INTELSAT I Early Bird

Intelsat I (nicknamed Early Bird for the proverb "The early bird catches the worm") was the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit, on April 6, 1965. It was built by the Space and Communications Group of Hughes Aircraft Company (later Hughes Space and Communications Company, and now Boeing Satellite Systems) for COMSAT, which activated it on June 28. It was based on the satellite that Hughes had built for NASA to demonstrate that communications via synchronous-orbit satellite were feasible. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (3101x2400, 582 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Intelsat Early Bird Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (3101x2400, 582 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Intelsat Early Bird Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Look up proverb in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... MILSTAR:A communication satellite A satellite is any object that orbits another object (which is known as its primary). ... A geosynchronous orbit is a geocentric orbit that has the same orbital period as the sidereal rotation period of the Earth. ... April 6 is the 96th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (97th in leap years). ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661 ) is an aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. ... The Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT) began operations with its headquarters in Washington, DC, in 1963. ... June 28 is the 179th day of the year (180th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 186 days remaining. ... NASA Insignia Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from an article 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 deactivated in January 1969, although it was briefly activated in June of that year to serve the Apollo 11 flight when the Atlantic Intelsat satellite failed. It was deactivated again in August 1969 and has been inactive since that time (except for a brief reactivation in 1990 to commemorate its 25th launch anniversary), although it remains in orbit. Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. ... Intelsat, Ltd. ...

The Early Bird satellite was the first to provide direct and nearly instantaneous contact between Europe and North America, handling television, telephone, and telefacsimile transmissions. It was fairly small, measuring nearly 2.5 × 2.0 feet (76×61 cm) and weighing 76 pounds (34.5 kg). An old rotary telephone This article is about telephone technology. ... Fax (short for facsimile - from Latin fac simile, make similar, i. ... A foot (plural: feet) is any of several old units of distance or length, measuring around a quarter to a third of a meter. ... A centimetre (US: centimeter) is a factor of the SI unit of length: there are one hundred centimeters in the base unit of measure, the metre. ... The pound is the name of a number of units of mass, all in the range of 300 to 600 grams. ... The international prototype, made of platinum-iridium, which is kept at the BIPM under conditions specified by the 1st CGPM in 1889. ...

External link

• Early Bird at boeing.com