Communications satellite of a GEO satellite. Like LEOs, these satellites don’t maintain a stationary distance from the earth. This is in contrast to the geostationary orbit, where satellites are always approximately from the earth. Typically the orbit of a medium earth orbit satellite is about above earth. In various patterns, these satellites make the trip around earth in anywhere from 2 to 8 hours. In 1962, the first communications satellite, Telstar, was launched. It was a medium earth orbit satellite designed to help facilitate high-speed telephone signals. Although it was the first practical way to transmit signals over the horizon, its major
Satellite television to receive local broadcast signals via direct broadcast satellite systems for the first time. Satellite Television for the Asian Region (STAR), a service based in Mumbai and Hong Kong which now provides satellite TV coverage to Asia and Australia, introduced satellite TV to the Asian region in the early 1990s. It began broadcasting signals using the AsiaSat 1 satellite on 1 January 1991. Satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna