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Grappling with the problem of providing worldwide radio coverage, Clarke came up with a very practical solution using satellite relays positioned in what is now called "Clarke's Orbit." Clarke wrote a letter to the British magazine Wireless World published in its February 1945 issue. With one bold stroke, the 28 year-old Clarke provided the blueprint for communication satellites as no one ever hitherto conceived. To quote his own words:

"...An 'artificial satellite' at the correct distance from the earth would make one revolution every 24 hours , i.e. it would remain

stationary about the same spot and would be within optical range of nearly half the earth's surface.

Three repeater stations, 120 degrees apart in the correct orbit, could give television and microwave coverage to the entire planet..."

A signed facsimile of the first page of the article that started it all.

Clarke mentioned in his letter that the concept of an "artificial satellite" would be a "possibility in the more remote future--perhaps half a century ahead (emphasis ours)." Having just come up with a revolutionary and original idea, Clarke became very

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conservative in his estimation of when his ideal will actually become reality (by his original estimate it would be in 1995 when the first communications satellite would be launched successfully!)

Clarke later wrote on May 25, 1945 a four-page memo entitled "The Space Station: It's Radio Applications" where he elaborated his concept of geostationary relay satellites. The memo was sent to a fellow BIS member, Ralph Slazenger of the Slazenger sporting goods company. He then wrote a more detailed paper that appeared in the October 1945 issue of Wireless World under the title "Extra-Terrestrial Relays: Can Rockets Stations Give World-wide Radio Coverage?" And the rest as they say is--history.

For about nine years little action was taken on Clarke's revolutionary idea. But what was to happen next was to surprise even the master of science fiction himself. Clarke never bothered to patent his idea (later he would write about this tongue in cheek as "How I Lost a Billion Dollars in My Spare Time"). He thought that by the time his idea was turned into workable reality, the patent would have expired anyway.

Not even the premiere visionary--the author of such prophetic works such as 2001 A Space Odyssey-- could imagine the speed and scope of the growth of the communications satellite industry that he conceived.

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From Vision to RealityPart 2 of a Series on A Brief History of the Satellite

Communications Industry

Between the Vision and Reality..Falls the shadow.

-- T.S. ElliotHollow Men

Hereafter, when they come to model HeavenAnd calculate the stars, how they will wield

The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contriveTo save appearances, how gird the sphere

With centric and eccentric scribbled o'erCycle and epicycle, orb in orb.

--John MiltonParadise Lost

Who could deny that man could somehow also make the heavens,Could he only obtain the instruments and the heavenly material?

--Marsilo FicinoThe Soul of Man (ca. 1474)

Sputnik 1 was a metal sphere the size of a large beach ball with four antennas.

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It was no larger than a beach ball. A shiny silver sphere made of steel about 23 inches in diameter, weighing 184 pounds, with four antennaes capable of sending meaningless "beep-beep" signals in regular intervals back to earth. The Russians, unassumingly, called it "Sputnik" the Russian word literaly meaming "fellow traveler" or satellite.

On the night of October 4, 1957, from the Baikonur Complex (later called the Baikonur Cosmodrome) in Kazakhstan, a Russian R-7 rocket accomplished what no other has done before--launched an artificial satellite in low-earth orbit.

The visionary Arthur C. Clarke, whose article only 12 years before gave a practical blueprint for geostationary satellites, poignantly described the moment when Sputnik was successfully launched and placed into orbit as "the last time the planet earth had only one moon."

And it was a man-made moon. By that singular act, man has made a giant leap into the heavens and fulfilled a vision of the ages--to create and launch into space a satellite of its own making. From that moment on--humankind was not just passive observer of the universe--but an active participant in its creation.

To the people who actually heard and saw Sputnik as it orbited the earth, it was nothing short of an awesome marvel. Here was a man-made object blazing a trail in the night time sky and anyone who saw and heard it can't help but wonder, if man can build a satellite and launch it into space--anything is possible.

It was the very effect the Russians wanted. The Russian team made sure that the sphere was thoroughly polished so that it could be seen by the naked eye. They also made sure that as many people as possible can hear its signals. They transmitted in low frequency, so that even ham radio operators can receive the "beep-beep" tones emitted by the satellite. However, they were quite unaware of the gravity of their act and on the day after the launch, it merited only a few paragraphs in the Soviet Daily, Pravda. The story did not even mention "satellite" in the headline.

In the West, however, banner headlines in all the major newspapers announced the launch as the official beginning of the "Space Age." Perhaps the Christian Science Monitor's headline captured it best "Made-in-U.S.S.R 'Moon' Circles Earth; Space Era Advent Jolts Washington." The launch of Sputnik awoke the West and in particular the United States like no other event before. The author Daniel Boorstin describes it as "never has so small and harmless an object created such consternation." One author, Paul Dickson, wrote a very detailed book on the aftermath of Sputnik calling it the "shock of the century." Parallels were being drawn to Pearl Harbor.

The R-7 rocket that launched Sputnik

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The launch of Sputnik a scant 12 years after the end of World War II, when Arthur C. Clarke first published his landmark article "Extra-Terrestrial Relays," in Wireless World, was no mean feat for a country that was arguably the most devastated and lost the most lives in the war and bloody internal purges. While Clarke's article clearly outlined the feasibility of communication satellites in the geostationary orbit, the main obstacle to launching a satellite in space was the end for a reliable rocket that can defy earth's gravitational pull and launch a satellite into orbit. Clarke saw the devastating effect of the German V-2 rockets, which terrorized London and other British cities towards the end of the war. He foresaw that rockets could be used in the near future to launch satellites for peaceful purposes.

Telemetry from Sputnik I as it passed overheadWAV File

As the war ended, it was evident to the Soviets that new tensions were developing between their former allies in the West--tensions that was later characterized as the "Cold War." Without massive government funding or backing of private industry, the Soviet Union started an aggressive rocket development program with the initial objective of developing Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles that could reach the continental United States.

The US had all the advantages in the beginning--a massive industrial infrastructure undamaged by the war; a vibrant research and development sector from both government and private sectors; and probably the greatest prize of all--the capture of 120 of the cream of the German Rocket Program that developed the V-2 led by Dr. Werner von Braun, who would later head the purveyor of the American Space Program, NASA.

In contrast, the Soviet Union got the second tier engineers from the German rocket research center in Peenumunde in the Baltic Sea. They also captured prototypes of rockets destroyed by the retreating Germans. Working largely from scratch, the Russians were able to launch an ICBM with a dummy warhead in April 21, 1957. Six months later, they launched Sputnik.

This remarkable achievement, form a country just newly industrializing and still largely agrarian, was due to the dogged tenacity and leadership of man who for most of his life labored anonymously and was known only officially in Soviet communiqués until a year before his death as the "Chief Designer of the Special Design Bureau " (The Soviets claim they never mention his name for fear of being assasinated by foreign agents.) His name was Sergei Pavlovich Korolev.

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 Korelev

Korelev was born in the small Ukranian city of Zhitomir (part of Russia at that time) near Kiev in January 12, 1907 (December 30, 1906 in old Russian calendar). At a very young age, he was influenced by the Russian space theorist, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky -- a space pioneer whose work was largely unknown in the West. In 1887, Tsiolkovsky wrote a novella describing a trip to the moon called "On the Moon." In this novella he described in amazing detail weightlessness and other phenomena in outer space. He followed-up that work with, "A Dream of the Earth and Sky" in 1895, where he first discussed a concept of an artificial earth satellite:

"The imaginary earth satellite, somewhat like the moon but arbitrarily near to our planet, would fly beyond the limits of its atmosphere; some 200 miles from the earth's surface. It would represent, with very small mass, an example of a milieu free of gravitation."

Unlike the writer Jules Verne, however, Tsiolkovsky was an accomplished scientist who painstakingly detailed plans for rocket systems and space stations. He came up with the idea of using propellants still in use today such as liquid hydrogen and various hydrocarbons. More importantly, he proposed a system of multi-stage rockets for delivering payloads into space -- solving the problem of escaping the earth's gravitational pull--the standard mode of space launches today.

Korolev was deeply influenced by Tsiolkovsky's writings as well as a Russian revolutionary who was sentenced to death in 1881, Nikolai Kibalchich. Kibalchich designed a rocket-powered spaceship and believed in the feasibility of his design professing his belief even as he faced a death sentence for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II.

In his early life after graduating from technical school in Odessa, Korolev became a roofing specialist (an occupation which "brought me closer to the sky" as he later joked). Korelev allegedly met Tsiolkovsky in 1929 in his house of Kaluga and dedicated his life thereafter to bringing Tsiolkovsky's concepts in rocket development to reality.

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Sergei Korolev  with his GIRD group (Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion) in the Nakhimbo forest near Moscow in 1933.

Korolev would join an organization of rocket amateurs called Gruppa Izucheniya Reaktivnogo Dvizheniya (Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion or GIRD) led by Friedrikh Arturovich Tsander. Korolev and other scientists were to develop and test rocket prototypes that were comparable to those being developed in Germany by Werner von Braun and by Robert Goddard in the United States at the time.

This period of innovation and experimentation was however, abruptly halted by the monumental internal "purges" of the paranoid Soviet Government led by Stalin in the late 1930s. Most Russian scientists at the time were arrested and not a few were sentenced to death on trumped up charges of "treason." Korolev was arrested in November 2, 1937 and sentenced to eight years in prison for putative ties with German spies ie. scientists.

After a stint doing hard physical labor in the infamous "Gulag Archipelago" in Siberia, Korolev was transferred to a special camp for scientists in 1940. In the summer of 1945, after the Russian victory over Nazi Germany, Korolev was completely rehabilitated and commissioned as a Colonel in the Red Army. His first task was to visit Germany and gather information on the German V-2 Rocket program led by Dr. Werner von Braun.

Even after losing almost eight of his most productive years to imprisonment (and all of his teeth), Korolev quickly rose to being the "Chief Designer" of the Soviet Space Program and single-mindedly led his team to developing the first Soviet ICBM and the first successful launch of an artificial satellite in less than 12 years. He would later lead the Soviet Space Program to other firsts, including the first man and the first woman in space, but that's another story.

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Meanwhile, in the United States, the U.S. began toying with the idea of artificial satellites as early as 1945. The US Navy organized the Committee for Evaluating the Feasibility of Space Rocketry in October 1945. The Navy came up with several proposal for rocket systems which eventually had to be abandoned due to post-war budget cuts.

Douglas Aircraft Company's Project RAND (from the acronym for 'research and development'--later know as the 'RAND Corporation') based in Santa Monica, California was commissioned by the US Army Air Corps to submit a proposal for artificial satellites in 1946. The RAND report envisioned the feasibility of a 1951 launch date of an artificial satellite at the cost of $ 150 million. The report prophetically said that "the achievement of a satellite craft by the United States would inflame the imagination of mankind, and would probably produce repercussions in the world compared to the explosion of the atomic bomb."

