Satcom, a portmanteau of

satellite communications A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. ...

, was a brand of artificial geo-stationary

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth ...

s originally developed and operated by RCA American Communications ( RCA Americom) that facilitated wide-area telecommunications by receiving radio signals from Earth, amplifying them, and relaying them back down to terrestrial receivers. Satcom was one of the early

geostationary satellites A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitude ...

; the first were the Syncom series, in 1964. The first Satcom satellite, Satcom 1, was launched on 13 December 1975. The last satellite, Satcom K2, was placed into orbit on 27 November 1985 and was de-orbited in February 2002. Satcom was first superseded and then replaced by the GE series of satellites. The Satcom system passed to

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

with its purchase of

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

in 1986. RCA Americom became GE American Communications (GE Americom) and the satellite construction division became GE Astro Space. GE Astro Space was sold to Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin Space Systems) in 1993. In 2001, GE sold GE Americom to SES Global, creating

SES Americom SES Americom was a major commercial satellite operator of North American geosynchronous satellites based in the United States. The company started as RCA Americom in 1975 before being bought by General Electric in 1986 and then later acquired b ...

History

Most early commercial communications satellites were built for and operated by telecommunications companies. RCA, with its own

RCA Astro Electronics Lockheed Martin Space is one of the four major business divisions of Lockheed Martin. It has its headquarters in Littleton, Colorado, with additional sites in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania; Sunnyvale, California; Santa Cruz, California; Huntsville ...

satellite construction business, identified a role for itself as a satellite owner/operator. Satcom 1 was used as the launching ground for many cable TV services including HBO, Showtime, Superstation TBS,

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

, the CBN cable network (now Freeform),

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

, and

The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather foreca ...

. The satellite spurred the cable television industry to unprecedented heights with the assistance of HBO (who moved their programming from the competing

Westar 1 Westar 1 was America's first domestic and commercially launched geostationary communications satellite, launched by Western Union (WU) and NASA on April 13, 1974. It was built by Hughes for Western Union, using the HS-333 platform of spin-s ...

, where they had been since their nationwide debut in 1975, to Satcom 1 in February 1976). Cable television networks relay signals to ground-based

cable television headend A cable television headend is a master facility for receiving television signals for processing and distribution over a cable television system. A headend facility may be staffed or unstaffed and is typically surrounded by some type of security ...

s using satellites, which allowed cable TV to enter into the suburban and metropolitan markets, thus allowing HBO to accumulate 1.6 million subscribers by the end of 1977. A notable legal battle involved

Ted Turner Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he fo ...

suing RCA to get a Satcom 1 transponder in 1980 for the launch of

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

on 1 June 1980. CNN had been scheduled for a Satcom 3 transponder but that satellite failed to reach geosynchronous orbit upon its launch on 7 December 1979. Shortly after its launch, Satcom 1 was the first satellite used by broadcast TV networks in the United States. The networks ABC,

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

distributed their programming content to some local affiliate stations, which had before relied on

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile te ...

's terrestrial microwave and coaxial networks to distribute and relay programming (although NBC used it on an experimental basis for this purpose in the late 1970s). The networks fed to both Satcom 1 and AT&T's network at the same time (for the benefit of those stations who hadn't yet been equipped with

Earth station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fr ...

equipment for reception of the satellite) up until the

breakup of AT&T The breakup of the Bell System was mandated on January 8, 1982, by an agreed consent decree providing that AT&T Corporation would, as had been initially proposed by AT&T, relinquish control of the Bell Operating Companies, which had provided loc ...

in 1984, when the networks switched exclusively to satellite distribution on Satcom 1 (and later satellites), due to the much lower transmission costs, as well as due to AT&T's divestiture itself. The reason that Satcom 1 was so widely used by both cable and broadcast TV networks is that it had twice the communications capacity of the competing

(24 transponders as opposed to Westar 1's 12), which resulted in lower transponder usage costs in general.

Satellite fleet

All the remaining Satcom satellites were retired in the early 2000s and replaced by the GE/AMC series, originally by GE Americom, then sold to

SES SES, S.E.S., Ses and similar variants can refere to: Business and economics * Socioeconomic status * Scottish Economic Society, a learned society in Scotland * SES, callsign of the TV station SES/RTS (Mount Gambier, South Australia) * SES S.A., ...

. {, class="wikitable" , - !Model !Manufacturer !Launch date !Launch vehicle ! COSPAR ID !Comments , - , Satcom 1 , RCA Astro Electronics , 12 December 1975 ,

Delta 3000 The Delta 3000 series was an American expendable launch system which was used to conduct 38 orbital launches between 1975 and 1989. It was a member of the Delta family of rockets. Several variants existed, which were differentiated by a four ...

, , , - , Satcom 2 , RCA Astro Electronics , 26 March 1976 , Delta 3000 , , , - , Satcom 3 , RCA Astro Electronics , 7 December 1979 , Delta 3000 , , Failure during GTO (currently in non-geosynchronous orbit) , - , Satcom 1R , RCA Astro Electronics , 11 April 1983 , Delta 3000 , , Replaced Satcom 1 , - , Satcom 2R , RCA Astro Electronics , 8 September 1983 , Delta 3000 , , Replaced Satcom 2 , - , Satcom 3R , RCA Astro Electronics , 20 November 1981 , Delta 3000 , , Replaced Satcom 3 , - , Satcom 4 , RCA Astro Electronics , 16 January 1982 , Delta 3000 , , , - , Satcom 5 , RCA Astro Electronics , 28 October 1982 , Delta 3000 , , Also called Aurora 1, still on 105.2'W (200

, - , Satcom 4R , Boeing Satellite Systems, Hughes , 8 November 1984 , STS-51-A ('' Discovery'') , , Launched as Anik D2, purchased in orbit , - , Satcom C1 , GE Astro Space , 20 November 1990 , Ariane 42P , , Replaced Satcom 1R , - , Satcom C3 , GE Astro Space , 11 September 1992 , Ariane 44LP , , , - , Satcom C4 , GE Astro Space , 31 August 1992 ,

Delta II Delta II was an expendable launch system, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas. Delta II was part of the Delta rocket family and entered service in 1989. Delta II vehicles included the Delta 6000, and the two later Delta 7000 ...

(7925) , , , - , Satcom C5 , GE Astro Space , 29 May 1991 , Delta II (7925) , , Originally called Aurora 2, replaced Aurora 1 / Satcom 5 , - , Satcom K1 , RCA Astro Electronics , 12 January 1986 , STS 61C (''Space Shuttle Columbia, Columbia'') , , U.S. Strat. Com.: 16482 , GEO Columbarium , - , Satcom K2 , RCA Astro Electronics , 27 November 1985 ,

STS-61-B STS-61-B was NASA's 23rd Space Shuttle mission, and its second using Space Shuttle ''Atlantis''. The shuttle was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on November 26, 1985. During STS-61-B, the shuttle crew deployed three communications ...

(''

Atlantis Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and '' Critias'', wherein it represents the antagonist naval power that b ...

'') , , , - , Satcom K3 , GE Astro Space , 2 March 1991 , Ariane 44LP , , Sold during construction to

; launched as

Astra 1B Astra 1B was the second of the Astra communications satellites launched and operated by SES (Société Européenne des Satellites) to add extra capacity to the satellite television (direct broadcasting) services from 19.2° East, serving Germ ...

, - , Satcom K4 , GE Astro Space , 10 June 1992 ,

Atlas II Atlas II was a member of the Atlas family of launch vehicles, which evolved from the successful Atlas missile program of the 1950s. The Atlas II was a direct evolution of the Atlas I, featuring longer first stage tanks, higher-performing engine ...

, {{cospar, 1992-032A , Sold during construction to Intelsat, launched as Intelsat K

External links

Astronautix

Satellite Communications, 3rd Edition

What is SwiftBroadband
Communications satellites RCA brands