"... In the long run... the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative."
Arthur C. Clarke, novelist and writer
In 1945, in an article entitled "Extra-Terrestrial Relays," British novelist Arthur C. Clarke described a way to bounce information off orbiting satellites so one side of the earth could communicate with the other almost instantly. Although the idea had been put forward previously by the Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, it was Clarke's detailed description that caught the attention of Harold Rosen of Hughes Aircraft Corporation. In 1961 the project, called the SyJichronou.s Communications Satellite program (or Syncom), was given funding to make it happen.
A mere seventeen months later the satellite Syncom I was launched, but it stopped sending signals before it reached orbit. Syncom II, which followed in 1963, achieved a geosynchronous orbit (it traveled at an Inclined angle, so was not stationary above one spot) but nevertheless proved the concept with a two-way satellite call between President Kennedy in the United States and Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa in Nigeria. Syncom III finally achieved a true geostationary orbit in 1964 and transmitted live television coverage of the Tokyo Olympic Games to North America and Europe.
Today, due to the proliferation of satellite-building worldwide, establishing a satellite in geostationary orbit is not simply a matter of launching spacecraft as required. Satellites traveling at the same speed as 'Earth in geostationary orbit must all occupy a single ring 22,300 miles (35,800 km) above the equator. The satellites have to be spaced apart, so the number in geostationary orbit is naturally restricted. Those countries wishing to maintain satellites in the skies above their longitude, as well as those wanting to control airspace above the equator, are governed by an international allocation mechanism.