Not much was done in the area of satellite development until in October 1954 an initiative led by the science academies of 67 nations including the U.S. and the USSR adopted a resolution to launch an artificial satellite to map the earth's surface during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) from July 1, 1957. The IGY actually was lasted 18 months from July 1, 1957 to December 31, 1958. The idea was to study "the Earth as a planet" and jointly collect various environmental and physical data by satellite.

Tsiolkovsky

Both the US and USSR announced in 1954 their intention to launch a satellite during IGY. But very few in the US actually seriously considered the Soviet announcement. Korolev got the green light to proceed with a plan to launch an artificial satellite one month after the announcement. In a rare public appearance, on the 100th birth anniversary of Tsiolkovsky one month before the Sputnik launch, Korolev made the following statement which clearly outlined the Soviet intentions:

"In our time, rocket engineering is one of the foremost fields of modern science and technology. Soviet rockets are making flights above the earth's surface at very great altitudes, hitherto unattained...In the very near future, the first experimental launchings of artificial earth satellites will take place in the USSR and the USA for scientific purposes."

That "very near future" was les than a month away.

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The original sketch of a multi-stage rocket system by Tsiolkovsky

It was very apropos that the practical realization of satellite technology was sparked by a challenge from the world scientific community rather than a head-to-head competition by two superpowers for world domination. The motivations of the key players primarily, Korolev was mainly scientific. In fact he credits the ideas of Tsiolkovsky in his landmark speech one month before the Sputnik launch. Physicist Lloyd V. Berker analyzing the event of 1957, gives this poignant analysis:

From the vantage point of 2100 A.D., the year 1957 will most certainly stand in history as the year of man's progression from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional geography. It may well stand, also, as the point in time when intellectual achievement forged ahead of weapons and national wealth as instruments of national policy. The earth satellite is a magnificent expression of man's intellectual growth--of his ability to manipulate to his own purposes the very laws that govern his universe."

Soon after the Sputnik launch, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, said that the US satellite program was not meant to be a race with the Soviet Union. But U.S. actions belied this fact. Immediately after Sputnik which was followed-up by Sputnik II just one month later--sending the first dog in space, the US was to embark on a massive space program that aimed to put a man in the moon by the end of the next decade.

The race was on.  

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What Hath Sputnik Wrought?The Impact of the Space Race on the Development of the Satellite

Communications Industry

Part 3 of a Series on A Brief History of the SatelliteCommunications Industry

We chose to go to the moon, we chose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because the goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills,

because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one in which we intend to win, and the others, too.

-John F. KennedyAddress at Rice University, Texas, September 12, 1962

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues

Did not go forth with us, 'twere all alikeAs if we had them not...

William ShakespeareAct 1 Scene 1 Measure for Measure

When the story of our age comes to be told, we will be remembered as the first of all men to set their sign among the stars.

-Arthur C. ClarkeThe Making of a Moon, 1957

The launch of America's first satellite--Explorer-1 using a Jupiter C

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rocket.

One of those very disturbed by the significance of the successful launch of Sputnik and the consequent change in the world's realpolitik was an up and coming 40-year old Senator from Massachusetts named John F. Kennedy. Kennedy spoke in Albuquerque, New Mexico two days after the launch on October 7, 1957 and warned that as a result of Sputnik "the impression began to move around the world that the Soviet Union was on the march, that it had definite goals, that it knew how to accomplish them, that it was moving and that we were standing still. That is what we have to overcome."1

Later, Kennedy was to make a big issue of the loss of American prestige as a result of Sputnik in his 1960 presidential campaign against incumbent Vice-President Richard Nixon. This issue among others may have contributed to his narrow margin of victory in that election.

Immediately after Sputnik, the U.S. accelerated its satellite program by authorizing the Department of the Army to proceed with the launch of an artificial satellite using a modified Jupiter C rocket. The Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) which include in its team, the erstwhile head of the German Rocket Program, Dr. Werner von Braun, actually managed to launched a dummy payload filled with sand more than a year before Sputnik in September 20, 1956. The Jupiter C rocket reached an altitude of 682 miles at a speed of 13,000 miles an hour but stopped short of boosting its final stage into orbit. This was ostensibly to preserve the scientific nature of the project in accordance with the International Geophysical Year (IGY). This would have preceded Sputnik by over a year.

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The Daily Herald headline after the failed Vanguard launch.

Sputnik 1 was followed by Sputnik II with a live dog naimed Laika ("barker") less than one month later in November 3, 1957. American pride was at its nadir when finally after two successful Soviet launches, America's Vanguard TV-3 rocket exploded upon launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida in December 6, 1957. The Daily Herald's headline "Oh What a Flopnik," introduced a new portmanteau word into the American language that was to be used in various contexts for decades to come.

On January 31, 1958, the turning point came, when the U.S. successfully launched Explorer I. This satellite carried a small scientific payload that eventually discovered the magnetic radiation belts around the Earth, named after principal investigator, University of Iowa astrophysicist James Van Allen. The Explorer program continued as a successful ongoing series of lightweight, scientifically useful spacecraft.

Directly as a result of the Sputnik launch, the U.S. Government created in February 7, 1958, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). This agency had the mandate of ensuring US technological leadership and prevention of future "Sputniks." This is the same agency that will invent the INTERNET (with ARPANET in the late 60s), but its initial projects were in the realm of space technology and exploration, given the priority at that time.

 The first project to be undertaken by the newly-created ARPA was Project SCORE (Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment) together with the Army Signal Corps and the U.S. Air Force.

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On December 19, 1958, the first communications satellite carrying a holiday message from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was launched successfully from Cape Canaveral. It's tape-recorded holiday message in its entirety, heard all over the world was:

"This is the President of the United States speaking. Through the marvels of scientific advance, my voice is coming to you from a satellite circling in outer space. My message is a simple one. Through this unique means I convey to you and all mankind America's wish for peace on earth and good will to men everywhere."

The Sputnik launch also led directly to the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In July 1958, Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act which created NASA as of October 1, 1958 from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and other government agencies.  By the next year in 1959, Dr. von Braun and his team in the ABMA was to be absorbed by NASA, with the task of developing a massive rocket that could reach the moon (the Saturn rocket). The role of NASA in the Space Race that was to dominate the next decade of the 60s was legion. But that would be beyond the scope of this narrative. The development of communications satellites in the U.S. was a joint-effort of both the private and government sectors.

When asked what are the most significant impact of the space race on humankind, during an interview in 1989 with the pioneer broadcaster, Ted Turner, the visionary scientist, Carl Sagan, unhesitantly said that technology of satellite communications was the most significant contribution of the space race. As we can see, the space race created NASA and ARPA which would lead to the development of the commercial space industry--with the satellite segment forming its largest and most commercially successful part--and later the INTERNET.

What was even more astounding was the speed in which satellite communications technology developed in the sixties. By the end of the decade, just as President Kennedy promised at beginning of his term in 1961 (despite his own untimely death in 1963), the U.S. was to establish it preeminence in space with the landing of the first man on the moon on July 20, 1969--a feat viewed in real-time by over 500 million people on earth due to the advances in satellite communications technology that the space race help engender.

Arthur C. Clarke, who has been largely credited with coming up with the practical idea of communication satellites and named the "father" of the communications satellite industry, modestly declines the honor (preferring to be know as the "godfather'), naming instead two CalTech products (the prestigious California Institute of Technology) as the true fathers of communications satellites-- Drs. John Pierce and Harold Rosen. "John Pierce and Harold Rosen are the fathers of the communication satellite," said Clarke. "They designed, developed, and produced it, making real that which I and others thought only to write and dream about."

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Dr. Harold Rosen Dr. John Pierce

Dr. Pierce was born in Des Moines, Iowa and grew up in California. He graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 1933 with a degree in aeronautics and electronics. He received his Ph.D. from Caltech in 1936 and accepted a job offer from the pioneering Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey (Bell Labs, then the research arm of American Telephone and Telegraph Company, AT&T) and stayed till 1971 as executive director of research in communications.

During this three-decade span, Dr. Pierce invented various electronic devices. He was head of the team that invented the transistor and coined the word “transistor” in 1949. A man of many talents and interests, Dr. Pierce was also an accomplished musician (ending his remarkable career teaching music at Stanford) and a science fiction writer like Clarke, writing under the pen name, J.J. Coupling.

In the early 50s , Dr. Pierce started thinking about satellites as a relay medium for communications. In 1952 he published in Astounding Science Fiction an article called "Don't Write, Telegraph" where he calculated the power necessary to transmit signals between the earth and the moon as well as the planets and stars. He published his first concrete proposals for communications satellites in an article entitled "Orbital Radio Relays" published in the journal Jet Propulsion in April 1955.

Pierce not only envisioned the technical feasibility of communications satellites. He was the first to calculate its commercial value by estimating the market value of the services that a communications satellite capable of 1,000 simultaneous telephone calls at a billion dollars.

In 1958, Dr. Pierce learned that the NASA was experimenting with large balloon satellites for measuring air resistance. Dr. Pierce gave the project a different direction and with Dr. Rudolph Kompfner, director of electronic research, drew up plans for using a balloon as a passive satellite to relay radio communications. NASA sent Echo-1 aloft in August 12, 1960, the largest object to travel into space up until that time. Like Sputnik, Echo-1 was visible to the naked eye and was widely seen.

Echo-1 was a passive satellite. Radio waves bounced off its aluminum coating and were reflected back to Earth. Echo-1 made possible the first direct coast-to-coast television transmissions. Echo-1 also bounced phone calls across the USA from the Bell Labs facility in Crawford Hill, N.J. The giant balloon remained in orbit for eight years.

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Although not the first communications satellite, Telstar ushered in the era of satellite communications.

In the early 60s, Dr. Pierce played a key role in the development and launch of a satellite communications system called Telstar. The concept called for an operational system of between 50 and 120 simple active satellites in orbits about 7,000 miles high. With the satellites in random orbits, Bell Labs calculated that a system of 40 satellites in polar orbits and 15 in equatorial orbits would provide service 99.9 per cent of the time between any two points on earth. AT&T has proposed that the system contain about 25 ground stations so placed as to provide global coverage.

Under Dr. Pierce's leadership, Bell Labs designed and built Telstar with AT&T corporate funds. The first Telstars were prototypes that would prove the concepts behind the large constellation system that was being planned.

Although not the first communications satellite, Telstar is the best known of all and is probably considered by most observers to have ushered in the era of satellite communications. Telstar-1 was launched on July 10, 1962, and on that same day live television pictures originating in the United States were received in France.

Telstar-1 weighed 171 pounds and was shaped like a faceted sphere with a diameter of a little over 34 inches. Of six spacecraft built, two were launched. The spacecraft was spin stabilized, and its receive and transmit antennas consisted of belts of small apertures (72 and 48 respectively) around the middle of the spacecraft resulting in a circularly polarized antenna with an isotropic pattern around the equator of the spacecraft. Telstar was also the first satellite to use a Travelling Wave Tube (TWT) amplifier. It carried an active broadband 6.39/4.17GHz transponder (transmitter-receiver), offering 600 voice channels and one black and white TV channel.

