The first ILS Proton launch was on 9 April 1996 with the launch of the SES Astra 1F communications satellite.

SES is SpaceX's first contract for a geostationary communications satellite launch.

TVN is a supporter of the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV ( HbbTV ) initiative ( a consortium of broadcasting and Internet industry companies including SES, OpenTV and Institut für Rundfunktechnik ) that is promoting and establishing an open European standard for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast TV and broadband multimedia applications with a single user interface, and conducted the first tests of HbbTV services in Poland in March 2012.

Astra 1A was the first satellite launched and operated by SES ( Société Européenne des Satellites ), launched in December 1988.

The first decade of the new millennium saw Jardine Cycle & Carriage acquire an initial 31 % stake in Astra International, which has since been increased to just over 50 % and a 20 % shareholding in Rothschilds Continuation Holdings, which rekindled a relationship that began in 1838.

The third Asia album Astra, released in November 1985, was not as commercially successful as the first two.

The Astra quickly became popular with buyers, but the 1981 Mk2 Cavalier – the first Vauxhall of this size to offer front-wheel drive and a hatchback bodystyle – was the car that really boosted Vauxhall's fortunes.

The Omega & facelifted Astra was launched that year and were the first models to feature the corporate " v " grille.

1979 – Vauxhall Viva production ends after 16 years, and the car's successor is the Astra – Vauxhall's first front-wheel drive car, which comes as a hatchback or an estate.

1984 – The aerodynamically styled Vauxhall Astra Mk2 becomes the first Vauxhall car to be elected European Car of the Year.

1991 – The third generation Vauxhall Astra goes on sale with Opel versions adopting the Astra nameplate for the first time.

Lazard Brothers, the Pearson subsidiary responsible for BSB ’ s first fundraising memorandum, reportedly regarded Astra as technology-led rather than programming-led and, therefore, an unlikely threat.

The Astra was Vauxhall's first model to have front wheel drive.

There were three body styles for the first generation Astra: hatchback, saloon, and estate, all available with two or four side doors.

Sales of this first Astra were strong, and gave Vauxhall a much-needed boost in the small family car sector after several years of declining sales with the Viva HC.

While Vauxhall had retained the Astra name, this generation was the first to be called Astra by Opel ( succeeding the Kadett E ), and the first to also be sold by Holden.

The Astra also became available in Australasia badged as a Holden, first in New Zealand in 1995, and then in Australia in 1996.

The Holden Astra nameplate was originally placed on a rebadged Nissan Pulsar, first sold in Australia in the mid-1980s.

The Mark 3 Astra was one of the first such cars, being introduced ahead of the Volkswagen Golf and Ford Mondeo, two other cars with a similar new-found focus on safety.

The Astra Mark 5 was first launched in early 2004 as a five-door hatchback, which by the end of the year was joined by a five-door estate and a sporty three-door hatchback called the Sport Hatch in the UK.

The first Europe-wide satellite broadcast via Astra 1C began in August 1993 during the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin ( IFA-" International Broadcasting Exhibition ") in Berlin.

The first in history combat missions of a seaplane was probably those of a Greek " Astra Hydravion " between December 1912 and January 1913, during the Balkan Wars.

* 1965 – Launch of Early Bird, the first communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.

* 1960 – Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched.

* 1960 – The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's first satellite navigation system.

* 1974 – Western Union ( in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft ) launches the United States ' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1.

* 1998 – North Korea reportedly launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1, its first satellite.

* 1975 – India's first satellite Aryabhata is launched.

* 1970 – The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched.

The first KH-11 KENNAN reconnaissance satellite equipped with charge-coupled device array ( pixels ) technology for imaging was launched in December 1976.

Fraying amongst the members of the Warsaw Pact nations and instability of its western allies, first indicated by Lech Wałęsa's 1980 rise to leadership of the trade union Solidarity, accelerated, leaving the Soviet Union unable to depend upon its Eastern European satellite states for protection as a buffer zone.

Later historians have suggested that Eisenhower privately wanted the Soviet Union to launch a satellite first, thereby establishing an overflight precedent that would allow the United States to orbit without Soviet protests, as the latter's closed society had far more to lose from such overflights than the United States did.

* 1958 – Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, is launched.

* 1957 – Project Vanguard: A launchpad explosion of Vanguard TV3 thwarts the first United States attempt to launch a satellite into Earth orbit.

* 1962 – NASA Relay 1 launch, first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.

In the United States William Rainey Harper, first president of the University of Chicago developed the concept of extended education, whereby the research university had satellite colleges of education in the wider community, and in 1892 he also encouraged the concept of correspondence school courses to further promote education, an idea that was put into practice by Columbia University.

As they had with the first satellite and first man in space, the Soviets again stunned the world on March 18, 1965 with the first EVA ( commonly referred to as a " space walk ") performed by Alexey Leonov from the Voskhod 2 spacecraft, for 12 minutes outside the spacecraft.

The Explorer program was the United States's first successful attempt to launch an artificial satellite.

Besides being the first U. S. satellite, it is known for discovering the Van Allen radiation belt.

In the 1960s, the United States Army transmitted the first photograph via satellite facsimile (" fax ") to Puerto Rico from the Deal Test Site using the Courier satellite.

The first sub-minute, digital fax machine was developed by Dacom, which built on digital data compression technology originally developed at Lockheed for satellite communication.

* 1959 – Project Vanguard: Vanguard 2 – The first weather satellite is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.

* 1959 – Discoverer 1, an American spy satellite that is the first object intended to achieve a polar orbit, is launched.

He designed the first instruments used in satellites to measure cosmic radiation and ozone, and in 1951 or 1952 designed the MOUSE (" Minimal Orbital Unmanned Satellite, Earth "), a proposed satellite that would contain Geiger counters for measuring cosmic rays, photo cells for scanning the Earth, telemetry electronics for sending data back to Earth, a magnetic data storage device, and rudimentary solar energy cells.