Page 29 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

 Telstar, the satellite that was to lead a communications revolution. It was almost a metre across and weighed 80 kg. It was powered by 3,600 solar cells and used a new traveling-wave radio tube as its microwave radio source.
The satellite had a capacity of 600 voice channels or one television channel. Telstar 1 was in service for only about a year, but was followed by a long succession of increasingly sophisticated satellites that also carried the Telstar name.
geostationary satellite A man-made satellite in a fixed or geosynchronous orbit around the Earth.
ground station A receiving and transmitting station in direct communication with satellites. Such stations are characterized by having large dish-shaped antennae.
For more on geostationary satellites and orbits see Volume 8: What satellites see.
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