Dr. Pierce's unique contribution to the technology that made communications satellites possible was the improvement of the Travelling Wave Tube, a broad-band amplifier of microwaves. With his genius for electronics and miniturization, Dr. Pierce was able to

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create a working TWT that was light enough to be launched into space and work reliably for long periods in space environment.

Dr. Harold Rosen was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1926. After receiving a BSEE from Tulane University in 1947, Rosen went on to earn an MS (1948) and Ph.D. (1951) from the California Institute of Technology. Rosen's first worked for the Raytheon Company where he invented an improved homing guidance system for the Sparrow air-to-air missile and a desktop-model analog computer.

In 1956, he joined Hughes Aircraft Company (later known as Hughes Space and Communications Company and now Boeing Satellite Systems, Inc.), where he first worked on the research and development of anti-aircraft missiles, fire control systems, and radar. At Hughes, Dr. Rosen's team which included Donald Williams and Thomas Hudspeth decided to develop a communications satellite that could maintain such a geostationary orbit as envisioned by Arthur Clarke 12 years before. After two years of effort, Dr. Rosen solved the problem, using a principle of physics that he had worked on in graduate school with the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Carl Anderson (discoverer of the positron), namely spin-stabilization.

Syncom, the first geosynchronous satellite.

Dr. Rosen's major insight was that a satellite made to spin at a constant rate would have the necessary stability that previous versions had lacked. Rosen's system used solar panels and spin-based impulses to control the satellite's thrusters economically, and a revolving antenna pattern that always encompassed the earth as the satellite spun. The team decided to call their satellite "Syncom" short for synchronous communications. Dr. Rosen and his team set to build the first geosynchronous satellite.

Communications satellites before Rosen's Syncom used low earth orbits (LEOs). Huge swiveling ground antennas and expensive tracking computers were needed to stay in contact with these LEO satellites during the brief time they soared overhead.

In contrast, a synchronous satellite could communicate directly and continuously with any ground station in its line of sight using fixed antennas. No complex tracking antennas were necessary. Synchronous altitude also meant that a satellite would be in sunlight 99 percent of the time over the course of a year, eliminating the need for an active temperature control system.

Remembering that a spinning body is much more stable in flight and more resistant to external influences, Dr. Rosen reasoned that a spinning satellite configuration was the

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easiest way to simplify attitude and velocity control and achieve the low weight necessary for the limited launch vehicle capacity then available.

By 1961, the team had designed and built a workable prototype satellite. In August, Hughes won a US$4 million contract from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Department of Defense to build three synchronous communications satellites.

The three major project objectives were to place a satellite in synchronous orbit; demonstrate on-orbit station keeping and perform communications and engineering tests on a high-altitude synchronous satellite.

The launch of Syncom-1 on Valentine's Day, 1963, reached the 24-hour orbit successfully, then silence. The satellite probably was destroyed by an explosion of its apogee kick motor as it entered final orbit. Undeterred by the setback, Dr. Rosen’s team quickly made improvements on Syncom-2 to enhance reliability. 

Only five months later, on July 26, 1963, Syncom-2 successfully reached synchronous orbit over the Atlantic Ocean. Syncom 2 measured 2 feet, 4 inches in diameter. Its solar panels were 1 foot, 3 inches in height. Its weight in orbit was 78 pounds. The satellite was a spin-stabilized cylinder faced with 3,840 positive-on-negative silicon solar cells.

The public first noticed the revolutionary capabilities of Syncom-2 when President John F. Kennedy in Washington, D.C., telephoned Nigerian Prime Minister Abubaker Balewa in Africa later that year. This was the first live two-way call between heads of state by satellite relay. During Syncom-2's first year, NASA conducted voice, teletype, and facsimile tests, as well as 110 public demonstrations to acquaint people with Syncom's capabilities and invite their feedback.

Syncom-2 went on to prove that its maneuvering and station keeping system worked as well as its communications system. By firing its gas jets in brief pulses, the satellite moved under its own power from its initial position over the Atlantic to a location above the Indian Ocean. It also maintained the correct orbit in both locations. Syncom-2 successfully passed all tests and fulfilled all mission objectives.

Syncom-2’s severe inclination of 33 degrees, however, meant that it was not a true geosynchronous satellite. That honor went to its successor, Syncom-3, which achieved true geostationary orbit on August 19, 1964.

Both Syncom satellites expanded direct, 24-hour communications access to two-thirds of Earth's surface. Syncom-2 and -3 satellites carried television and telephone transmissions including the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, and after the Department of Defense assumed stewardship in 1965 served as the primary communications link between Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific during part of the Vietnam conflict. They were decommissioned and retired in April 1969.

The breakthrough efforts of Drs. Pierce and Rosen made the development of worldwide satellite communications system technically feasible. Dr. Pierce's development of the Travelling Wave Tube and Dr. Rosen's spin-stablization technology overcame the last technological hurdles to a working geostationary communications satelllite. These developments coupled with NASA's development of rocket booster technology with the

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ability to launch larger payloads in space made possible in less than 20 years after Arthur Clarke's proposed the concept of a geostationary communications satellite, instead of the fifty years he initially thought it would take. When Clarke initially conceived the geostationary communications satellite, he thought it would be manned and that the electronics would be the larger vaccum tube-type variety. Drs. Pierce and Rosen took it to the next level. For their efforts, Drs. Pierce and Rosen were jointly awarded the 1995 Draper Prize--the most prestigious award in the engineering profession.

The regulatory framework for such as system was provided by the passing by the U.S. Congress of the Communications Satellite Act on August 27, 1962. The Act was signed into law four days later by President John F. Kennedy, setting forth U.S. policy to establish an international satellite cooperative system and authorizing the formation of the "Communciations Satellite Corporation" (COMSAT), a private company to represent the United States in a new international satellite communications organization to be called "INTELSAT."

An industry is born.

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The Birth of a Global Industry:

COMSAT, INTELSAT and INTERSPUTNIK

Part 4 of a Series on A Brief History of the SatelliteCommunications Industry

Come my friends.'T is not too late to seek a newer world...To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars...

— Alfred Lord TennysonUlysses, 1842

Therefore, although the project was American, Barbicane decided to make it a worldwide undertaking by asking for the

financial cooperation of every nation. It was both the right and the duty of the whole world to take a hand in the affairs of its

satellite.

— Jules VerneFrom the Earth to the Moon, 1865

No nation was ever ruined by trade.

— Benjamin FranklinThoughts on Commercial Subjects

 

Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, published in 1865, just as the United States was reeling from a costly civil war, did not only predicate that man will eventually launch a spaceship to the moon, it even goes into specific details as to the country that will lead the mission (America) and where the spacecraft will be launched (Florida—same latitude as the present-day Cape Canaveral). It also conceived the mission as an international consortium with each country joining the effort contributing a financial share. The resemblance to the concept of INTELSAT formed almost 100 years later was uncanny.

In 1961, when the technology of satellite communications is still in a nascent developing stage, the United States has already recognized the enormous potential of the technology. In John F. Kennedy's first State of the Union Address in January 30, 1961, shortly after his inauguration as the 35th President of the United States, he invited all nations in a satellite development program: 

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Specifically, I now invite all nations — including the Soviet Union — to join with us in developing a weather prediction program, in a new communications satellite program and in preparation for probing the distant planets of Mars and Venus, probes which may someday unlock the deepest secrets of the universe.

President Kennedy delivering his landmark "Our Urgent Tasks" speech before Joint Session of Congress, where he announced the goal of landing a man in the moon by the end of the decade. In the same speech he dovetailed the development of communications satellites with the space program. (NASA photo)

This policy was reiterated in his famous speech "Our Urgent Tasks" before a joint-session of Congress in May 25, 1961 where he made public the goal of landing a man in the moon by the end of the decade and tying in the space program the development of communications satellites "by accelerating the use of space satellites for world-wide communications."

In July 24, 1961, US policy on communications satellites was outlined in a release by President Kennedy based on the recommendation of the National Space Aeronautics and Council. He invited all nations to join with the United States in developing a worldwide commercial satellite program. The release urged the operation of commercial satellite system "at the earliest possible date." It also outlined the government's role in promoting research and development and providing technical assistance to developing countries to enable access to this system. The Kennedy administration's resolve in developing a worldwide communications satellite system led to the passing of the Communications Satellite Act of 1962 which President Kennedy signed into law in August 31, 1962. The Act 's purpose clearly states that: 

it is the policy of the United States to establish, in conjunction and in cooperation with other countries, as expeditiously as practicable a commercial communications satellite system, as part of an improved global communications network, which will be responsive to public needs and objectives, which will serve the communication needs of the United States and other countries and which will contribute to world peace and understanding.

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The Act created a new private entity, the Communications Satellite Corporation or COMSAT, as the "chosen instrument" to represent the United Sates in an international satellite consortium. It authorizes COMSAT to "plan, initiate, construct, own, manage, and operate itself or in conjunction with foreign governments or business entities a commercial communications satellite system."

COMSAT was officially created in February 1, 1963 after Kennedy signed the articles of incorporation. Subsequently Leo D. Welch, a former Chairman of the Board of Standard Oil Company was named the first chairman and chief executive officer. Dr. Joseph V. Charyk, a former undersecretary of the Air Force, was named the first president.

Kennedy's commitment and resolve to the space program in general and to communications satellites in particular was evident to the very end. In a speech that he was to give before Dallas Citizen's Council on November 22, 1963, he was going to say:

And that is why we have regained the initiative in the exploration of outer space, making an annual effort greater than the combined total of all space activities during the fifties, launching more than 130 vehicles into earth orbit, putting into actual operation valuable weather and communications satellites, and making it clear to all that the United States of America has no intention of finishing second in space.

Kennedy never got to say those words as he was felled by an assassin before he could get to the venue. However, his pivotal role in the space program has been widely recognized. The US's premier space facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida is named in his memory (Kennedy Space Center).

Group photo of the original signatories to the INTELSAT Interim Agreement, August 20, 1964. (Intelsat photo)

One year later in August 20, 1964, spearheaded by efforts by COMSAT and the United States, the first international communications satellite organization called the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (later changed to Organization) or INTELSAT was formed with the signing in Washington, D.C. of the interim agreement by 11 signatories from 11 countries. The original 11 signatories included the United States (represented by COMSAT), United Kingdom (represented by the Government Post Office, later by British Telecom), Canada, Japan, the Netherlands,

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Germany, Spain, Austria, Norway, Switzerland and the smallest independent state in the world Vatican City (curiously, Jules Verne's fictional space venture 100 years before had 22 states participating, including what was then known as the Papal States.)

Each signatory to INTELSAT contributed a financial share with a minimum of 0.05 percent based on their usage of the system. The US share was initially a whopping 61 percent.

