Syncom 1, NASA's first geosynchronous communications satellite (Hughes HS-301), launched on a Thor-Delta B from Cape Canaveral on 14 February 1963. Contact was lost after the apogee motor fired, leaving the spacecraft silent in a roughly 24-hour subsynchronous orbit.
- Outcome
- Success
- Orbit
- GSO
- Geosynchronous orbit
- Payload to orbit
- 68 kg
- Flight
- 2nd
- of 9 Thor Delta B flights
- Date and time
- 14 February 1963, 05:35 UTC
- Rocket
- Thor Delta B
- Builder
- McDonnell Douglas
- Launch site
- Space Launch Complex 17B, Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
- Payload
- Communications
- International designator
- 1963-004
- Launches in 1963
- 5th of 69
See it in orbit
Space Atlas shows the satellites and rocket stages from this launch in 3D.
Object pages on Space Atlas: Syncom 1
View satellites in Space Atlas