Satellite TV Secrets Unveiled: From Space-Age Origins to the Future of Television
Telstar 1 (NASA) transmitted the first live television signals via satellite in 1962, linking Europe and North America. Syncom 2 became the first geosynchronous satellite in 1963, and Syncom 3 in 1964 broadcast the Tokyo Olympics to the United States. Intelsat I (Early Bird) was launched in 1965 as the world’s first commercial communications satellite carrying regular transoceanic TV service. Astra 1A, launched in 1988, used Ku-band to enable small 90 cm dishes and sparked a European satellite TV boom. In 1979 the FCC ruled that anyone could install a home satellite earth station without a federal license, accelerating consumer