The management contract for INTELSAT was awarded to COMSAT. The first commercial geostationary communications satellite was contracted to Hughes Aircraft Company following the success of SYNCOM II in 1964, developed by the team of Dr. Harold Rosen. The result was the launch of Early Bird 1 (later renamed as INTELSAT 1) on June 28, 1965.

Early Bird 1 Satellite (later renamed INTELSAT 1 (Intelsat photo)

Early Bird 1 had the capacity of 240 voice circuits or one black and white TV channel. Positioned to serve the Atlantic Ocean region, Early Bird provided commercial communications service between North America and Western Europe. Although designed only for an 18 months in-orbit life, it remained in service for three and half years. The overwhelming success of Early Bird satellite earned itself a place in satellite parlance as satellites are generically referred to as "bird."

Meanwhile, not to be counted out, the Soviet Union was earnestly developing its satellite communications system. Korolev's was saving the best for last. In what one of his biographers (James Harford, Korolev, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1997) considers Korolev's most innovative achievement—the highly elliptical orbit. Korolev chose an elliptical 12-hour orbit with a perigree of 300 kilometers and apogee of 40,000 kilometers. This highly-elliptical orbit enables the reception of signal in the far northern regions of the Soviet Union which cannot receive signals from geostationary orbits. These series of satellites dubbed "Molniya" (literally "lightning") orbited the earth every 12 hours—three of them would provide continuous coverage. The first satellite of this series, Molniya 1, was launched in April 23, 1965.

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The orbit of a typical Molniya satellite has a 12 hour period, an inclination of 63 degrees to the Earth's equatorial plane. The high altitude at apogee ensures a long observing opportunity for satellite trackers in the Northern Hemisphere

Sixteen Molniya 1-type satellites were launched providing television reception to the whole Soviet Union through a network of Orbita 1 earth stations. The Orbita Television Network was officially launched during the fiftieth anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution on October 1, 1967. The parade in Red Square was broadcasted throughout the USSR from Kalinngrad in the Baltic to Vladivostok in the Pacific.

Molniya turned out to be Korolev's encore. In 1966, Korolev had a check-up which revealed that he had a bleeding polyp in the large intestine. Surgery for removal of the polyp was prescribed for January 14, two days after his 59th birthday. Korolev died from complications of the surgery—no doubt due to his weakened immune system from the results of his deprivations during his time in the gulag.

The Soviet Union became increasingly concerned with the U.S. efforts in creating a international satellite organization and its subsequent dominant role in INTELSAT. Numerous protests were lodged by the Soviet Union and other Eastern bloc countries in the United Nations. Finally in 1967, the Soviets decided to form their own organization called INTERSPUTNIK. In 1968, the USSR, Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Mongolia, Poland and Romania submitted the first draft of an agreement creating INTERSPUTNIK to the United Nations. The final agreement was signed in November 15, 1971, but INTERSPUTNIK did not actually begin operation till 1974.

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Image from the live satellite telecast of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing. The black bar running through the center of the picture is an anomaly in the Goldstone ground data system. (NASA photo)

Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin descends the ladder of the lunar module to take his first steps on the Moon's surface on the first lunar landing.

 

Click to hear Neil Armstrong's famous words upon landing on the moon, audio from the actual satellite telecast.

Before the decade of the '60s ended, INTELSAT achieve full coverage when INTELSAT III in the Indian Ocean region became operational in July 1, 1969. With INTELSAT satellites already serving the Atlantic and Pacific ocean regions by this time — full global coverage has now become reality--just as Arthur C. Clarke envisioned 25 years earlier—that it would take three satellites in geostationary orbit to provide full global coverage.

Only 19 days after INTELSAT III became operational, Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 crew made their historic first landing on the moon — a feat watched by 500 million people on earth in real-time thanks to the global network INTELSAT satellites.

The delivery via satellite of the images from the moon landing to homes worldwide started the process of globalization that we are experiencing to this day. As John Naisbitt summed it up in Megatrends: "what has not been stressed enough is the way satellites transformed the earth into what Marshall McLuhan calls the global village. Instead of turning us outward toward space, the satellite era turned the globe inward towards itself."

The world will never be the same.

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From Global to Domestic:

Communications Satellites Go LocalPart 5 of a Series on A Brief History of the Satellite

Communications Industry

We set foot in your heavenly shrine dazzled by your brilliance. Your charms re-unite what common use has harshly divided;

All men are brothers under your tender wing.

— Friedrich von SchillerOden am Freude (ode to Joy), 1786

There is scarcely any less bother in the running of a family than in that of an entire state. And domestic business is no less

importunate for being less important.

— Montaigne, Essais , 1580

Think global, act local.

— popular slogan in the 1970s.

On August 21 1971, after having successfully launched into orbit three satellites covering the entire world, INTELSAT members have finally come to a final agreement on the organization that they started seven years earlierthey operated on an "Interim Agreement" in that span of time). Invited to speak at the signing of the final agreement creating INTELSAT, Arthur C. Clarke made a bold statement when he described to the audience the significance of the event: 

"For today, gentlemen, whether you intend it or not --whether you wish it or not--you have signed far more than yet another intergovernmental agreement.

You have just signed the first draft of the Articles of Federation of the United States of Earth."

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Canada's first satellite, Anik after the Inuit (Eskimo) language word for "brother." It was launched successfully on November 9, 1972. 

Perhaps a little exuberant and also perhaps knowing how he miscalculated twenty five years before the time it would take for a global communications satellite system to develop--Clarke's pronouncement did not foresee the rise of national satellite systems--which were to develop with as great a significance than its global predecessors.

As John Naisbitt was to correctly analyze the world's leading trends later in his book, Global Paradox (1994), the more global the world becomes, the more local it is. The satellite communications industry is the same. While satellites by its very nature are globalizing technology, it can also be a potent force for achieving national goals as well.

Canada, a culturally diverse nation of less than 30 million people spread over a vast territory of over three million square miles (making it the second largest country in the world) , was one of the first countries outside of the US and USSR to tap the potential of satellite technology. Canada was the fourth country in the world to launch an artificial satellite after the USSR, the US and Britain when it launched Alouette 1 in September 29, 1962.

With over 90 percent of its population living within 150 miles of the US border and a population of aboriginal peoples in the remote Northern regions of the country--satellites were perceived to act as both a hedge against the overwhelming cultural influences from its U.S. neighbor and also a means to reach out their aboriginal peoples in the remote regions of the country.

In June 1966, the Science Secretariat of the Government of Canada commissioned a report on "Upper Atmosphere and Space Programs in Canada." This was published in January 1967 and was followed by a report on "A Space program for Canada" the same

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year. The two reports led to the creation of a Task Force under the Science Secretariat to study and advise the Canadian government on the development of domestic satellite communications. This resulted in a Canada government white paper entitled " A Domestic Satellite Communications System for Canada."

ANIK PROGRAM: The inaugural broadcast of the Anik satellite launch--with the Inuit subtitles for "Anik"

The White Paper concluded emphatically that a Canadian domestic satellite communications system was of "vital importance to the growth and prosperity and unity of Canada and should be established as a matter of priority."

Shortly thereafter in 1969, an act of parliament established Telesat Canada, which set out to develop Canada's and the world's first domestic satellite system. The contract to build Canada's first satellite was given to the US company that build the first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite (Syncom), Hughes Aircraft Company in conjunction with two Canadian sub-contractors, Northern Electric and Spar Aerospace.

Canada's first satellite was to be named "Anik"--after the Inuit (Eskimo) language word for "brother." Anik was the winning entry submitted by Julie-Frances Czapala of Montreal in a contest sponsored by Telesat.

Anik A1 was launched successfully from Cape Kennedy, Florida on November 9, 1972. It had 12 transponders, each capable of one color TV signal. It's first clients include the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Bell Canada. After Anik 1 became operational in 1973, the CBC made the first national broadcast via satellite with Inuit subtitles. Bell Canada also was able to provide for the first time telephone service to Northern communities via thin route service.

Meanwhile, in the United States, proposals for a domestic satellite service were issued as early as 1965 by the ABC broadcasting network, but were hotly contested and bogged down in bureaucratic delays (reminiscent of the delays marking the first satellite in the 50s). In 1970 the Nixon administration issued a report prepared by Clay T. Whitehead proposing an aggressive domestic satellite policy. On March 20, 1970, the US's Federal Communications Commission under Chairman Dean Burch issued its "Report and Order" which started the proceedings for the establishment of a US domestic satellite system. Finally in June of 1972, the FCC issued its landmark decision "The Second Report and Order" or more popularly known known as the "Open

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Skies " decision which paved the way to the authorization of for domestic satellite systems. Eight companies applied for domestic satellite services including: COMSAT, Fairchild, GTE, Hughes, RCA Globecom and Western Union.

Because no domestic satellite was yet available in the US in 1972 RCA had to lease transponders in the Canadian Anik A1 satellite until they could launch their own satellite. The U.S.'s first domestic satellite was Western Union's WESTAR I, launched on April 13, 1974. In December of the following year RCA launched their RCA SATCOM F- 1. In early 1976 AT&T and COMSAT launched the first of the COMSTAR series.

One country that was observing closely the developments in the US and Canadian domestic satellite system was a relatively new developing nation over 9,000 miles away--Indonesia.

Palapa-A1 was built by Hughes Aircraft Co. based on the design of Anik. 

A nation of over two hundred million people (the fourth largest population in the world) spread over 13,500 islands over four time zones, Indonesia presents a challenge to any development planner. To compound the situation, its people speak over two hundred languages and dialects. So, when Indonesia achieved independence from the Dutch in 1949 it inherited a disjointed and overly diverse archipelago. Its leaders however, had the vision and foresight to leapfrog into the 20th century by adopting the latest in technology, particularly satellite technology.

The Indonesian government’s initial challenge was to unify its diverse peoples. They formulated a national language-Bahasa Indonesia and a national ideology- pancasila.

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The task of disseminating the national language and philosophy to the vast archipelago was relegated to the national mass media -- radio and TV -- relayed via satellite. Thus, the birth of the Palapa satellite system.  

"Palapa" means fruit of labor. But the real inspiration to name Indonesia’s satellite communication system originated from the Amukti Palapa oath, sworn by Gajah Mada, the heroic figurehead of the 14th Century Majapahit Kingdom in Indonesia’s Java Island. He was one of the original advocates for a united and harmonious Indonesian Archipelago and once said: "When I have succeeded in the integrating the archipelago, I shall rest."  

1n 1974, the Republic of Indonesia signed a contract with Hughes Aircraft Company to build and launch a satellite based on the same design of the Canadian Anik and the Westar satellites (the HS-333 model). The project cost a total of $ 200 million--an astronomical sum for a country with an average per capita GNP that time of $ 200.00 annually.

The first series of Palapa satellites focused on covering the Indonesian archipelago. 

The first satellite in the Palapa system, Palapa A1 was successfully launched on July 8, 1976 followed by a second satellite, Palapa A2, on March 10, 1977. The first series of Palapa satellites focused on covering the Indonesian archipelago. The two satellites were phased out of service in June 1985 and January 1988 respectively, following the introduction of the Palapa B series.

