Satellites are heavenly objects that revolve around the earth. There are two types of satellites1.Artificial satellites 2.Natural satellites. The best example of a natural satellite is moon.

Artificial satellites are manmade objects that revolve around the earth in a particular orbit. These artificial satellites are useful for us in many ways like weather forecasting, remote sensing, television broadcasting, space exploration etc. The first manmade artificial satellite in space is SPUTNIK 1 which was sent by Russia which became the first t country to send a satellite to space.

Nowadays many countries are showing interest in launching their own satellites .National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a space research organization under the US government along with the space research organizations of various other countries is setting a research center in space.

Satellite Communication began with the launch of the world’s first communications satellite in 1962 by AT&T which was named the Telstar. It was the first satellite to transmit telephone conversation to the other end of the Atlantic Ocean.

In the nest year, Syncom 2 was launched as a geostationary communications satellite and in the year after that, Syncom 3 was launched to relay the first television pictures across the Pacific Ocean. Ever since, there have been a growing number of satellites that have been placed in the orbit for communication purposes.

There are two basic components of satellite communication – the satellite and the ground station. The satellite is also called the space segment and has three distinct units viz. the fuel system, the transponder and the satellite along with the telemetry controls.

The transponder has a receiving antenna that picks up signals from the ground station, a receiver to receive broad band signals, a frequency converter that is used for rerouting the signal for downlink.