Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Canada and comsat history
Message-ID: <1988Nov13.062139.1075@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1988Oct28.180827.25578@utzoo.uucp> <2074@kalliope.rice.edu> <1844@garth.UUCP> <3473@vpk4.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 88 06:21:39 GMT

In article <3473@vpk4.UUCP> scott@attcan.UUCP (Scott MacQuarrie) writes:
>... Who do you think launched the first communication sat?

I must regretfully shoot down my compatriot, here.  (Regretfully, hell,
I enjoy it! ;-))  Canada put up the first non-Soviet domestic comsat.
It's somewhat surprising that the US hadn't done one rather earlier,
but they hadn't.  The *first* domestic comsats were the Molniya series,
however.  The identity of the first *comsat* depends on exact definitions,
but unless I've missed some early Soviet development, it was definitely
the US that did it.  Take your pick of SCORE, Relay, Telstar, or
Syncom II, in -- I think -- that order.  SCORE was a comsat only in
a fairly loose sense -- it simply broadcast a recorded message -- but
it was pretty early.  The Relay series was several experimental low-orbit
comsats.  Telstar was the first commercial comsat, albeit an experimental
one, done by AT&T but not followed up on for a long time for legal reasons.
Like the Relays, it was in a low orbit that required constant tracking.
Syncom II (dunno what happened to Syncom I, launch failure?) was the first
more-or-less Clarke-orbit comsat, and quickly demonstrated that that was
the wave of the future.  Oh yeah, I forgot the Echos, which fit in there
somewhere, although that was another dead-end program:  metallized balloons
as passive radio reflectors.

Canada got into the comsat business only after the technology was well
settled for international use.  What was novel was its use for domestic
communication.  The Molniyas did pre-date Anik 1, but they "didn't count"
either because they were Soviet or because they didn't use Clarke orbit
(which did take them somewhat out of the mainstream of comsat development).
-- 
Sendmail is a bug,             |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
not a feature.                 | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu