Telstar 301 is an American communications satellite launched in July 1983 and operated by AT&T. It was one of three

Telstar Telstar is the name of various communications satellites. The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962. It successfully relayed through space the fir ...

3 satellites, followed by

Telstar 302 Telstar 302 was a geostationary communication satellite built by Hughes, it was located at orbital position of 85 degrees west longitude and was operated by AT&T. The satellite was based on the HS-376 platform and its life expectancy was 10 years ...

in 1984 and Telstar 303 in 1985. The satellite served as the east coast home satellite for the ABC network from 1984 to 1993. The

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 Entertainmen ...

network also used the satellite from 1985 to 1993. It also served as the first home of

Fox Broadcasting Company The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

until the late 1980s. Other entities that also used the satellite included Group W, Wold/Keystone Communications (which used the satellite to feed

Paramount Television The original incarnation of Paramount Television was the name of the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, that was responsible for the production of Viacom television programs, until it changed its name ...

's syndicated output including ''

Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Para ...

'', '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', and '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine''), Compact Video,

Lorimar-Telepictures Lorimar-Telepictures Corporation was an entertainment company established in 1985 with the merger of Lorimar Productions, Inc. and Telepictures Corporation. Headquartered at the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (now Sony Pictures Studios) ...

, and

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

. The satellite was retired in 1993 and replaced by Telstar 401. As of June 2009, Telstar 301 (along with Telstar 302 and Telstar 303) was still in orbit.

References

External links

Gunter's Space Page - Telstar 301, 302, 303
Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Spacecraft launched in 1983 Satellites using the HS-376 bus Telstar satellites {{communications-satellite-stub