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Telescopic view of the whole Moon seen from Earth

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The first communications satellite was the Moon. US Army engineers bounced signals off the Moon in 1951. They did so again in 1955, during a communications blackout caused by a solar storm.

Two of the first artificial communications satellites were large, shiny balloons that reflected radio signals. They were called Echo 1 and 2.

Last modified 05 October 2011

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