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The Origin and History of Satellite
Hi, Kongkowers! You have heard the term of ‘satellite’, right? But, not everyone knows how they’re formed, the definition of satellite, or what satellite’s benefits are for our life.So, let’s get to know them!
Satellite is an object in the space that rotates or orbits around another outer space object with a certain revolution period and rotation. There are two types of satellite: natural and artificial satellite.
To be able to operate, artificial satellite is launched to its orbit with the help of rocket. Developed countries, such as U.S., Russia, France, and—recently—China, have station to do this.
Now, let’s move to the origin and history of satellite. It was first launched by Soviet Union—the satellite was called as Sputnik—on October 4th, 1957. That launching was the start of Russia’s Sputnik Program and what triggered the outer space competition between Soviet and U.S.
It was said that Sputnik 1 was helpful in identifying the density of upper layer of atmosphere by measuring the change in its orbit and giving data from the distribution of radio signal at ionosphere layer.
On November 3th, 1957, Sputnik 2 was launched, bringing the first living being—a dog called Laika—inside its orbit.
On Mei 1946, U.S. launched Project RAND and thought about launching orbiting satellite under Bureau of Aeronautics of the United States Navy. The statement was made that the satellite’s vehicle had the right instrumentation, which was hoped to be sophisticated device of knowledge for 20th century.
Project RAND from U.S. Navy finally gave a report, not stating that the satellite had potential as military weapon—but as knowledge, politics, and propaganda means.
On July 29th, 1955, White House launched satellite launching project for 1958, which would be known as Project Vanguard. On July 31th, Soviet announced that they will launch satellite in the autumn of 1957.
In the beginning of 1955, U.S. Air Force and Navy did Project Orbiter and used Jupiter C vehicle to launch the satellite. This project had been a success, and Explorer 1 became the first American’s satellite on January 31th, 1958.
On June 1961, three and half years after the launch of Sputnik 1, U.S. Air Force used various facilities from United States Space Surveillance Network to catalogue 115 satellites that had been orbiting the earth at that time.
To this day, the biggest artificial satellite to orbit the earth is International Space Station.
Regards,
Kongkow Team
