In article ,
"John Keeney" writes:

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...

"John Keeney" wrote in message
...

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
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"John Keeney" wrote in message
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and why satellites deserve that description,
even if only in relative terms.

Out side a spurt in the first decade or so of space flight there has
been precious little expansion of human activities dependent on it.

You have to be kidding.

If you turn on the TV news the pictures from abroad came via satellite

If you make an international call the chances are that goes via
satellite

When you listen to the weather report that are based in large part
on satellite data

All having their origins in the 60s.

1957 actually

That would be for Sputnik, right? Not those applications of space flight.
If you're chartiable you could call Echo the first communiocations sat
and it wasn't launched until 1960; Telstar in '62(?). Am I missing any
earlier com sats?

Yes. Luna, in 1947. (Naval Observatory-Pearl Harbor.
Luna was also the first U.S. Elint Satellite, used in the mid 1950s
to map the Soviet's network of Tall King search radars.
(Nobody said that the satellite had to be _artificial_, did they?)

Were there any weather sats before ATS-1 at the tale end of '66?

TIROS, in 1960, to start off.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster