History

A communication Satellite is  an artificial satellite used to aid telecommunications, as by reflecting or relaying a radio signal. The first communication satellite was launched by the Soviets called Sputnik 1 on Octorober 4, 1957. America soon followed with project Score in 1958 during the race for space. These satellites just were for simple radio communications. The way a communication satellite works is like bouncing messages off a mirror in space to either a spead or fixed location. There are various patterns of orbit that the satellite rotates with or around the Earth. AT&T was the first company to put an active relay satellite (back then owned by Telstar) which NASA launched on July 10, 1962.

Billion dollar industry

 "Satellite communications is also the only truly commercial space technology- -generating billions of dollars annually in sales of products and services." (NASA) By 1964 there were 6 satellites total 2 of which were AT&T. This set up the telephone industry to be capable of long distance phone calls. Instead of using the typical land line people would be using the service of a geostationary satellite.

The first and historically most important application for communication satellites was in intercontinental long distance telephony. The fixed Public Switched Telephone Network relays telephone calls from land line telephones to an earth station, where they are then transmitted to a geostationary satellite. The downlink follows an analogous path. Improvements in submarine communications cables, through the use of fiber-optics, caused some decline in the use of satellites for fixed telephony in the late 20th century, but they still serve remote islands such as Ascension Island, Saint Helena, Diego Garcia, and Easter Island, where no submarine cables are in service. There are also regions of some continents and countries where landline telecommunications are rare to nonexistent, for example large regions of South America, Africa, Canada, China, Russia, and Australia. Satellite communications also provide connection to the edges of Antarctica and Greenland.

Satellite phones connect directly to a constellation of either geostationary or low-earth-orbit satellites. Calls are then forwarded to a satellite teleport connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network

 Orbital Rotations

Military use

NOT FINAL DRAFT THEREFORE NO SOURCES LISTED, HOWEVER SOURCES USED.