OCTOBER 4, 1960 Courier I-B is launched by the Army Signal Corps into a 500- to 650-mile-high orbit. A sphere weighing 500 pounds and measuring 51 inches in diameter, the Courier satellite is powered by 20,000 solar cells and contains four receivers, four transmitters, and five tape recorders. It is designed to demonstrate the possibility of using active repeaters for delayed transmission of messages. Signals are received, stored on the tapes, and then retransmitted back to earth when the satellite has moved on. After 18 days in orbit, technical difficulties ended Courier’s ability to send signals, but it received and retransmitted 118 million words during its active life.
JANUARY 19, 1961 The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to establish an experimental satellite communications link across the Atlantic. Two 170-pound satellites are to be launched by NASA but will be designed, built, and paid for by AT&T. This project is later given the name “Telstar.”
MAY 18, 1961 NASA selects the Radio Corporation of America to design and build the Relay satellite, which will be used to test the feasibility of transoceanic telephone, telegraph, and television communications.
AUGUST 11, 1961 NASA awards the Hughes Aircraft Corporation a contract to build Syncom, an experimental active satellite to be placed into a 22,300-mile-high orbit that will be synchronous with the rotation of the earth. (See [page 37] for definitions of various kinds of satellite orbits.)
DECEMBER 20, 1961 The United Nations adopts a resolution on the peaceful uses of outer space that includes a request for world cooperation in developing a system of communications satellites. Both the United States and the Soviet Union sign the resolution.