abstract:Syncom (for "synchronous communication satellite") started as a 1961 NASA program for active geosynchronous communication satellites, all of which were developed and manufactured by Hughes Space and Communications. Syncom 2, launched in 1963, was the world's first geosynchronous communications satellite.
Syncom 3 orbited above the Pacific Ocean and beamed pictures from the Tokyo Olympics to the US later that year - the first trans-Pacific TV transmission.