INTELSAT 1-F1

About This Satellite

Intelsat 1, widely known as Early Bird, launched on April 6, 1965. It marked the move from experimental satellite links toward commercial international service. NASA's history places it after Telstar, Relay, and Syncom, whose demonstrations and ground-station partnerships had already established important parts of the technical and institutional groundwork.

The network required more than a successful launch

COMSAT selected a Hughes satellite with a roughly 24-hour orbit instead of the proposed medium-orbit alternative. International agreements and ground stations were also necessary to connect telephone networks across borders. The satellite was one component of an organised communications service; neither its launch nor a predicted overhead position alone established a working call between two users.

Early Bird did not create worldwide coverage by itself

NASA attributes completion of the global network, including Indian Ocean coverage, to the later Intelsat III series. Early Bird's Atlantic service should not be described as a single satellite connecting every part of Earth. A programme milestone can involve multiple spacecraft and stations operating well beyond one catalog entry.

Mission reference: NASA History: Early Bird and the development of the Intelsat network. Editorial review: 2026-09-14.

240 voice circuits or one television channel

ESA describes Early Bird's capacity as 240 voice circuits or one black-and-white television channel between North America and Western Europe. The word "or" matters: it describes alternative uses of limited communications capacity, not an unlimited combination of services. These historical analogue channels should also not be mistaken for the broadband data rates quoted for modern satellites.

Reference: ESA: Early Bird service area and alternative voice/television capacity.

Launch and public service were separate milestones

The 1965 US aeronautics and space report records the April 6 launch and public service between Europe and North America from June 28. It describes Early Bird in a synchronous equatorial orbit over the Atlantic. Keeping these dates separate makes the history clearer: putting the spacecraft into space and making its link available to customers were different achievements.

Reference: NASA archive: 1965 report on Early Bird launch and public communications service.

Reading this orbital snapshot

Based on TLE epoch: 2026-09-04. Estimated altitude ranges from 35,768 km at perigee to 35,838 km at apogee, a difference of 70 km. The orbital period is about 1436.9 minutes. Eccentricity 0.00083 indicates a nearly circular path. In a two-body approximation, perigee speed is 1.00 times apogee speed. These are mean-element estimates, not instantaneous measurements. Distance per orbit uses an ellipse approximation.

Saved build snapshot. If a valid TLE is retrieved, this explanation and the orbit panel update together. Otherwise this dated snapshot is retained.

Ground track is not sensor coverage

An inclination of 7.34 degrees implies approximate geocentric ground-track limits of 7.3 degrees north and south. This is a prograde orbit, moving in the same general direction as Earth rotation. The plotted line marks the point beneath the object. It does not represent camera coverage, radio reception, or a guaranteed visible pass.

Is it fixed above one longitude?

The snapshot period is 1436.9 minutes. A sidereal day is about 1,436.07 minutes. Height alone does not establish a geostationary orbit: the period must match Earth rotation and the path must be circular and equatorial. This catalog uses a five-minute period tolerance for near-geosynchronous labels; near-geostationary additionally requires inclination at most 1 degree and eccentricity at most 0.01. These are browsing categories, not evidence of station-keeping or a fixed longitude.

Accuracy and missing information

The introductory record describes the build snapshot. The orbital snapshot explanation and orbit panel share any successfully retrieved TLE; check the displayed epoch. Reentered objects retain historical data only. Mission history is not rewritten by TLE updates. TLE/SGP4 positions are predictions and can change after maneuvers or updated observations. The 14-day stale-data cutoff is a display safeguard, not an accuracy guarantee. Local passes are geometric predictions, not a visibility forecast. No verified operator or mission status means unknown, not active. Do not use this catalog for collision avoidance or operational flight decisions.

Catalog sources: CelesTrak SATCAT: NORAD 1317 · GCAT: S01317 (source update 2026 Sep 4 2345:57). Supplementary metadata: SatNOGS DB, retrieved 2026-09-05T12:57:25.375Z. Page assembled 2026-09-15. GCAT phase codes describe trajectory phases, not mission health.

Learn more: TLE data · Perigee and apogee · Ground tracks · JOT (Jewawud Live Orbital Map)

Satellite Details