Early Bird is the name of the first communications satellite to be placed in synchronous orbit on April 6, 1965. Built by the Space and Communications Group of Hughes Aircraft Company, later Hughes Space and Communications Company, and now Boeing Satellite Systems, it was built for COMSAT, which activated it June 28. It was based on the satellite Hughes had built for NASA to demonstrate that communications from synchronous orbit was feasible. April 6 is the 96th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (97th in leap years). ... 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ... The Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT) began operations with its headquarters in Washington, DC, in 1963. ... NASA Logo Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-09-01, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...

Originally slated to operate for eighteen months, Early Bird was in active service for four years, being inactivated in January 1969, although it was briefly activated in June of that year to serve the Apollo 11 flight. It was inactivated again in August 1969 and has been inactive since that time, although it remains in orbit.

The Early Bird satellite was the first to provide direct and nearly instantaneous contact between Europe and North America, handling television, telephone and fascimile transmissions. It was fairly small, measuring nearly 2.5 x 2.0 feet and weighing 76 lb.

For more information, see http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bss/factsheets/376/earlybird/ebird.html.