Beyond Sputnik and the Space Race: The Origins of Global Satellite Communications

A fascinating account of how the United States established the first global satellite communications system to project geopolitical leadership during the Cold War.

On July 20, 1969, the world watched, spellbound, as NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped off the Apollo 11 lunar module to walk on the moon. NASA estimated that 20 percent of the planet's population—nearly 650 million people—watched the moon landing footage, which was made possible by the first global satellite communications sys...