Why Are Satellites Important?

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There are many satellites in orbit fulfilling a huge variety of functions. Satellite technology has now become a part of everyday life, enabling worldwide communications, global navigation, surveying and monitor as well as gathering data for weather forecasting, and many more applications.

There are many facts associated with satellites that are both interesting and useful. Often the facts about these satellites and satellites in general may not be obvious.

On October 4, 1957, the first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched into orbit by the USSR.

Sputnik 1 was about the size of a beach ball and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth.

Its launch is marked every year by International Space Week from October 4-10, a “celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition”.

In the 16th century, the word “satellite” meant “an attendant on a person of importance” .

.In the 17th century it came to be used for a small planet revolving around a larger one.

In 2009 two communications satellites, from the US and Russia, collided. This is the only time two man-made satellites have collided by accident.

Geostationary satellites orbit the equator at the speed of the Earth’s rotation so seem not to move.

Polar satellites’ orbits pass over the poles so scan the whole Earth as it rotates beneath them.

More than 20 satellites make up the Global Positioning System, or GPS, enabling precise positions to be measured at any time.

There are now more than 2,500 artificial satellites in orbit around the Earth.

In 2012 satellite data showed that there were twice as many emperor penguins in Antarctica than was previously thought

NASA has 2 satellites chasing each other around the Earth tracking the distance between them to measure gravitational anomalies. Their nicknames are Tom & Jerry.

Satellites are programmed to avoid meteorites so they don’t get destroyed. Of over 8,000 satellites orbiting the Earth, only one has ever been destroyed by a meteorite.

By examining high-resolution satellite imagery with algorithms developed via trial-and-error, Sarah Parcak, and her team have discovered 17 pyramids, 1,000 tombs, and over 3,100 settlements in Egypt alone. She now wants to crowdsource “space archaeology” to prevent looting of ancient sites.

In 2007, China tested a missile and shot down one of their own satellites, accidentally creating 2,087 pieces of space debris on crazy orbits, all of which are now required to be tracked to avoid space collisions.

“LES1”, a satellite that had been abandoned in 1967, recently started transmitting again, after its batteries decayed, shorting the solar panels straight to the electronics.

The first American spy satellites literally dropped their film from space in a “film bucket” that was then scooped up in midair by a plane.

The first attempt of the United States to launch a satellite into orbit failed, the Soviet Union offered the United States aid which was earmarked for undeveloped countries.

There is a satellite orbiting Earth that is predicted to re-enter the atmosphere in 8.4 million years, carrying a message addressed to the beings/humans and civilization of the future.

In 1977, William Kampiles stole a top secret KH-11 spy satellite manual from the CIA which he sold to the Russians for $3000. He then told the CIA for who he worked what he had done in the hopes that they would hire him as a double agent. They didn’t and he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Older generation spy satellites predated any form of digital imaging by decades. They literally exposed film and dropped it back to earth in small re-entry pods.

When the Skylab satellite crashed in Australia in 1979, Australia issued the US a fine for littering. NASA didn’t pay the fine