This day in space: NASA launched first communications satellite in 1960

Exactly sixty-six years ago from today, on August 12, 1960, NASA launched Echo 1A, a 100-foot-diameter balloon that became the agency's first successful communications satellite. Unlike modern communication satellites, Echo 1A did not actively transmit signals. Instead, its large reflective surface bounced telephone, radio and television signals between distant points on Earth.According to NASA, the satellite was launched on a Thor-Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Once in orbit, residual air inside the folded balloon expanded, turning it into a large reflective sphere about 30 metres wide.The launch was part of NASA's early effort to explore how objects in space could be used to improve long-distance communication. The idea was to send a signal towards a large object in orbit, reflect it off the surface and receive it at another location on Earth.Echo 1A was designed specifically for this purpose. It was a passive communications reflector.