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Article: Communications Satellite Industry
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- Space Sciences
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Communications Satellite Industry
The beginning of the satellite communications era began with the publication of a paper written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1945. The paper described human-tended space stations designed to facilitate communications links for points on Earth. The key to this concept was the placement of space stations in
geosynchronous Earth orbit
(GEO), a location 35,786 kilometers (22,300 miles) above Earth. Objects in this orbit will revolve about Earth along its equatorial plane at the same rate as the planet rotates. Thus, a satellite or space station in GEO will seem fixed in the sky and will be directly above an observer at the equator. A communications satellite in ...