The first artificial satellite was Spuntnik 1 launched into orbit round the Earth by the Soviet Union in 1957. Sputnik was a metal sphere about 60 cm across and weight 80 kilogram. It orbited the earth once every 96 minutes at a height of about 200 kilometer.
Artificial satellites could be weather satellites or communication satellites. Weather satellites have cameras that send back pictures of cloud and storm formation. Communication satellites relay television and telephone signals around the world. They have equipments powered by solar batteries. The satellites receive a signal from the transmitting station on the earth amplify it and beam it down to another Earth station which could be thousands of kilometers away.
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