Other Balloon Satellites
For special testing purposes two or three satellites of the Explorer series were constructed as balloons (possibly Explorer 19 and 38).
Echo 1 was an acknowledged success of radio engineering, but the passive principle of telecommunications (reflection of radio waves on the balloon's surface) was soon replaced by active systems. Telstar 1 (1962) and Early Bird (1965) were able to transmit several hundred audio channels simultaneously in addition to a television program exchanged between continents.
Satellite geodesy with Echo 1 and 2 was able to fulfill all expectations not only for the planned 2–3 years, but for nearly 10 years. For this reason NASA soon planned the launch of the even larger 40-meter (130 ft) balloon Pageos. The name is from "passive geodesic satellite", and sounds similar to "Geos", a successful active electronic satellite from 1965.
Read more about this topic: Balloon Satellite
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