The Palapa satellite system is only the third domestic satellite system in the world (after Canada and the US) and the first in the developing world and in Asia. It is no mean feat for a newly independent developing Asian country.

The second series of satellites, Palapa B, was designed to increase the system's coverage to include the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. The first of the new series, Palapa B1, was deployed in orbit on June 19, 1983.

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The successes of the Anik and Palapa satellite systems fueled the desire for individual countries and even regions to have their own communciations satellites. Japan (CS 1A, 1977), India (Insat 1A, 1982), China (DongFangHong-2, 1984) Australia (Aussat 1, 1985), Brazil (Brazilsat A1, 1985) and Mexico (Morelos 1, 1985) were to follow with their own communications satellites systems and regional satellite systems like Europe's EUTELSAT, Asia's Asiasat and Middle East's Arabsat were to follow thereafter.

Before the end of the millennium or less than a generation after the launch of Anik A1, the International Satellite Directory lists over a hundred commercial satellite operators in over 50 countries which included tiny principalities like Monaco and Luxembourg and the city-state of Singapore.

In keeping with the global paradox, at the onset of the new millennium, the largest satellite operator in terms of revenues and number of satellites is SES Global, a company based in the small European Grand Duchy of Luxembourg--with a population of 300,000. SES, whih did not have it's first satellite until 1988 (ASTRA 1A), surpassed even industry pioneer INTELSAT.

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Satellites and DevelopmentPart 6 of a Series on A Brief History of the Satellite

Communications Industry

In developing nations, communications has been a weapon in the struggle for independence , and then in efforts to transform

social structures and solve economic problems.

—  One World, Many VoicesThe Report of the McBride Commission (1980)

I’d rather be first in a village than second in Rome.

— attributed to Julius Ceasar

Applications Technology Satellite 6 (ATS-6), placed into orbit in 1974, was the last in a series of experimental satellites sponsored by NASA to test new technologies in space communications. (Photo of Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum)

Like any new communication technology, satellites have the potential for engendering development. A single satellite can reach one-third of the earth, without the need for extensive terrestrial networks. Satellites can convey any form of communications, i.e. Voice, data and video to the remotest regions of the world. Developing countries can bypass the development of expensive ground infrastructure and leapfrog the development process into the information age. Some have made parallels to satellites performing as an engine of economic growth much as the railroads did in the 19 th

century.

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So evident was this fact that shortly after the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the leading advocate of world development and peace, the United Nations, recognizing the potential of satellite technology for development immediately organized the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). Over the years the UN would institutionalize a large international bureaucracy promoting the use of satellite and other cutting edge technologies for the alleviation of poverty and address the imbalance between developed and underdeveloped countries.

However, few practical applications of satellite technology for developmental purposes were forthcoming, despite the numerous UN conferences, resolutions and studies commissioned for the purpose. Satellite technology required a large initial investment of upwards of 200 million dollars and in the 60s and 70s, international satellite communications was a virtual monopoly by international operators INTELSAT and INTERSPUTNIK.

The entry of Canada’s Telesat and Indonesia’s Palapa in the domestic satellite communications field in the late 70s change all that. If anything, it sparked the interest and imagination of development planners, particularly those in developing countries. Appropriately, NASA had a very pivotal role in the development of new applications of satellite technologies such as distance education, community development and cultural exchanges. Experiments promoting these various applications of satellite technology were conducted under the auspices of the Applied Technology Satellite Series program (ATS). 1966, NASA launched the first satellite in the ATS series, ATS-1. Designed to last two years, it was still functioning in 1970 when the State of Alaska requested the use of the satellite to facilitate communications between its remote villages.

Geographically, Alaska is the largest state in the U.S. covering an immense area of 586,412 square miles and most of its population actually clustered in villages and small towns scattered in several hundred isolated villages. With limited terrestrial infrastructure, Alaska is faced with communication problems similar to those of island nations of the Pacific and Southeast Asia, as well as isolated areas of Borneo, Papua New Guinea, the Australian Outback. The major difference is Alaskan villages have had reliable communications via satellite, thanks to the pioneering efforts of NASA ATS-1 satellite.

Before satellite technology just over 30 years ago, rural communications in Alaska consisted only of high frequency radio and the "bush telegraph", messages transmitted via word of mouth by people traveling by bush plane, boat or dog team. Today, Alaska has the highest percentage of school districts in the U.S. with Internet access and is implementing telemedicine projects enable every village clinic to transmit medical images to regional hospitals.1

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ATS-1 satellite while undergoing construction at Hughes Spaceand Communications Co. (Hughes

photo)

Alaska was one of the first remote regions to use satellites to link its settlements. Initially, NASA's ATS-1 satellite was used for experimental networks linking village health clinics to regional hospitals, and linking schools and community radio stations. Further experiments on NASA's ATS-6 satellite, the same satellite that India was to use for SITE, demonstrated applications of video and data transmission for telemedicine and distance education.

In the late 1970s, the Alaska Public Broadcasting Commission (APBC) brought television to the bush. The state also operated a network called LearnAlaska, which included a channel of educational programming for use in schools. Today, a state-supported network also delivers television by satellite to 248 bush communities to reach people who do not have access to cable or cannot afford it. The Alaska Rural Communications Service (ARCS) transmits four satellite channels: Alaska One, a statewide public television network; a government channel providing coverage of the state legislature when it is in session; Alaska Three, delivering televised courses provided by the Distance Learning Consortium, and a rural channel, ARCS, which provides a mixture of commercial and public service programs. 2

The positive evaluation of these experiments and the opportunity to see firsthand how satellites could bring reliable communications to the bush convinced the State government to adopt a policy requiring that telephone service be provided to every community of at least 25 permanent residents. The RCA SATCOM 1 satellite was configured with a beam to cover Alaska, and commercial telephone service by satellite for the bush began in 1976. The State allocated $5 million to buy earth stations for the villages, which were installed and operated by Alascom, the dominant carrier.

Alascom traces its roots in 1969 when the U.S. Congress passed the Alaska Communications Disposal Act in a bid to improve and privatize the communications system in Alaska. RCA Global Communications was the successful bidder at a price of $28.5 million in cash. The company also pledged to immediately invest an additional $30 million for badly needed improvements to the then seriously overtaxed and outdated Alaska Communications System (ACS). 3

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With the purchase of ACS, RCA's pioneering satellite technology in long distance communications made its debut on the international scene. RCA renamed its Alaska operating unit Alascom, and in 1973 purchased the Bartlett Earth Station, then the only one in Alaska and Alaska's sole satellite link with the outside world. Shortly thereafter, Alascom constructed its own first satellite station at Lena Point, near Juneau, bringing Alaska into the era of modern satellite technology.

The first functional domestic satellite system in the nation appeared later that year when Alascom began using the Canadian Anik II satellite on a regular basis. In the meantime, RCA Alascom's parent company, RCA Communications, pushed full speed ahead on plans to construct earth stations across Alaska on a substantial scale. In 1974 it constructed an earth stations at Prudhoe Bay, Nome, Bethel and Valdez. The same year, RCA launched its own satellites, SATCOM 1 and 2, and all of Alascom's satellite traffic was switched to the new "birds."

In July 1976 RCA Alascom entered into an agreement with the Department of the Air Force to lease most of the military's antiquated White Alice facilities and replace them with 22 modern satellite earth stations.

In the late 1970's, RCA Global Communications, which also operated worldwide communications of many sorts, was ordered by the FCC to divest itself of domestic satellite communications -- of which RCA Alascom was a foremost part. RCA American Communications (RCA Americom) was formed as a totally independent corporation and given the responsibility for handling all domestic satellite business of RCA.

In June, 1979, RCA Alascom was purchased by Pacific Power and Light Company (now PacifiCorp) of Portland, Oregon for $200 million cash plus assumption of its over $90 million of Alascom's long term debt. 4

Meanwhile, Alascom had expanded its service by constructing more than 200 earth stations and serving even the smallest rural communities in the state. Company pride and commitment to Alaska was never more evident than on October 27, 1982, when Alascom launched its own satellite -- Aurora I -- the only satellite of its kind and devoted exclusively to use by a single state -- Alaska.

Always forging ahead with new technology, Alascom established the first satellite communications for offshore oilrigs in the mid-1980's, developing a gyro-stabilized satellite antenna that compensated for the pitch and roll of the drilling vessels.

On May 29, 1991, Alascom launched its second satellite -- Aurora II -- as a replacement for the aging Aurora I, which was almost out of station-keeping fuel after nine years of faithful service. The new satellite, more sophisticated and powerful than its predecessor,

continues to provide a variety of telecommunications services to Alaska's growing population. Live programming is now beamed throughout Alaska using Alascom's Aurora II, the same Alascom satellite is used to relay long distance learning to remote sites throughout the state.

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Today Alaska remains a pioneer in telecommunications. A recent study found that 52 percent of Alaskans use the Internet at home or at work, and 92 percent of Alaska's schools have Internet access. A recent report has ranked Alaska first among the 50 states for Online Population and first for Technology in Schools, a weighted measure of the percentage of classrooms wired for the Internet, teachers with technology training, and schools with more than 50 percent of teachers having school-based e-mail accounts.

Evaluating its past experiments, Alaska concluded that satellite technology could bring affordable and reliable communications to the most remote settlements and creative approaches to telecommunication network design, operations and maintenance can significantly reduce the cost of rural telecommunications and that targeted subsidies can have a significant impact in providing affordable access to rural and disadvantaged populations. 

India’s Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE)

Presenting a paper in an international conference in 1969, India’s space pioneer, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, then the Chairman of the erstwhile Indian National Committee for Space Research, wrote:

"A national programme which would provide television to about 80 percent of India's population during the next ten years would be of great significance to national integration, for implementing schemes of social and economic development, and for the stimulation and promotion of the electronics industry. It is of particular significance to the large population living in isolated communities."

He argued that communications satellites could help India to provide direct broadcast television to reach the least developed rural areas of the country.

Earlier, just three years after the first geosynchronous satellite, SYNCOM, was launched, Dr. Sarabhai initiated studies aimed at using space communication systems for operational television broadcasting. A joint study by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States was conducted in 1967. The study eventually recommended a hybrid system of direct broadcast by satellite combined with terrestrial TV transmitters as the most effective means of providing countrywide TV coverage. In 1968 a National Satellite Communication (NASCOM) study group was again established by the Indian government.

These studies and the deliberations that followed paved the way for the acceptance in 1969 by the Indian government of the proposal to conduct the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) on NASA's Applications Technology Satellite (ATS) - 6, a powerful satellite capable of receiving signals from earth transmitters and broadcasting directly to antennae located in remote villages. ATS-6 was eventually placed into orbit in 1974, was the last in a series of experimental satellites sponsored by NASA to test new technologies in space communications.

