Commercialization of Space

The commercial use of outer space centers around the commercial applications of satellite technology, along with a growing space tourism industry. The exploration of space began with communications satellites—Sputnik, the Soviet satellite launched in 1957, was equipped with radio transmitters, as was the American satellite that followed the next year—and they remain the primary focus of commercialized outer space. The first true communications satellite, Telstar, was launched in 1962 and was used to transmit telephone and data communications. The satellite was launched by a multinational group consisting of NASA, the British General Post Office, the French National Post, Telephone and Telecom Office, Bell Labs, and AT&T, which owned the satellite. It was built at Bell Labs, which earned a NASA contract for work on further satellites.

Telstar orbited the Earth on an elliptical orbit, requiring a ground antenna to track its movements and relay its signals. Today's satellites are geosynchronous (also called geostationary), meaning that their position relative to any spot on the Earth is constant: The satellite, once positioned, orbits at the same speed as the rotation of the Earth. This allows an antenna to be directed at it without needing to track it, which in turn allows for applications that are impractical with elliptical orbit satellites, including consumer satellite dishes (for satellite TV). The first geosynchronous satellite was Syncom 3, used for the first television transmission over the Pacific when the 1964 Summer Olympics were held in Tokyo.

As geosynchronous satellites became more common, and improved in their designs, they helped with the spread of cable television. Early nonbroadcast networks like HBO, the Weather Channel, and Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network used geosynch satellites to transmit their programming to local cable companies for distribution. Broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) likewise used them to distribute to local affiliates.

Less expensive than geosynchronous satellites are low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites. Because their position relative to the Earth changes so rapidly, LEO satellites are useful only when there are a lot of them working in concert, in what are called satellite con-stellations—so that at any given time, one or more of them is accessible from any given spot in the relevant area. This is a more recent approach to satellite technology, and usually used for satellite phones. The Iridium satellite constellation—originally intended to have 77 satellites, and named for the element with the atomic number 77—uses 66 satellites to transfer data to all points of the globe (including the poles and the oceans, where coverage by other means is impossible). Iridium's financial failure, though, discouraged further development of satellite phones and their associated constellations; one of the problems was that the system's benefits (global coverage) could not be seen by customers until the entire system was in place, a hugely expensive venture, which in turn meant a significant price for customers. Both the price and the phone were heftier than customers were used to, at a time when traditional cellular phones were lightening both loads. Less than a year after its 1998 launch, Iridium filed chapter 11. The shriveling of the satellite phone industry is well-illustrated by Teledesic, backed by Microsoft co-owner Paul Allen. Teledesic was supposed to have 840 satellites in orbit, scaled [Page 294]back to 277 satellites because of decreasing projected demand, and only launched one satellite before folding operations.

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