Telstar 301 is an American communications satellite launched in July 1983 and operated by AT&T. It was one of three

Telstar Telstar refers to a series of communications satellites. The first two, Telstar 1 and Telstar 2, were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched atop of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962, successfully relayed the first televisi ...

3 satellites, followed by Telstar 302 in 1984 and Telstar 303 in 1985. The satellite served as the east coast home satellite for the ABC network from 1984 to 1993. The

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

network also used the satellite from 1985 to 1993. It also served as the first home of

Fox Broadcasting Company Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known as Fox; stylized in all caps) is an Television in the United States, American commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast television broadcaster, television network serving as the flagship proper ...

until the late 1980s. Other entities that also used the satellite included Group W, Wold/Keystone Communications (which used the satellite to feed

Paramount Television The first incarnation of Paramount Television was operated as the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, until it changed its name to CBS Paramount Television on January 17, 2006. History Desilu Pro ...

's syndicated output including ''

Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Par ...

'', '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', and '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine''), Compact Video,

Lorimar-Telepictures Lorimar-Telepictures Corporation, Inc. was an entertainment company established on February 19, 1986 with the merger of Lorimar Productions, Inc. and Telepictures Corporation. Headquartered at the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (now Sony Pi ...

, and

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios, operating under the name Warner Bros. Television (abbreviated as WBTV; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division), is an American television production and distribution studio and the flagship studio o ...

. The satellite was retired in 1993 and replaced by Telstar 401. As of June 2009, Telstar 301 (along with Telstar 302 and Telstar 303) was still in orbit.

References

External links

Gunter's Space Page - Telstar 301, 302, 303
Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Spacecraft launched in 1983 Satellites using the HS-376 bus Telstar satellites {{communications-satellite-stub