Introduction

Space Vehicles and Missiles

Dr. Julio Gallegos Alvarado

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What is a satellite?
In general a satellite is any natural or
artificial body which moves around
a celestial body, like a star or
planet.
For the purpose of this course, we will
focus on artificial satellites, inserted
into specific orbits with different
applications payloads.
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Where does the idea

come from?
It all started with Arthur C. Clarke and
his article for Wireless World
Magazine written in 1945.

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V2 Rocket and its versions

Pacific use after war: upper atmosphere USA:

rocket A4, May 1946, 114 km
URSS: rocket V2A, 1949, 212 km, payload 860
kg.

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First satellites: URSS

Sputnik 1, Octuber 1957

Elliptic orbit 227x941 km inclination 65.1, 96 min

Sputnik 2 (Laika), November 1957

Elliptic orbit 212x1660 km inclination 65.33

Sputnik 3, May 1958

Elliptic orbit 217x1864 km inclination 65.18

From Baikonur Cosmodrome

Rocket Soviet R7 ICBM

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First satellites: USA

Explorer-1, January 1958

Elliptic orbit 360x2534 km inclination 33.24
Van Allen belts

Vanguard-1, February 1958; Explorer-2, March

1958; failed
Vanguard-1 (TV-4) with solar cells.
Elliptic orbit 404x2465 km inclination 34.25

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New uses
Biological effects of orbital flights: Sputnik-5 y Sputnik-6

Weather: TIROS-1
Navigation: Transit-1B
Surveillance: MIDAS-2
Communications: ECHO-1 (pasive), Courier1B (active)

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New uses

Non geosynchronous satellites for

communications:
Telstar-1 (AT&T), July 1962 (952x5632 km@44.79)
Relay-1 (NASA), December 1962 (1322x7439 km@47.49)
Telstar-2, May 1963. radiation effects

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Geosynchronous Satellites

Arthur C. Clarke idea turns reallity.

SYNCOM-1 (Hughes Aircraft
Company), February 1963 (failed)
SYNCOM-2, July 1963
SYNCOM-3, Agust 1964
Intelsat-1, June 1965, first
commercial communications satellite,
240 circuits between USA and
Europe.

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Geosynchronous Satellites

URSS: Molniya-1, April 1965, orbit 500x40000

km@65; known as Molniya orbit. A
constellation of three satellites provide 24 hours
uninterrupted communications
Molniya-2 constellation in 1971
Molniya-3 constellation in 1974

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Satellite Systems for International

Intelsat-3, Global communications, 1968.

Directional Antenna
Intelsat-4, frequency reutilization (1971)
Intelsat-5, frequency reutilization with
polarization discrimination (1980), C and Ku
bands Intelsat-6, -7, -9 (80s y 90s)
Intelsat-9 y -10
URSS (Russia): Statsionar-1 (Raduga),
Statsionar-T (Ekran) and Horizon (Gorizont)

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Domestic Satellites

Molniya for the URSS

Webstar, Satcom & Comstar for USA
ECS and later Eutelsat for Europe
Palapa for Indonesia
India (INSAT), China, Saudi Arabia (Arabsat),
Brasil, Mexico y Japan.
Hispasat (Spain)

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Other uses:

Weather
Earth Observation
Navigation
Millitary satellites
Astronomy and other scientific applications

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