Page 55 - Communication Commerce and Power The Political Economy of America and the Direct Broadcast Satellite

Telesatellite Policy and DBS, 1962-1984 43

their development of space-related technologies. One funding recipi-
10
ent was Hughes Aircraft. As with AT&T and the Radio Corporation
of America (RCA), Hughes submitted proposals for research con-
tracts involving the development of telesatellites in 1959 and 1960.
In 1961, NASA announced its partnership with AT&T in the devel-
opment of the Telstar series of experimental satellites, beginning with
the launch of Telstar I in July 1962. 11 RCA, with NASA, developed
and placed into orbit the Relay satellite series beginning in December
of that same year. 12 Both Telstar and Relay were elliptical orbit
systems. Because these satellites circled the earth approximately once
every 2-hours and 40-minutes, a large number of vehicles had to be
launched so that at least one could maintain contact with two earth
stations at any given time. Moreover, because of their ongoing move-
ment in relation to a fixed point on earth, large and expensive tracking
equipment had to be used to maintain ground-station to satellite
communications.
These and related weaknesses of elliptical systems provided Hughes
with an opportunity to develop what was, in the early 1960s, the
purely theoretical idea of placing a satellite in a geostationary orbit
(GSO). In contrast to elliptical systems, a satellite in a GSO would
maintain a fixed position in relation to a location on earth. In 1961,
the DoD had conducted a series of failed laboratory GSO tests called
the Advent program. Apparently because these failures suggested to
NASA officials that a GSO system was, at best, a long-term proposi-
tion, Hughes failed to generate the same large-scale support for its
funding proposals as had the proponents of elliptical systems. But
beyond the theoretical nature of the GSO, AT&T initially opposed its
development due to the inherent conflicts that such a system posed for
established common carrier interests.
Hughes research into the technological feasibility of a GSO system
began in 1959. In February 1962, Hughes laboratory experiments
encouraged NASA to pay for the construction of a small synchronous
satellite that could be launched using contemporary rocket techno-
logies. The DoD shared in the research information generated by
13
this experiment in exchange for the use of its international ground-
station facilities. 14 In February 1963, the world's first GSO satellite,
called Syncom, was launched. The third Syncom satellite, Syncom III,
was placed into orbit not coincidentally in time to transmit television
signals from the Tokyo Olympic Games to the United States.
Almost a year prior to the launch of Syncom I, Hughes Vice
President Allen E. Pucket explained to a Senate subcommittee that