Idaho Skies Transcript for July 26th and 27th

PAUL
Welcome to Idaho Skies for July 26th and 27th. We’re your hosts, Paul...


RACHEL
...and Rachel.


PAUL
We take instant communications for granted these days.


RACHEL
Instantaneous communication started to become available after the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable was completed on August 16th, 1858.


PAUL
Unfortunately, the first message over undersea telegraph took 17 hours to complete.


RACHEL
Which is still a big improvement from the ten days it took the fastest ships to sail across the Atlantic.


PAUL
The next improvement to rapid global communications occurred when the radio was invented by Marconi in the early 20th century.


RACHEL
But the greatest improvement of all began on July 26th, 1963.


PAUL
That’s when NASA launched Syncom 2, the first geosynchronous communication satellite.


RACHEL
Being positioned in geosynchrous orbit meant it orbited Earth once every 24 hours.


PAUL
But geosynchrous is n0t the same thing as geostationary.


RACHEL
Wait, what?


PAUL
Yep, even though it orbited Earth once a day, the satellite was placed in an orbit inclined to the equator.


RACHEL
Oh I see. So it didn’t remain over the same spot over the equator.


PAUL
That’s right. It drifted north and south, but maintained a fixed path over the Earth.


RACHEL
So at least a satellite dish didn’t need to move very much in order to track Syncom 2.


PAUL
Still, it opened up high speed and dependable communications cross the globe.


RACHEL
Yep. In fact, the first communications over satellite between heads of state took place through Syncom 2.


PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the 26th and 27th of July.


RACHEL
Be sure to follow us on Twitter at Idaho Skies for this week’s event reminders and sky maps.
For Idaho Skies this is Rachel...


PAUL
...and Paul.


RACHEL
Dark skies and bright stars.