Early active and passive satellite experiments
There are two major classes of communications satellites, passive and active. Passive
satellites only reflect the signal coming from the source, toward the direction of the
receiver. With passive satellites, the reflected signal is not amplified at the satellite, and
only a small amount of the transmitted energy actually reaches the receiver. Since the
satellite is so far above Earth, the radio signal is attenuated due to free-space path loss,
so the signal received on Earth is very weak. Active satellites, on the other hand, amplify
the received signal before retransmitting it to the receiver on the ground.[3] Passive
satellites were the first communications satellites, but are little used now.
Work that was begun in the field of electrical intelligence gathering at the United States
Naval Research Laboratory in 1951 led to a project named Communication Moon Relay.
Military planners had long shown considerable interest in secure and reliable
communications lines as a tactical necessity, and the ultimate goal of this project was
the creation of the longest communications circuit in human history, with the Moon,
Earth's natural satellite, acting as a passive relay. After achieving the first transoceanic
communication between Washington, D.C., and Hawaii on 23 January 1956, this system
was publicly inaugurated and put into formal production in January 1960.[8]
The Atlas-B with SCORE on the launch pad; the rocket
(without booster engines) constituted the satellite.
The first satellite purpose-built to actively relay communications was Project SCORE,
led by Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and launched on 18 December 1958,
which used a tape recorder to carry a stored voice message, as well as to receive, store,
and retransmit messages. It was used to send a Christmas greeting to the world from
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The satellite also executed several realtime
transmissions before the non-rechargeable batteries failed on 30 December 1958 after
eight hours of actual operation.[9][10]
The direct successor to SCORE was another ARPA-led project called Courier. Courier 1B
was launched on 4 October 1960 to explore whether it would be possible to establish a
global military communications network by using "delayed repeater" satellites, which
