This short 1963 educational film from Film Associates of California gives viewers an overview of the role satellites play in relaying information across the world, specifically showing how the early satellite developments—focusing on the Echo, Telstar, and Syncom satellites—make it possible for the fast and continuous transmitting of communication signals across the planet. The film opens with a shot of a satellite moving in space and the first television broadcast ever relayed through space via a Telstar satellite (monitors show the American flag, presumably from Andover Earth Station in Maryland). Animation and illustrations are used to show a satellite orbiting Earth, how straight-line signals are sent over the curve of the earth (01:55), and radio signals radiating from a radio tower. The film shows viewers a diagram of the ionosphere and radio signals bouncing off the ionosphere. Several men produce a television show in a broadcast room (03:48). Echo, a shiny reflector balloon satellite, sits in a hanger (05:24). Footage shows Echo being launched on Thor-Delta rocket into space. Viewers see the balloon as it is released and inflated in space. Two men work on a Telstar satellite (06:54). Animation shows how satellites orbit the earth and transmit signals without interruption. Viewers see a diagram of a low-altitude and a high-altitude satellite orbiting Earth. A high-altitude satellite called Syncom is worked on in a lab (10:00). Animation shows how the Echo, Telstar, and Syncom satellites relay information on Earth, concluding the film.
Project Echo was the first passive communications satellite experiment. Each of the two American spacecraft, launched in 1960 and 1964, was a metalized balloon satellite acting as a passive reflector of microwave signals. Communication signals were bounced off them from one point on Earth to another. NASA’s Echo 1 satellite was built by Gilmore Schjeldahl’s G.T. Schjeldahl Company in Northfield, Minnesota. The balloon satellite functioned as a reflector, not a transceiver, so after it was placed in a low Earth orbit a signal could be sent to it, reflected by its surface, and returned to Earth. During ground inflation tests, 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) of air were needed to fill the balloon, but while in orbit, several pounds of gas were all that was required to fill the sphere. At launch the balloon weighed 156.995 pounds (71.212 kg) which included 33.34 pounds (15.12 kg) of sublimating powders of two types. The first weighing 10 pounds (4.5 kg) with a very high vapor pressure, the second with a much lower vapor pressure. According to NASA, “To keep the sphere inflated in spite of meteorite punctures and skin permeability, a make-up gas system using evaporating liquid or crystals of a subliming solid were incorporated inside the satellite.”
Telstar is the name of various communications satellites. The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962. It successfully relayed through space the first television pictures, telephone calls, and telegraph images, and provided the first live transatlantic television feed. Telstar 2 launched May 7, 1963. Telstar 1 and 2—though no longer functional—still orbit the Earth.
Syncom (for “synchronous communication satellite”) started as a 1961 NASA program for active geosynchronous communication satellites, all of which were developed and manufactured by Hughes Space and Communications. Syncom 2, launched in 1963, was the world’s first geosynchronous communications satellite. Syncom 3, launched in 1964, was the world’s first geostationary satellite. In the 1980s, the series was continued as Syncom IV with some much larger satellites, also manufactured by Hughes. They were leased to the United States military under the Leasat program.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
