Lyndon B. Johnson could
be dubbed the father of satellite communication. Although,
John F. Kennedy was the man behind space exploration, it was
President Johnson, who encouraged the launching of reconnaissance
satellites. Through these first deployments, a new age was
born. The existence of satellite technology was proved in
1948.
Remarkably, a paper on the subject was released
three years previously by a far thinking British officer,
Arthur C. Clark. He wrote a paper explaining his theory of
transmitting television signals via satellite, now that’s
foresight! Of course his paper was ignored, and undoubtedly
many of his colleagues thought of something of a crackpot.
I’m sure Mr. Clark received the last
laugh on this one. In 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik
I, the first satellite successfully launched into space. A
new age had begun. Today, people all over the world are linked
by satellite, whether by television, the Internet, or cellular
phones. |
