Our Story

President John F. Kennedy signs the U.S. Satellite Communications Act into law.

Early Bird (Intelsat I) is launched into synchronous orbit. This is the world’s first commercial communications satellite and “live via satellite” is born.

Intelsat carried the world’s first live coverage of the Olympic games transmitting 44 hours of coverage to the US on the INTELSAT III satellite. This began our history of providing live coverage for nearly all the subsequent Olympic games.

History was made on 12/31/71 when Dr. Yerker Andersson of Gaullaudet University used American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with a deaf shipyard employee in Sweden over a videophone, representing the first transatlantic video-telephone transmission using the Intelsat IV satellite.

Worldwide television coverage of the Live Aid Concert to benefit the famine victims in Africa reaches millions of viewers across 88 nations via the Intelsat network.

Intelsat commissioned NASA to capture and replace the motor on Intelsat 603. The rescue marked the first flight of NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavor, STS-49. After several attempts, the crew determined the best way to catch it was by hand. The image of astronauts grabbing the giant, spinning satellite is one of the most striking in the 30-year history of the Space Shuttle Program.

Intelsat becomes a private company – Intelsat, Ltd. – after 37 years as an intergovernmental organization. Intelsat begins investing in ground infrastructure and satellites serving the media.

Intelsat announces its merger with PanAmSat Holding Corporation. With the addition of PanAmSat’s video market expertise, advanced satellite fleet, and blue-chip media customer base, Intelsat becomes the largest provider of fixed-satellite services (FSS) worldwide to each of the media, network services and government customer sectors.

Intelsat broadcasts the world’s largest high-definition music event in history, Live Earth. Intelsat combines its industry-leading network of satellite and terrestrial facilities to broadcast the world’s largest high-definition music event in history — a 24-hour, seven continent, 150-performer concert — to a viewing audience of more than two billion.

Intelsat introduces “Intelsat Epic,” an innovative satellite platform to support the evolving needs of telecommunications providers with an architecture that utilizes multiple spectrums, wide beams, spot beams, and frequency reuse technology to deliver more throughput per unit of spectrum.

On January 27, 2016, Intelsat successfully launches Intelsat 29e, the first satellite in its Intelsat Epic high-throughput fleet. Intelsat 29e combines high throughput Ku- spot beams in the Americas as well as Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean coverage. A transatlantic Ku- wide beam overlay provides broadcast capabilities for inflight entertainment and C-band wide beam provides full South American continent coverage for media distribution.

Intelsat partners with Globo, one of the largest broadcasters in Latin America, to demonstrate live 8K video transmissions in Brazil for the World Cup.

Intelsat moves to expand capabilities with BlackSky, a leading provider of geospatial intelligence, satellite imaging, and data analytics.

The acquisition brings together the world’s largest satellite operator with the leading provider of commercial inflight broadband and entertainment services to enable airlines to offer the best inflight Wi-Fi experiences to their passengers.

Intelsat donated the ground spare Intelsat 1 satellite – the world’s first commercial communications satellite in geosynchronous orbit, launched in 1965 – to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air & Space Museum.