This Day, That Year – August 19

This day in history we feature Syncom 3. It was the first geostationary communication satellite that was launched by NASA on this day in 1964.

Trivia – Syncom 3

The three early Syncom satellites were experimental spacecraft built by Hughes Aircraft Company’s facility in Culver City, California, by a team led by Harold Rosen, Don Williams, and Thomas Hudspeth. All three satellites were cylindrical in shape. Syncom satellites were only capable of carrying a single two-way telephone conversation, or 16 Teletype connections. As of 25 June 2009, all three satellites are still in orbit, although no longer functioning.

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The satellite, in orbit near the International Date Line, had the addition of a wideband channel for television and was used to telecast the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo to the United States. Although Syncom 3 is sometimes credited with the first television program to cross the Pacific Ocean, the Relay 1 satellite first broadcast television from the United States to Japan on November 22, 1963. The Syncom team had a 1-hour test on the Syncom 3 satellite and it was discovered that it can transmit up to two hours from the US to Japan as with signals from the West Coast.

Source – Wikipedia

This day in history – Syncom 3