Dec 12 1975
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(New page: Satcom 1, first of three domestic communications satellites to be placed in geostationary orbit around the equator for RCA Corp. to transmit long-distance telephone calls and service d...)
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Satcom 1, first of three domestic communications satellites to be placed in geostationary orbit around the equator for RCA Corp. to transmit long-distance telephone calls and service data, had been launched at 8:56 pin EST from Cape Canaveral on a Delta vehicle into a parking orbit with 35 980-km apogee and 182-km perigee. A kick motor was to be fired at 5:41 pin EST 15 Dec. to put the satellite into a synchronous orbit. The RCA Satcom was the second domestic communications satellite to be launched by communications companies; the Western Union Corporation's Westar system became operational earlier this year. Each Satcom would receive and transmit data on 24 channels. Westar-a two-satellite system-had only 12 message channels per satellite. Each Satcom channel was built to transmit 1000 telephone calls at a time, or one color TV channel, or 64 million bits per sec of computer data. Satcom 1 would be stationed at 119°W, and the two subsequent Satcoms would be located at 99°W and 129°W over the equator to handle television, voice channels, and high-speed data between the contiguous U.S., Hawaii, and Alaska. (NASA Release 75-302; NYT, 13 Dec 75, 37; SBD, 16 Dec 75, 242; KSC Releases 289-75, 295-75)
NASA marked the 10th year in space of Pioneer 6, launched 16 Dec. 1965 to make the first detailed measurements of the interplanetary medium, some spanning more than 805 million km. Pioneer 6 had measured the sun's corona, returned data on solar storms from the invisible side of the sun, and measured the tail of Comet Kohoutek, during what was believed to be the longest operating life yet attained by an interplanetary spacecraft; it had also helped to chart the solar wind, solar cosmic rays, and the solar magnetic field, all of which extend far beyond the orbit of Jupiter. Pioneer 6, and three sister craft-Pioneers 7, 8, and 9-all years beyond their 6-mo design lives, had constituted a network of solar weather stations that circle the sun in locations millions of kilometers apart. Two younger craft Pioneer 10 and 11-had flown past Jupiter in 1972 and 1973 and were headed for the outer reaches of the solar system. (NASA Release 75311; ARC Release 75-65)
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