> Subject: How a satellite called > Syncom changed the world www.latimes.com > >http://www.readability.com/articles/luffrfa0 > >On July 26, 1963 exactly 50 years ago they >launched a 78-pound satellite called Syncom that >could receive signals from Earth and then transmit them back across the globe. > >Of all the technological breakthroughs made in >Los Angeles during the Cold War the laser, the >first supersonic jet fighter, the Apollo moon >ship, stealth aircraft, the space shuttle, the >intercontinental ballistic missile system and >much else the creation of a communications >satellite has had the largest and most enduring >cultural, social and economic impact. > >The little Syncom has morphed into >communications satellites the size of school >buses, weighing more than 13,000 pounds, >operating with solar wings the length of a >basketball court and running electronics with >more power than a typical house wired to the electrical grid. > >Electronic credit card authorizations, >international television signals, email and >social media all the things that define our >modern connected culture were not even >imagined by the public in the 1950s and would >not exist today in many areas of the world without communications satellites.
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