ATS-6 operated from geosynchronous orbit and contained 19 communications and technology experiments. The satellite's most prominent technology was a powerful, thirty-foot diameter antenna. This feature allowed ground stations to receive signals

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with small, inexpensive antennas, a marked change from the early days of space communications when massive ground stations were required to pick up signals from satellites.

NASA used ATS-6 and its capability to transmit strong signals to provide ready access to space communications for poorer rural or geographically remote communities. Aside from SITE, ATS-6 was also used to broadcast educational programs in Alaska and the Applachian mountains, among other projects making space communications directly available to millions of people. The satellite exceeded its planned two-year life, continuing operation until 1979.

Teacher in Sky

In August 1, 1975 SITE was finally launched, which was later hailed as one of the biggest socio-technological experiment in the world. SITE demonstrated the potential of satellite technology as an effective mass communication media. The experiment provided India an opportunity to stimulate national development and gain experience in satellite broadcasting enabling remote and backward regions of the country to receive television signals.

The ATS-6 satellite was dubbed the "teacher in the sky" as it demonstrated the potential of satellite television by broadcasting practical instructions to the rural population. The program’s telecast under SITE included poultry, health, hygiene, family planning, developmental issues and entertainment. ATS-6 signals also carried information on crop production, healthy living and other practical matters that can raise the quality of life - and indeed, often save lives.

In the villages, 3m antennae became part of the reception systems that fed signals from the satellite to large television sets in the schools dispersed in various locations covering a large geographical area. In addition to the satellite television, which served as a dominant technology, printed materials were also used to a moderate extent. As with most broadcasts and communication channels the delivery configuration was mostly point-to-multipoint, with a very limited point-to-point and face-to-face support.

It was described an exhilarating and exciting moment when, at 6.20 p.m. on August 1, 1975, about 2,330 TV sets over six Indian states came alive in many small villages, started to receive programs directly from a high power geo-synchronous satellite located at 36,000 km over Kenya. 5

It was the realization of the dream of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, who by then had died. He was later accorded the title “Father of the Indian space program,” for pushing the use of advanced technologies to help in solving the problems of the country. India had become the first country in the world to use satellites to transmit educational television programming directly to villages.

Evaluating the program later, ISRO and SITE Social Research Co-ordination Committee concluded the program a big success. The average daily attendance per TV set range from 80 to 100 and about 30 per cent of Indian people who had no previous contact with mass medium were reached by SITE. The also concluded that a large

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number of agricultural innovations were triggered by the television programs and information on health, hygiene and nutrition have saved countless lives.

Arthur C. Clarke, had the privilege of playing a small but interesting part in SITE, providing occasional advice and international promotion to the project. His travels in India before and during SITE gave him valuable insights into how developments in communications can produce tangible benefits for large numbers of ordinary people. In one of his articles, 'Satellites and Saris' - which has since been reproduced in many publications, he ended as follows:

"One of the most magical moments in Satyajit Ray's exquisite Pather Panchali is when the little boy Apu hears for the first time the aeolian music of the telegraph wires on the windy plain. Soon, those wires will have gone forever; but a new generation of Apus will be watching, wide-eyed, when the science of a later age draws down pictures from the sky - and open up for all the children of India a window on the world."

In 1977, Clarke again made television history when the Indian government gifted him a satellite receiving station in his Sri Lanka home. A team of Indian engineers flew in and installed a massive five-meter dish antenna in his Colombo house. When signals came in loud and clear, it marked the arrival of television in Sri Lanka, which didn't have terrestrial transmissions until 1979. 6 It was the only privately owned Earth Satellite receiving station at that time and Clarke had the only television set on the island at that time.

'Lanka's link with unique TV venture,' ran the headline in one local newspaper. 'India's gesture to Arthur Clarke, world's first private home to have reception unit.' Everyone -- from Cabinet Ministers and civil servants to schoolchildren -- flocked to his home to watch the program. Clarke says of the event and the days that followed, “My hospitality bill was enormous.”

The Indian television scenario showed a dramatic transformation with SITE. Television was introduced in the country way back in 1959. At that time there was only one transmitter. In 1980 there were only 18 transmitters. The operationalization of the Indian National Satellite (INSAT) System, the country’s indigenous satellite, ensured a massive expansion of television in India. The number of television transmitters went up to 172 in 1985. By the end of the next decade, in 1995, it became 672 and in 1997 there were 868 transmitters.

The increase of the number of television households is as amazing. There were only a handful television sets in the country in the early 60's. In 1972, this number had gone up to 84,000. At the end of 1980, the number had gone beyond 1.5 million mark. In 1985, there were nearly 7 million television sets. In 1995, the figure had crossed 52 million mark and it was estimated that in 1997 that there were nearly 58 million television households in the country with about 150 million households. Today, there are about a thousand transmitters and 70 million households having TV. Television now covers about 65 percent of the Indian landmass and reaches about 80 percent of its population.

During its twelve crowded months of operation, SITE proved beyond doubt that only communications satellites could provide India with all the variety of telecommunications required to administer such a large and diversified country. This led

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to the development and launch of India's own communications satellites, beginning with INSAT-1.

The decision to undertake SITE before embarking on an operational system was taken primarily with the aim of gaining experience in the development, management and testing of a satellite-based instructional television system. After SITE had been on for nearly four months, the Indian government in November 1975 accepted in principle the use of satellites for domestic communications.

Satellite Telecommunication Experiments Project (STEP)

SITE was immediately followed by the Satellite Telecommunication Experiments Project (STEP), a joint ISRO-Post and Telegraphs Department project using the Franco-German Symphonie satellite from 1977-1979. While SITE focused on satellite television, STEP, this time, concentrated on telecommunications, proving another major demonstration of communications applications of space.

STEP was primarily aimed to provide a system test of using geosynchronous satellites for satellite communication, radio networking and TV transmission for domestic communications. It was also intended to enhance the capabilities and experience of Indian scientists in the design, manufacture, installation, operation and maintenance of various earth segment facilities, including the building up of requisite indigenous competence for the proposed operational domestic satellite system, INSAT, for India. Two transponders on Symphonie were used for these experiments. The Symphonie satellite program started in June 1967. Under the bilateral deal between the governments of the French Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany the two countries agreed to jointly develop, manufacture, launch and utilize two experimental direct broadcasting telecommunications satellites and design and construct two earth stations.

The franco-german telecommunications satellite Symphonie A integrated at EADS plant in Les Mureaux: Because of the manufacturer's experience with NASA, Europe realized it had to have its own launcher. (EADS Launch Vehicles photo)

The contract for the development of the satellites was eventually awarded to a German-French industrial consortium, financed in equal parts by France and Germany. The

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Symphonie ground segment comprised of a series of earth stations, which allowed a large spectrum of utilization such as transmission of television and radio program, telephone calls, telexes and data.

The Symphonie space segment consisted of two 3-axis-stabilized geostationary satellites, which allowed simultaneous communication between several earth stations in the 4 and 6 GHz frequency ranges. Two Symphonie satellites were positioned in close co-operation with the French Space Organization CNES and successfully put into operation. During their lifetime both satellites were controlled jointly by the German-French control centers on a time-shared basis.

At the beginning of 1977, Symphonie A was moved to a position over the Indian Ocean (49°E) where it stayed for approximately two years. After project duration of ten years the satellites were switched off and removed from the geostationary orbit.

The matter of getting Symphonie into orbit is in itself an interesting story. At that time, several European countries had spent eight years developing a heavy launcher named Europa. But the French and Germans dared not use it after a string of humiliating Europa failures had left them too doubtful of the launcher. They turned instead to the U.S. space agency NASA, still riding high after having sent the first men to the moon just three years earlier.

NASA was happy to oblige -- on one condition: Symphonie could not be used commercially. That, of course, was its intended purpose. NASA claimed it had to protect the rights of commercial satellites it had already launched, but all of Europe saw the episode as an attempt by the world's leader in space to maintain control of the heavens.

Europe suddenly realized it needed more than just its own satellite. "Symphonie made it clear to everyone that Europe needed its own launcher," says Frederic d'Allest, then a young engineer working for the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES, France's equivalent of NASA). "We were not about to remain dependent on anyone for launch services. The issue was clearly sovereignty."7

Symphonie was eventually launched by NASA aboard a Thor Delta in 1974. But for the French, the affair triggered a sustained fury that would motivate them to emerge from the shadow of the Americans by creating the most successful commercial launch service in space history, Arianespace.

Together, the SITE and STEP experimental projects prepared the ground for the INSAT system. The experience gained through these experiments led to the establishment of the INSAT system in 1983 and today, it is one of the world’s largest domestic communication satellite systems.

While the INSAT system studies were going on, ISRO, along with India’s Department of Atomic Energy took up and successfully executed a major indigenous venture of establishing an earth station at Arvi near Pune in 1972. Towards gaining experience to build India's own satellites and launch vehicles, ISRO initiated in the early 1970s two projects: the first Indian satellite project, Aryabhata, which was realized in 1975, and the first Indian launch vehicle, SLV-3, which was accomplished in 1980.

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Aryabhata, the first Indian satellite (named after an Indian astronomer), established India’s indigenous capability in satellite technology. It enabled ISRO scientists and engineers to learn the basics of satellite technology from designing, building and operating the satellite. Taking advantage of the free launch opportunity provided by the erstwhile Soviet Union, this 360-kg, spin-stabilized satellite was launched on April 19, 1975, into a near circular orbit of 600 km.

Soon after, in 1976-77 a similar opportunity was provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) on its developmental flights of the Ariane launcher. ESA had offered a free flight for any payload and India accepted the offer. This important opportunity was utilized to build indigenously a 672-kg state-of-the-art three-axis-stabilized (as against the spin-stabilized Aryabhata) geosynchronous communication satellite called APPLE - Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment - which was launched in June 1981. The satellite had only one communication transponder but the entire exercise of building a large three-axis stabilized satellite to operate in the geostationary orbit resulted in ISRO acquiring the necessary expertise that was to prove invaluable to build the indigenous second generation INSAT-2 series of satellites in the 1990s.8 

PEACESAT

Another noteworthy project that still exists today is the Pan-Pacific Education and Communication Experiments by Satellite (PEACESAT)--a public service telecommunications program that supports distance education learning, training, technology transfer and other public service missions throughout the Pacific Basin. The program began in 1971 through the use of a single SCPC voice circuit on ATS-1 satellite but is now operating through 9 simplex and 3 full-duplex circuits over a NOAA GOES satellite. For 23 years, the program has provided an ongoing experimental laboratory for public service communication applications.

The PEACESAT network ties together government, educational, and other non-profit country and regional organizations in 22 Pacific countries. There are currently 54 PEACESAT sites in throughout the Pacific Basin. Through this network, PEACESAT is helping to build "The Internet Global Information Infrastructure" in the Pacific.

