1963

Syncom 2

NASA launches Syncom II toward synchronous orbit

The pioneering satellite did not hang still over one spot. Observers would have watched it trace a daily figure eight across the sky.

Launch Complex 17A, third attempt

NASA launched Syncom II from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 17A aboard a Delta rocket on 26 July 1963, at 9:33 a.m. EST by NASA's historical account.

Getting off the pad took three tries: a defective spacecraft switch delayed one attempt, and excessive drift in the launch vehicle's yaw gyro scrubbed the next.

The program had continued after Syncom I stopped transmitting during its apogee-motor maneuver in February 1963.

Synchronous, not stationary

The mission tested whether a spin-stabilized active communications satellite, built by Hughes Aircraft, could be controlled in a roughly 24-hour orbit.

Its orbit was inclined about 33 degrees, which made it geosynchronous but not geostationary — hence the north-south figure eight rather than a fixed point in the sky.

Syncom III, not Syncom II, was the first of the series maneuvered into a stationary synchronous orbit over a chosen equatorial location.

Launch day was not arrival day

The launch produced a good initial near-synchronous orbit, from which controllers began a series of orientation and velocity maneuvers.

The spacecraft did not become definitively synchronous until 15 August, and regular service began the following day.

After its apogee motor fired, Syncom II weighed 86 pounds and drew power from 3,840 solar cells.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited Date corrected

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date corrected. The research places this at 1963-07-26.