AT HOME...NASATV; Gold Medalist

Every four years, television broadcasts allow the whole world to watch the Olympic Games. These TV signals are relayed by satellites in orbit above the Earth. Even if the games are held in Seoul, South Korea, we flip on the TV and expect the same quality as if the broadcast came from Atlanta, USA.

Today we take world-wide TV coverage for granted. Over 30 years ago, though, people in the United States and Europe were very excited about a little satellite called Telstar I (at left). It was launched by NASA on July 10, 1962. Later that same day, live television pictures originating in the USA were relayed via Telstar and received in France.

Beginning in the late 1950's, NASA pioneered the technology that made TV satellite broadcasts an every-day part of our lives.

NASA satellites relayed the first international coverage of the Olympic Games. The 1964 games were broadcast from Tokyo to the US and Europe via Relay I and Syncom 3.

Other NASA TV broadcast milestones included a demonstration in India in 1975. TV signals were relayed through one of NASA's Applications Technology Satellites (ATS) to 10-foot antennas installed in 2000 villages. The Communications Technology Satellite (CTS) was launched on January 17, 1976. CTS transmitted with more power than earlier satellites. This allowed the use of smaller and cheaper ground stations, thus paving the way for direct broadcast television.

NASA worked with many companies to develop satellite TV technology, including Bell Telephone Laboratories, AT&T, RCA and Hughes. But it was America's bold space program that pioneered the satellite TV technology that now reaches practically every home in America, and much of the world.

So, the next time you watch a satellite broadcast from London, Moscow, Tel Aviv or Peking, give NASA a big 10 on your scorecard. If there were an Olympics for satellite TV technology, NASA would win a gold medal!