PEACESAT supports its missions through the use of the GOES satellite communications network under a Cooperative Agreement with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The satellite is provided through a Memorandum of Understanding with the NTIA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). PEACESAT uses a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The GOES satellite has a Pacific-wide footprint. The Kokee Tracking Station through an agreement provides telemetry, tracking, and control with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 9

PEACESAT is known as a public service satellite telecommunications network that links educational institutions, regional organizations, and governments in the Pacific Islands region. Its missions are to facilitate "development" or "public service" telecommunications and information technology; undertake telecommunications

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applications and technical experiments using satellites in the Pacific Island region; and operate a public service satellite network in the Pacific Island region.

The main focus of PEACESAT has been in the areas of education, health and medical emergencies, emergency management, and technology transfer. Some of the projects that PEACESAT is working on to support these program areas include the development of digital voice, data, and compressed video teleconferencing capabilities within the region; building collaborative relationship to support these levels of technology; developing an electronic mail system for health and emergency operations; and developing a network interface among emergency agencies in Hawaii. All of these projects involve partnerships among organizations in the region.

PEACESAT has long-understood that a major barrier to development among the region has been the inability to communicate and to share data and information resources. In "developed" economies, telecommunications is far less of a cost and technology barrier than it is in "developing" or "emerging" economies.

Further, it is important to note that telecommunications service remains a problem in many of the Pacific Islands states. The cost of international telecommunications remains high. Local penetration for telephony, while growing fast in certain economies, remains low. Basic services such as International Direct Dialing does not exist in many parts of the region.

This requires PEACESAT to continuously research the changing telecommunications environment in the Pacific Islands region, assess technology development, and facilitate development of telecommunications policy and infrastructure through research and education. Where appropriate, PEACESAT works with other educational, government, health, and other non-profit institutions to take advantage of appropriate and cost-effectiveness technologies.

Central management of the network is located at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, U.S.A. Administratively, PEACESAT Headquarters administers a grant from the NTIA and solicits U.S. and international funding in collaboration with PEACESAT sites and partners. Operationally, PEACESAT headquarters manages the satellite airtime scheduling, facilitates program applications for services and for new station requests, coordinates satellite tracking, telemetry and control with Kokee Geophysical Observatory in Kauai, Hawaii, and coordinates system maintenance with Sites and vendors.

PEACESAT stations are primarily housed in educational institutions and government agencies. PEACESAT sites support their own personnel, facilities, program and utility costs. There are varying levels of resource commitments by sites, which result in various levels of local operational support.

In 1993, PEACESAT made Internet access available on its full-duplex circuits. The response to Internet was overwhelming and user demand grew immensely along with requests for further improvements in access and data services.

In response to these demands, PEACESAT and NTIA initiated the design of a digital network capability known as the PEACESAT Services Improvement Plan (SIP). The

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SIP, when implemented, will enable eight country sites with the capability to support multiple concurrent data links on continuous, a 7 day a week, 24 hour a day basis. The concurrent links will be supported via digital circuits and time-division multiple access technology. These technologies will enable Internet nodes to be established under the PEACESAT umbrella for public service telecommunications.

PEACESAT has also developed and implemented a remote access capability, electronic post-office systems, and is exploring the deployment of a HF/SSB interface to its earth stations to support low-cost continuous access to Internet for extremely remote areas and for emergency management purposes.

There have been many other successful initiatives at the grassroots level using satellites for developmental purposes. But their impact has been limited to a certain geographic area or for specific purposes. The lack of a sustained global developmental program using satellites has led to the perception of satellites and development as the "distant promise."10

Perhaps the large investments needed to operate a satellite preclude its widespread use for direct developmental purposes.

But it may not be the "distant promise" for long. As of this writing a very ambitious private sector initiative to provide digital radio and multimedia via satellite to developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America called Worldspace is underway. It has already launched two satellites, Afristar serving Africa and Asiastar for Asia. Worldspace's business model dictates that that five percent of its channel capacity will be devoted for social development and educational purposes.

Notes

(1) Hudson, H.E. & Pittman T. (1999). From Northern Village to Global Village: Rural Communications in Alaska. Pacific Telecommunications Review, 4Q.

(2) Ibid (3) Kimberly, D. (1992). The Alaskom Story. Online:

http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/reports/alascom.story. (4) Ibid (5) Karthikeyan R., “Satellite Saviour,” The Hindu, January 12, 2002. (6) Boyle, Richard (1997). Arthur of Serendip. The Sunday Times Plus. Online:

http://www.lacnet.org/suntimes/971221/plus5.html (7) Triplett, W. “The Americans won the race to the moon, but France is winning

the contest for launch customers.” Air & Space/Smithsonian, April/May 1996. (8) Hasan Jawaid Khan, “India’s Space Programme,” The Science Reporter. August

1997 (9) PEACESAT website. Online: http://www.peacesat.hawaii.edu/ (10) As described by Heather Hudson in "Communication Satellites: Their

Development and Impact, " The Free Press, 1990.

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Regulation and Deregulation   Part 7-A of a Series on A Brief History of the Satellite 

Communications Industry

By Virgil S. Labrador and Peter I. Galace  

"We have now reached the stage when virtually anything we want to do is possible. The constraints are no longer technical, but

economic, legal, or political."

-- Arthur C.Clarke

International Telecommunications Union

With a growing number of countries wanting to launch their own satellites, it became necessary for a worldwide set of rules that would govern space communications. Fortunately, in 1957, when Sputnik was launched, ushering the space age, a worldwide forum was in place to meet the challenges and nuances of satellites and space communications systems.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) started out as the International Telegraph Union on May 17, 1865 with the signing of the International Telegraph Convention by 20 founding members. At that time, telegraph networks in a number of countries were growing rapidly prompting 20 European States to meet and draft a framework agreement covering international interconnection. Thus ITU was originally established to standardize equipment to facilitate international interconnection, adopt uniform operating instructions, which would apply to all countries, and lay down common international tariff and accounting rules.

After Samuel Morse’s telegraph came the patenting of the telephone in 1876 and the subsequent expansion of telephony. Again, the International Telegraph Union, in 1885, drew up international legislation governing telephony. With the invention in 1896 of wireless telegraphy — the first type of radiocommunication — and the utilization of this new technique for maritime and other purposes, ITU convened a preliminary radio conference in 1903 to study international regulations for radiotelegraph communications. The first International Radiotelegraph Conference held in 1906 in Berlin approved the first International Radiotelegraph Convention, which contained the first regulations governing wireless telegraphy. These regulations, which have since been expanded and revised by numerous radio conferences, are now known as the Radio Regulations.

Thereafter, more treaties were signed on sound broadcasting and allocation of frequency bands. In 1927, the International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR) was established at a conference held in Washington D.C. The International Telephone Consultative

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Committee (CCIF) was set up in 1924, and the International Telegraph Consultative Committee (CCIT) was set up in 1925. Both the CCIT and the CCIR became responsible for coordinating the technical studies, tests and measurements being carried out in the various fields of telecommunications, as well as for drawing up international standards.

In 1932, at the Madrid Conference, the Union decided to combine the International Telegraph Convention of 1865 and the International Radiotelegraph Convention of 1906 to finally form the International Telecommunication Convention changing the name of the Union to International Telecommunication Union. The new name, which came into effect on 1 January 1934, was chosen to properly reflect the full scope of the Union's responsibilities, which by this time covered all forms of wireline and wireless communication.

On October 15, 1947, under an agreement with the newly created United Nations, ITU became a UN specialized agency, and the headquarters of the organization were transferred in 1948 from Bern to Geneva. At the same time, the International Frequency Registration Board (IFRB) was established to coordinate the increasingly complicated task of managing the radio-frequency spectrum, and the Table of Frequency Allocations, introduced in 1912, was declared mandatory.

In order to meet the challenges of new space communications systems, in 1959, the International Radio Consultative Committee, established in 1927, set up a study group responsible for studying space radiocommunication. In addition, an Extraordinary Administrative Conference for space communications was held in 1963 in Geneva to allocate frequencies to the various space services. Subsequent conferences made further allocations and put in place regulations governing the use, by satellites, of the radio-frequency spectrum and associated orbital slots. In 1992, allocations were made for the first time to serve the needs of a new kind of space service using non-geostationary satellites, known as Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite (GMPCS). The same year, spectrum was identified for IMT-2000, the ITU-developed next-generation global standard for digital mobile telephony. Due for commercial implementation early in this new millennium, IMT-2000 will harmonize the incompatible mobile systems currently in use around the world while providing a technical foundation for new, high-speed wireless devices capable of handling voice, data and connection to online services such as the Internet.

The most common issue on satellites is the acquisition of the orbital slot or the position in the geostationary orbit where commercial communications satellites are usually “parked.”

The right to use any given orbital slot is determined by a complex interaction of both international and national law. ITU has developed an intricate set of rules for coordinating the use of orbital slots by various nations. For most satellite services orbital slots are available to any country on a first come, first served basis. A government only has to file with the ITU a notice of its intention to place a satellite with specified characteristics in a specified orbital location.

However, priority at an orbital slot does not give a nation the exclusive right to that slot. Rather, it means that any satellite launched must be operated in a way that does not

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interfere with the satellite that has priority. Since it often happens that the first nation to file at a particular orbital slot does not actually launch a satellite there, being second in line--or even third or fourth--can be good enough for purposes of getting a satellite into service. But while ITU filings determine international priority for use of an orbital slot, individual governments issue licenses for the operation of satellites.

Today, some 135 years later, ITU consists of 165 members, more than two thirds of which belong to developing countries. The reasons that led to the establishment of ITU still apply, and the fundamental objectives of the organization remain basically unchanged and to this day, ITU is the major institution concerned with space communications, although other UN agencies also play a role in some space policy issues.

The United Nations General Assembly

The United Nations General Assembly, through its resolutions, also formulates general principles concerning the use of space by communications satellites. In November 3, 1947, even before Sputnik was launched, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 110 (II) condemning “propaganda designed or likely to provide or encourage any threat to the space, breach of the peace, or act of aggression,” which was made applicable to outer space by the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.

On December 20, 1961 the General Assembly adopted Resolution 1721 (XVI) which called on World Maritime Organization and ITU to examine the possibility of using satellites in outer space for the peaceful purposes of telecommunications and meteorology, expressing hope that “communication by means of satellites should be available to the nations of the world as soon as practicable on a global and non-discriminatory basis.” This resolution was intended to reduce the risk of the use of outer space for military purposes and had considered the alternative of a meteorological satellite from the time of the launching of the Russian Sputnik in October 1957, the American Explorer 1 in January 1958 and the meteorological satellite Tiros 1 in April 1960.

In 1963 the General Assembly passed Resolution 1962 response to the formation of Intelsat and declared that “states bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space, whether carried on by governmental agencies or by non-governmental entities.”

Only recently, in November 1999, the General Assembly adopted resolution calling on member states to prevent an arms race in outer space. The resolution called upon governments to "contribute actively to the prevention of an arms race in outer space, and to refrain from actions contrary to that objective." Israel joined the U.S. in abstaining from the vote. Several dozen nations, none of them highly active in space, were absent for the vote.

