The First Television and Telephone Satellite Launched 50 Years Ago

via gizmodo.com

On July 10th, 1962, NASA launched the first Telstar satellite. The spherical satellite—which actually looks like a model of the Death Star—was the first to relay television and telephone signals through space.

In fact, just two days after launch on July 12, 1962, the satellite transmitted a television signal across the Atlantic Ocean from Andover Earth Station in Maine to the Pleumeur-Bodou Telecom Center in Brittany, France. According to the excellent history at Telstar50.org, the first images from the United States were of President John F. Kennedy and the first beamed over from France were of singer Yves Montand, along with clips of sporting events. Telstar 1 was also responsible for the first telephone calls—some 400 of them—sent through space.

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Man Escapes Death As Satellite Fragment Crashes Through His Roof

via gizmodo.com

Andrei Krivorukov got a wonderful Christmas gift: his very own life. He saved it after a titanium ball from a Russian communication satellite crashed right into his house, escaping death by just a few feet.

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Are These Satellite Images Exposing America's Secrets?

via news.discovery.com

Google may be compromising national security -- all in the name of better mapping technology.

At Google Maps, anyone can search for the names of military bases and zoom in to see airstrips and possibly even top-secret military drones like the RQ-170 Sentinel lost in Iran last week. Aviation website Flight Global has done just that, and claims to have found the secret airstrip at Yucca Lake, Nev., used for testing the RQ-170.

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China: Don't blame us for U.S. satellite hacks

via news.cnet.com

Speaking at a news briefing today, China Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said claims that China was behind the hacks, which occurred in 2007 and 2008, are "untrue." The spokesman added, according to Reuters, which attended the briefing, that China is "also a victim of hacking attacks and will oppose any form of cybercrime, including hacking."

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China denies reports it hacked into U.S. satellites

via theglobeandmail.com

Beijing on Monday denied a U.S commission’s claim that China may have been responsible for hacking incidents on U.S. environment-monitoring satellites, saying that the committee had “ulterior motives” in writing such a draft report.

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China key suspect in U.S. satellite hacks

via msnbc.msn.com

At least two U.S. environment-monitoring satellites were interfered with four or more times in 2007 and 2008 via a ground station in Norway, and China's military is a prime suspect, a draft report to Congress said.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which reported the interference, said the events had not actually been traced to China. It said it was citing them "because the techniques appear consistent with authoritative Chinese military writings" that have advocated disabling satellite control facilities in any conflict.

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Another Dead Satellite Is Blindly Plummeting to Earth

via gizmodo.com

So apparently dead satellites blithely falling from the sky is a thing now. After last week's UARS debacle, the now-defunct German Roentgen Satellite (ROSAT) is scheduled to crash to Earth in late October or early November.

The ROSAT was originally an X-Ray observatory developed by Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom and launched in 1990. Its design life was 18 months, but it functioned fully through 1994, and was only shut down for good in 1999. And now it's coming to kill us all.

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Satellite falling to earth: 1 in 3,200 chance NASA UARS will hit a person

via dailymail.co.uk

AN out-of-control satellite plummeting to Earth at 18,000mph could land almost anywhere this evening – including Britain, Nasa warned last night.
The craft, which is the size of a bus, will break up on entering Earth’s atmosphere, flinging huge chunks of metal weighing up to 350lb across hundreds of miles.
NASA said it will only know two hours before impact where it will land – and even that prediction will only be accurate to the nearest 6,000 miles. It could be anywhere between the 57th parallel north, which crosses Britain at around Inverness, and the 57th parallel south, which passes just below South America.

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Must See Video: Falling NASA UARS Satellite Observed While Still in Orbit

via universetoday.com

The huge Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) will be plummeting to Earth in an uncontrolled re-entry this week, but here’s an incredible video from astrophotographer extraordinaire Thierry Legault who shot footage of UARS with his 14-inch telescope. Legault was in Northern France (Dunkerque) last week to attempt to capture views of the satellite, and had success on September 15, 2011 between 04:42:14 and 04:44:02 UTC, just 8-9 days before its atmospheric reentry, when it was at an altitude of only 250 km. The tumbling, uncontrolled nature of the satellite is obvious in this video, and various components are visible, such as the body itself and the solar arrays.

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