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April 7, 2008 – Hughes announced the activation of its first HughesNet consumer broadband Internet subscriber on its SPACEWAY 3 Ka-band satellite, launched in August 2007. SPACEWAY 3 employs high-performance, […]

July 10, 1962: The launch of Telstar 1, developed by a Bell Laboratories team led by Dr. John Pierce and funded by AT&T, marked the beginning of the commercial satellite […]

November 8 – November 16, 1984: Westar 6 and Palapa B2 became the first satellites to be retrieved from space and repaired by the Space Shuttle Discovery’s mission STS 51-A. […]

April 9, 2003: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, General Motors and Hughes Electronics reached agreement on a deal through which News Corp. would acquire a 34% stake in Hughes (20% owned […]

April 14, 2008 – ICO Global Communications celebrated the successful launch of its new North American geosynchronous satellite, ICO G1. With a total mass of 6,634kg, ICO G1 was the […]

August 19, 1964: A Hughes Aircraft team led by Dr. Harold Rosen launched Syncom 3, the first geostationary satellite. Prior to this success, Syncom 1 malfunctioned on the way to […]

June 15, 1988: PanAmSat successfully launched PAS 1 into orbit, completing one of the most amazing business exploits in satellite history. Founded by Rene Anselmo, PanAmSat applied for FCC permission […]

May 13, 2003: The launch of Hellas-Sat 2 aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket put Cyprus’s first satellite into GEO orbit. It was owned by the Hellas Sat Consortium, […]

April 18, 2008 – Vietnam’s first telecommunications satellite, Vinasat-1, was successful placed into orbit by an Ariane rocket. The satellite, which will be operated by Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group, […]

August 20, 1964: The Interim Agreement to form the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (later designated as Intelsat) was signed by 15 signatories from 15 countries, with 11 of these entities […]

April 7, 1990: The launch of AsiaSat 1 marked the first time in history a satellite was returned to orbit. Built by Hughes for Western Union and originally named Westar […]

September 27, 2003: Nigeria became the latest nation with its own satellite when Nigeriasat1, a smallsat developed in cooperation with the UK’s Surrey Space Centre, was placed in low Earth […]

July 29, 2008 – The longest-running merger proposal in history came to a close when XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio became one company named Sirius XM Satellite Radio. […]

April 6, 1965: Intelsat I (nicknamed Early Bird) became the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit. Built by Hughes Aircraft for COMSAT and modeled on the […]

June, 1994: Hughes Electronics and United States Satellite Broadcasting introduced DirecTV, the first US all-digital direct-to-home TV service. It was carried on the high-powered DBS-1 satellite, launched in 1993 with […]

May 17, 2004: Boeing introduced Connexion by Boeing, providing in-flight connectivity for broadband Internet via satellite. Lufthansa was the first airline to contract for the service, for which Boeing installed […]

September 28, 2008 – The Falcon 1 rocket’s fourth launch was the first success for Space Exploration Technology Corp. (SpaceX), and marked the entrance of the first privately funded, liquid-fuelled […]

July 20, 1969: The first landing on the moon by Apollo 11 was broadcast “”live via satellite”” to a global audience over Intelsat satellites. Intelsat also provided communications support for […]

August 3, 1995: With the successful launch of PAS 4 aboard an Ariane 4 launcher, PanAmSat became the first private satellite company to achieve global coverage. The Hughes-built HS-601 satellite […]

August 20, 2004: An investment group including Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts, the Carlyle Group and Providence Equity Partners purchased PanAmSat from the News Corporation’s DirecTV Group for $2.6 billion in cash. […]

December 1, 2008 – China launched a new remote sensing satellite aboard a Chinese CZ-2D Chang Zheng 2D launch vehicle. The satellite was developed by the China Academy of Space […]

April 24, 1970: Dong Fang Hong 1, also known as China 1, was launched aboard China’s Long March 1 rocket as part of the PRC’s Dong Fang Hong (“”The East […]

January 13, 1996: The launch of Measat 1, built by Boeing and launched on an Ariane 4 rocket, put Malaysia’s first satellite into orbit. The Boeing 376 spacecraft weighed 1.6 […]

August 29, 2005: Intelsat and PanAmSat announced that the two companies would merge in a $6.4 billion deal that would create the world’s largest satellite carrier with 51 spacecraft in […]

February 10, 2009 – An Iridium satellite and a Russian Cosmos satellite collided in the first-ever satellite crash. According to the U.S. Strategic Command’s Space Surveillance Network, the collision left […]

June 7-July 17, 1971: The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) convened the World Administrative Radio Conference for Space Telecommunications (WARC-ST) and determined the frequency allocations for Broadcast Satellite Services (BSS) Click […]

August 19, 1997: The launch of Agila 2 added the Philippines to the list of satellite nations. Designed and built by Space Systems/Loral for the Mabuhay Philippines Satellite Corporation, Agila […]

June 18, 2006: Kazakhstan became the 44th satellite nation when a Russian Proton-K-DM3 launcher put Kazsat 1 into GEO orbit. The 1.5-ton (1380kg) satellite, built by GKNPT Krunichev, carried 12 […]

August 21, 1971: The final treaty for the creation of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO) was signed by 11 national governments, creating the predecessor organization to today’s Intelsat Click […]

March 31, 1998: The 22nd meeting of the Intelsat Assembly of Parties unanimously approved the creation of a private, independent spin-off company, New Skies Satellites, to be based in The […]