The History Of Satellites Explained

Ever since humanity first began to theorize about the nature of space and our planet's place within it we have dreamed of placing objects in the heavens looping the planet, even when we believed it incorrectly to be the center of the Universe. Around 1610, German astronomer Johannes Kepler first used the term "satellite" —  a Latin word meaning "one who escorts or follows after an important person"  —  to describe the moons orbiting Jupiter.

Kepler's laws of motion would, alongside Newton's laws developed towards the end of the 1600s, become a crucial element of placing satellites in orbit and keeping them there. Before satellites became a scientific reality, they were immortalized in science fiction, first depicted in The Brick Moon by Edward Everett Hale in 1869, and ten years later in Jules Verne's The Begum's Fortune.

By the early twentieth century, scientists would begin to calculate possible stable orbits around Earth and even begin to design space stations that could occupy such orbits. Other notables like Arthur C. Clarke would also plant the seed of geostationary satellites that could communicate around the world and broadcast radio or television shows. Finally, before the sixth decade of the 20th century rolled around, the first satellite would enter orbit, marking the moment a scientific dream became a reality.

But, could those pioneers even guess how ubiquitous and important satellites would become?

The first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome at Tyuratam, Kazakhstan  —  which was at the time part of the Soviet Union  —  on October 4, 1957.

The Russian satellite  —  with a name that means "companion"  —  was the first in a series of four satellites launched as part of the Sputnik program. An aluminum sphere with a diameter of 58 centimeters, Sputnik 1 had four whip-like antennas between 2.4 meters and 2.9 meters long, which almost resembled "whiskers" from one side of the craft.

One of the main roles of Sputnik 1 was to collect data regarding the density of the upper layers of the atmosphere and how radio signals travel through the ionosphere  —  the ionized part of Earth's upper atmosphere.

The craft was capable of detecting meteoroids but failed to spot any in the three weeks of operation before its satellite transmitters stopped operations after its onboard chemical batteries failed.

After completing around 1,400 orbits of Earth over 92 days, Sputnik 1 dropped out of orbit from an altitude of around 600 miles above the planet, breaking apart during its descent.

In November 1957, Russia launched Sputnik 2 carrying Laika  —  a stray dog found on the streets of Moscow  —  who would become the first living thing to journey to space. The dog died in orbit after just a few hours, not considered a failure as there were no plans to recover her.

Sputnik 3 would launch in May 1958, carrying 12 instruments into the upper atmosphere. This was originally planned for the first Sputnik mission, but its size and complexity delayed its launch and led to the launch of the simpler Sputnik 1 first.

Like Sputnik 1, Explorer 1 set the stage for more satellite missions, with great success after initial setbacks. On March 5, 1958, an attempt was made to launch Explorer 2 into orbit, but the fourth stage of the Jupiter C rocket carrying it failed to ignite leading to the mission being scrubbed. And while Explorer 3 and 4 would also launch successfully, in March and July of 1958, respectively, Explorer 5 would also fail after the rocket's booster collided with its second stage.

The Explorer series of missions would become the longest-running series of spacecraft going on to consist of 73 satellites launched over a period of about 15 years. Of these, only four would fail and five would go on to operate for over ten years, with the longest-serving Explorer craft, IMP 8 retiring in 2001 after 28 years of operations.

The landscape of our entertainment industry would be completely different today if not for satellites, as would the way we communicate information across the globe. As mentioned above, speculation about the use of satellites to transmit information began at least a decade before the first artificial satellite had made it to orbit. It would take until 1962 for the space age of communication to begin.

On July 10 of that year, Telstar 1 developed by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), was the world's first active communications satellite to be launched. Shortly after the launch the white spherical spacecraft with an exterior covered with solar cells, linked the U.S. and France thus facilitating the first transatlantic television transmission. Unfortunately, Telstar wouldn't remain in operation for long. In November of the same year, as it launched, radiation from the Van Allen belt fried its electronics. This led to its deactivation in February of 1963.

Not all of the satellites around Earth are directed inwards at our planet. Some have their views turned outwards toward the wider Universe. The first operational space telescopes were the American Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, OAO-2 launched in 1968, and the Soviet Orion 1 ultraviolet telescope aboard space station Salyut 1 in 1971.

These weren't the first space telescopes to enter planning, however. Perhaps the most significant space telescope to date has been the Hubble Space Telescope, which was first conceived in the 1940s. It would take almost five decades to bring Hubble to launch with it finally journeying to orbit in April 1990. But, even before Hubble launched, the next significant space telescope had already entered its planning stage.

In 1974, plans began for a project called the Large Space Telescope. Launched in December 2021 and renamed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), it represents perhaps the ultimate expression of a satellite designed to observe the Universe. With its massive 6.5-meter-diameter primary mirror the JWST will see further than Hubble, observing the universe in infrared light. This will enable it to see light from galaxies in the early universe, formed 13.5 billion years ago. This will not just give researchers an idea of how the Universe has evolved over its 13.8 billion-year-old lifetime but could help solve the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. In addition to this, by studying planets outside the solar system  —  extrasolar planets or exoplanets  —  selected by another satellite, CHEOPS (CHaracterising Exoplanet Satellite), the JWST will study the atmospheres of other worlds. potentially discovering life elsewhere in the Universe.

Space X is one of the companies taking advantage of small, low-cost satellites. Using a constellation of devices, Elon Musk's company is intending to provide high-speed global internet via a system called Starlink. As of January 2022, there were over 2,000 Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit, with Space X planning to ultimately launch as many as 30,000 of the devices. The main benefits of the internet provided by Starlink are expected to be felt in rural and remote areas of the globe currently poorly serviced in terms of internet access.

Yet, not everyone is a fan of Musk's space-based internet project. In a paper published in February 2020, many astronomers pointed out that Starlink would have a significant impact on astronomical observations conducted from the surface of Earth. The impact on professional ground observations of space, the authors say, depends on the altitude and surface reflectivity of the satellites. The paper also highlights a growing concern regarding how crowded space is becoming around Earth.

Even though the skies above Earth are becoming increasingly crowded, plans for further satellite launches are not slowing, and quite the opposite. In 2022, almost 850 satellites have been launched as marked by the end of April, an increase of over 66 percent of the total amount of craft launched during the previous year. In 2022, satellites to be launched will include hundreds of Space X devices added to the growing Starlink constellation.

During the first quarter of 2022, the telecommunications company SES will launch the first three of its O3b mPOWER constellation, with the second batch launching in the second quarter of the same year. The communications constellation is expected to start operations at the end of the year using these six devices. Another space-based internet satellite  —  Viasat's ViaSat-3  —  is also expected to launch to geostationary orbit in the summer of 2022. Summer 2022 will also see the launch of the first of AST SpaceMobile's BlueWalker 3 Bluebird satellites which will provide cellular service from space.

Beyond 2022 NASA has a multitude of satellite missions planned. These include Sentinel-6B set to launch in 2025 or 2026, which will be part of a system designed to monitor global sea-level rise — an important indicator of human-caused climate change. Also monitoring Earth and global climate change will be the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NI-SAR) set to launch in 2023.