Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!husc6!cfa!cfa250!mcdowell
From: mcdowell@cfa250.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Comsats (was:Canada and comsat history)
Message-ID: <1158@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu>
Date: 13 Nov 88 21:50:33 GMT
References: <1988Nov13.062139.1075@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Lines: 19

From article <1988Nov13.062139.1075@utzoo.uucp>, by henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer):
[First comsat..]
>Take your pick of SCORE, Relay, Telstar, or
> Syncom II, in -- I think -- that order.  
I would go for Courier IB, a 1960 satellite which was the first active
repeater. Like SCORE, it was a US Army Signals Corps effort. (Courier
IA didnt make it to orbit.) I agree that the 1958 SCORE doesnt really count;
the Soviet Korabl'-Sputnik in 1960 did much the same thing, too. The NASA/RCA
Relay in 1962 wasn't that much of a gain on Courier; AT&T's Telstar I 
does have the honor of the first transatlantic messages. The first
Molniya-1 went up in Apr 1965. 

> Syncom II (dunno what happened to Syncom I, launch failure?) was the first
> more-or-less Clarke-orbit comsat, 

Syncom I had its apogee motor blow up. Syncom II was inclined 33 deg to the equator,
Syncom III was really the first GEO sat, in Aug 1964 I think.

Jonathan McDowell.