In 1959, by in accordance with resolution 1472 (XIV), the General Assembly established as a permanent body the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), which today has 64 member states. COPUOS was tasked to review the scope of international cooperation in peaceful uses of outer space, to devise program in this field to be undertaken under United Nations auspices, to encourage continued

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research and the dissemination of information on outer space matters, and to study legal problems arising from the exploration of outer space.

Space Treaties

Since its establishment, COUPOS has launched five major international law instruments that incorporate various aspects of space exploration -- the Outer Space Treaty, Rescue Agreement, Liability Convention, Registration Convention, and the ill-fated Moon Treaty -- that govern space activities. All these represent a significant achievement in addressing the issues linked to space exploration although adherence to the provisions of the treaties is not total.

These five treaties are as follows:

      The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 is based on the principle of sovereign equality and that the exploitation of outer space is for the benefit of all mankind. The treaty contains an undertaking not to place in orbit around the Earth, install on the moon or any other celestial body, or otherwise station in outer space, nuclear or any other weapons of mass destruction. It limits the use of the moon and other celestial bodies exclusively to peaceful purposes and expressly prohibits their use for establishing military bases, installation, or fortifications; testing weapons of any kind; or conducting military maneuvers. The Treaty was opened for signature at Washington, London, and Moscow on January 27, 1967. It is significant to note that after the Treaty entered into force, the United States and the Soviet Union collaborated in jointly planned and manned space enterprises.

      The Space Debris Treaty concerns the prevention of the creation of new space debris. Most spacefaring nations have voluntarily adopted measures to prevent in-orbit explosions of the upper rocket stages and shorten their orbital lifetime. The aim of the treaty is to coordinate the mitigation of space debris so that the future of space activities is not hampered.

      Promotion of International Cooperation. Under General Assembly resolution 51/122 member States determine that space be used for the benefit of all countries. With the rapid development of space technology all spacefaring nations recognize the importance of identifying common goals, thus optimizing existing resources, pooling knowledge and working together.

      Nuclear Power Sources. The General Assembly adopted the Principles Relevant to the Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space in December 1992. These Principles provide guidelines for the safe use of nuclear power sources that are needed for deep space satellite missions. In 1998 the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee endorsed a four-year work plan and a proposed schedule of work, to be taken up by the Working Group, for developing a framework for safety assurance processes and standards for nuclear power sources in outer space.

      Communications. Access to effective communications is a crucial part of bridging the 'information gap' between the industrial nations and emerging economies. Developing nations need broadcast signals and telephony to help

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them receive the information to build local infrastructure and to facilitate contact with the wider world. Using communications satellites is cheaper and less complicated than, for instance, fiber optics. However, certain action programs need to be undertaken, for instance, the promotion of the establishment of legislative and regulatory frameworks to facilitate investment in the private sector.  Furthermore, developing countries require expert assistance in assessing their communications needs and educational programs have to be set in place to facilitate local knowledge and expertise.

Other significant space treaties are:

      Agreement Relating to the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization "INTELSAT" (20 Aug 71)

      Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects (1972)

      Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space (1975)

      Convention on International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT)

Access to the Geostationary Orbit

ITU first showed interest in satellite communications, shortly after the launch of Sputnik, during the 1959 Administrative Radio Conference, which had been convened to review and amend ITU’s Radio Regulations. Significantly, ITU realized it was too early to determine how the new satellite service would evolve, thus the conference limited itself to extending the frequency table and allocating new frequencies for space research purposes. ITU also recommended that a special conference to examine the allocation of frequency bands for the various categories of space radio communication.

In 1965, ITU convened the Extraordinary Administrative Radio Conference (EARC) purposely to consider the needs of all space communication services. The conference resulted in the adoption of the principle that all members and associate members of the Union have an interest in and right to an equitable and rational use of frequency bands allocated for space communications and that the “utilization and exploitation of the frequency spectrum for space communications be subject to international agreements based on principles of justice and equity permitting the use and sharing of allocated frequency bands in the mutual interest of all nations.”

(This Chapter to be Continued)

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Enter Cable and Broadcasting   Part 8 of a Series on the History of the Communications Satellite Industry

By Virgil S. Labrador and Peter I. Galace  

"The quest for glory is the basest thing in man; but it is just this that which is also the greatest

mark of his excellence."

-- Blaise Pascal, Pensees, 1660

The dramatic images of the first landing on the moon in 1969 and the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich, Germany beamed via satellite to almost a billion people from every corner of the world demonstrated and fixated in the public the power of satellite technology. However, in the early '70s, usage of geostationary communication satellites was for the most part for telecommunications (voice and data) applications. This was due in part to the limitations of the technology--with one transponder capable of handling on one TV signal (as compared to 20,000 voice circuits). There was only one major global operator -- INTELSAT -- whose signatories (authorized users) were mostly the local Post, Telephone and Telecommunications (PTTs) bodies.

The adoption of "Open Skies' policy by the Nixon administration (mainly through the efforts of Clay Whitehead, head of the Office of Telecommunications Policy) opened the door to local U.S. satellite operators. This was spurred in part, by the launch of Anik 1 by Canada in 1974--broadcasting Canadian TV throughout the vastness of Canada and spilling over to the United States.

The first U.S. domestic satellite was Western Union's WESTAR I, launched on April 13, 1974. It was on Westar that a struggling cable programming company from New York called Home Box Office (HBO) broadcasted live from Manila, Philippines the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier World Heavyweight Boxing title fight dubbed the "Thrilla in Manila." in September 30, 1975.

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"Thrilla in Manila" in September 1975. HBO broadcasted the fight live from the Philippines and the event shook the U.S. cable industry. (Bettman/Corbis photo) 

The "Thrilla" shook not only boxing afficionados, but the U.S. cable industry. The satellite broadcast was received by 10,000 subscribers of the cable system in Vero Beach-Ft. Pierce, Florida owned by Bob Rosencrans' UA-Columbia Cable. So successful was the fist satellite-delivered cable program that Rosencrans used satellites in all his major cable systems the day after the "Thrillla." Soon cable systems all over America were receiving programming via satellite.

One of the prime movers of satellite distribution of cable programming was Sid Topol, from a small company based in Atlanta called, Scientific Atlanta. Topol designed a 10-meter dish that made it affordable for cable systems to receive satellite signals (hitherto you need humongous 30-meter dishes to receive satellite programs).

One of the those approached by Topol was a young, struggling TV executive named Ted Turner.

When Ted Turner's WTBS, Atlanta became a "superstation" to viewers in much of the U.S. via cable TV, he was ready to launch CNN. (High-Tech Productions Photo)

Born Robert Edward Turner III on November 19, 1938 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father was a Southern gentleman who was then employed in Central Outdoor Advertising Company. He soon started his own billboard business, Turner Advertising, which was to be a modest success. The elder Turner managed to turn Turner Advertising into the largest billboard company in the Southern U.S.

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Tragically and quite suddenly, Ted Turner's father committed suicide when he was all of 24. At that time Ted had just joined the family business after finishing a stint with the U.S. Coast Guard and was kicked out of ivy-league Brown University for having a woman in his dorm room (despite him having won a national championship in yachting for Brown.)

Turner was to demonstrate a resilience and fortitude as a result of adversity. Not only did he manage to turn around his father's struggling billboard business, but expanded into other businesses. In 1970, Turner bought yet another struggling business, WJRJ Channel 17, a UHF station in Atlanta, which he renamed WTCG for Turner Communications Group or "Watch This Channel Go." Mainly to save on programming rights, he was eventually to purchase the Atlanta Braves baseball team and the Atlanta Hawks basketball teams.

It was a this time in 1976, when Sid Topol met Ted Turner and extolled to him the benefits of going satellite. Impressed that one could reach every household in the country for about a million dollars per year, Ted immediately took to the idea and ran with. Never mind that he actually did not have one million dollars--that never stopped him before (Legend has it he bought the Atlanta Braves for 1 million dollars without any cash or equity--essentially using the Braves' cash in the bank to finance the acquisition.)

There was one regulatory hurdle--the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would not allow a programmer to be a satellite service provider as well. No problem again for Ted Turner--he simply created another company--Satellite Systems and sold it to the then VP of Marketing of Western Union (the operator of the Westar satellite that he wanted to be on) for one dollar. This new company also assumed the financial responsibility for the transponder and ground segment (thereby freeing Turner's hard pressed companies) which it proceeded to raise the requisite one million dollars by selling shares at $20,000 each.

After regulatory investigations and other start-up problems, Turner's WTCG-TV finally went on Satcom 1 on December 17, 1976. Despite getting coast-to-coast coverage, it was a difficult sell to start. WTCG-TV was essentially local programming--but Turner's indefatigable salesmanship won the day and got cable systems signing up in over 27 states.

Only a Ted Turner could have pulled something like that--taking a local station and going nationwide with it (he later renamed it the "Superstation."). But his biggest gamble yet was probably his crowning glory. On June 1, 1980, Turner launched a never before attempted concept--the 24-hour news channel--and in the process took on the established big three national broadcasters. Cable News Network or CNN was to revolutionized braodcasting as we know it. It lost money the first two years of operation, but broke even in the third year and took off during major news years like during the Challenger Disaster, Tienanmen Square incident and finally the Gulf War in 1991. CNN became the international news channel and made Ted Turner a bona fide media mogul.

Turner's foray in the satellite delivery of cable programming paved the way for other programmers such as John Hendricks, an academic who founded the Discovery

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Channel. Soon the cable universe was flooded by a panoply of new channels to name a few: Showtime, USA, Disney Channel, MTV, and many others. The opening of new programming choices created new programming tiers for cable systems and thereby new revenue streams. Yet another distribution medium was created for programs such as movies, documentaries and even old television shows. It would also eventually lead to new satellite services such as Direct-to-Home (DTH) which will offer a bouquet of programming at a premium.

To dismiss Turner as just another businessman who did well, would not even come close to describe him. Thomas P. Southwick in his seminal book on the history of the U.S. Cable Industry summed up Turner well:

"Ted Turner isn't really a businessman. He's more a force of nature, closer to Hale-Bopp or El Niño than to any business school graduate."

Without a doubt, when all is said and done about the totality of the history of such a technological-driven industry as satellite communications--it is the technical people--the scientists and engineers who stick to the knitting that in the main play a great role. But technology in and by itself does not necessarily lead to developments human, social or economic. You need the elan and audacity of driven and visionary people who defy the odds and overcome great adversity to accomplish what never seem possible and take technology to the next level..

Ted Turner was such a person and lucky for all of us, he is not alone--there are many others of similar vein.

Sources for Part 8:

Robert Goldberg and Gerald Jay Goldberg, "Citizen Turner: The Wild Rise of an American Tycoon," Harcourt Brace and Co., Orlando, FL, 1995.

Thomas P. Southwick, "Distant Signals: How Cable TV Changed the World of Telecommunications," Primedia Intertec, Overland Park, KS, 1999.

Coming Next Issue: Clash of the Titans: The Commercialization of the Industry

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