Today in radio history

The first amateur satellite simply named OSCAR-1, was launched on December 12, 1961, barely four years after the launch of Russia's first satellite, Sputnik.

OSCAR-1 was the very first satellite to be ejected as a secondary payload and subsequently enter a separate orbit.

Despite being in orbit only 22 days, OSCAR-1 was an immediate success with over 570 amateur radio operators in 28 countries forwarding observations to Project OSCAR.

Throughout the years OSCAR satellites have helped make significant breakthroughs in the science of satellite communications. A few advancements include the launch of the very first satellite voice transponders and the development of highly advanced digital "store-and-forward" messaging transponder techniques.

To-date over 70 OSCAR's have been launched with more to be launched in the near future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSCAR

Mike Terry