They are the nexus of many tasks. Weather prediction, navigation, broadcasting.

The first satellite in space was Sputnik 1 which means as a word fellow traveller was send in 1950 by Russians. After 7 years, the first biological spacecraft that called Sputnik 2 was sent by carrying a terrier female dog. By the following year, 1958, Sputnik 3 has taken its place in space as a first launched orbit. In the same year, 1958, America also started to launch the orbits. The satellite Score has become the world’s first communication satellite.

In 1960, several satellites were sent to space by Nasa. One of them was successfully acting as a passive reflector of microwave signals, communication signals were bounced off it from one point on Earth to another point. This was the satellite making the radio communication possible. Another one called Courier 1B could record messages from an earth station and rebroadcast them.

In 1962, while British and Canada sent their satellites into space, Telstar 1 has become the world’s first active communication satellite that makes the TV programs to be broadcast across the Atlantic.

In 1964, Italy became the fifth country to have artificial satellite. And following year French launched the Asterix. Also, same year first Soviet communication satellite Molniya launched.Germany sends its artificial satellite in 1969 just one year before the Japan and China.

Intelsat III counted as a significant one by enabling the live TV.

In 1974, Spain and Netherlands send the artificial satellites. Ans, which is was send by Netherlands was a space-based X-ray and ultraviolet telescope.

In 1975, India’s first artificial satellite was launch. The next year, Indonesian and 2 years later Czechoslovakian artificial satellites were launched.

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“Nothing is harder to image than the past. It is imperative that all Landsat observations are archived and made available to users.”

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Bound of Literature – Science fiction and Satellites 

Arthur C. Clark was the first known author who talks about artificial satellites before the satellites were sent to space. Clarke was a science writer, futurist and scuba diver. He was an avid populariser of space travel. Clarke contributed to the popularity of the idea that geostationary satellites would be ideal telecommunications relays.