SATCOM (SATELLITE)

(Redirected from Satcom 1)
:''"Satcom" is also an acronym of, and generic term for, satellite communications.''

The 'Satcom' series was a family of communications satellites originally developed and operated by the RCA American Communications (RCA Americom). Satcom was one of the first geostationary satellites. The first satellite, Satcom 1 was launched on December 13, 1975. The last satellite, Satcom K2, was placed into orbit on November 27 1985 and was de-orbited in February 2002. Satcom was first superseded and then replaced by the GE series of satellites.
The Satcom system passed to General Electric with its purchase of RCA in 1986. RCA Americom became GE American Communications (GE Americom) and the satellite construction division became GE Astro Space. GE Astro Space was sold to Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin Space Systems) in 1993. In 2001 GE sold GE Americom to SES Global, creating SES Americom.

Contents

History

Satellite details

Sources

History

Most early commercial communications satellites were built for and operated by telecoms companies. RCA, with its own RCA Astro Electronics satellite construction business, identified a role for itself as a satellite owner/operator.
Satcom 1 was used as the launching ground for many cable TV services including TBS Superstation and the ABC Family channel (then the CBN Cable Network). The Weather Channel also was launched on Satcom 1 in 1982. A notable legal battle involved Ted Turner suing RCA to get a Satcom 1 transponder in 1980 for the launch of CNN on June 1, 1980. CNN had been scheduled for a Satcom 3 transponder but that satellite had been destroyed upon launch on December 7, 1979.
Satcom was the first satellite used by broadcast TV networks in the United States, like ABC, NBC, and CBS, to distribute their programming to all of their local affiliate stations. The reason that Satcom 1 was so widely used is that it had twice the communications capacity of the competing Westar 1 (24 transponders as opposed to Westar 1’s 12), which resulted in lower transponder usage costs.
The domestic communication satellite spurred the cable television industry to unprecedented heights with the assistance of a company known as Home Box Office (HBO). Cable television networks relay signals to ground-based stations using satellites. This allowed cable television to enter into the suburban and metropolitan markets, thus allowing HBO to accumulate 1.6 million subscribers by the end of 1977.

Satellite details

Model	Manufacturer	Launch date	Launch vehicle	Comments
Satcom 1	RCA Astro Electronics	December 12, 1975	Delta 3000
Satcom 2	RCA Astro Electronics	March 26, 1976	Delta 3000
Satcom 3	RCA Astro Electronics	December 7, 1979	Delta 3000	Failure during GTO, destroyed
Satcom 1R	RCA Astro Electronics	April 11, 1983	Delta 3000	Replaced Satcom 1
Satcom 2R	RCA Astro Electronics	September 8, 1983	Delta 3000
Satcom 3R	RCA Astro Electronics	November 20, 1981	Delta 3000	Replaced destroyed Satcom 3
Satcom 4	RCA Astro Electronics	January 16, 1982	Delta 3000
Satcom 5	RCA Astro Electronics	October 28, 1982	Delta 3000	Aurora 1, still on 105.2'W (2006) [1]
Satcom 4R	Hughes	November 8, 1984	STS-51-A (''Discovery'')
Satcom C1	GE Astro Space	November 20, 1990	Ariane 42P	Replaced Satcom 1R
Satcom C3	GE Astro Space	September 11, 1992	Ariane 44LP
Satcom C4	GE Astro Space	August 21, 1992	Delta 7000
Satcom C5	GE Astro Space	May 29, 1991	Delta 7000
Satcom K1	RCA Astro Electronics	January 12, 1986	STS-61-C (''Columbia'')
Satcom K2	RCA Astro Electronics	November 27, 1985	STS-61-B (''Atlantis'')
''Satcom K3''	GE Astro Space	March 2 1991	Ariane 44LP	Sold during construction to SES
''Satcom K4''	GE Astro Space	June 9, 1992	Atlas 2	Sold during construction to Intelsat

Sources

★ http://www.astronautix.com/project/satcom.htm

★ http://www.skyrocket.de/space/doc_sdat/satcom-1.htm