Satellite Firsts

The first satellite launched by the United States, in 1958, whose radiation detector discovered the Van Allen radiation belts. Built by JPL and launched by the U.S. Army — NASA did not yet exist.

The first commercial communications satellite in geostationary orbit, which began regular transatlantic telecommunications service in 1965.

The first satellite of the Landsat program, which began the longest continuous record of Earth's land surface from space.

A long-running series of Soviet communications satellites that gave their name to the Molniya orbit — a highly elliptical orbit whose slow apogee high over the northern latitudes provided the coverage that geostationary satellites could not reach at high latitudes.

The first active communications satellite, which relayed the first transatlantic television signals in 1962.

The first successful weather satellite, which returned the first television images of Earth's cloud cover in 1960 and founded operational meteorology from space.

An early U.S. technology and science satellite — the oldest human-made object still in orbit, and the first satellite to use solar cells.