satellite technology and its Earth-oriented applications have evolved
enormously since the early days of the space age. In the early 1960s,
the potential of satellites to contribute to international
communications and national and regional weather forecasting was quickly
recognized, and the first experimental satellites were launched. The
benefits of the early experiments were sufficiently convincing that
operational communication and meteorological satellite systems were
functioning by the mid-1960s. Remote sensing, which posed more difficult
technological problems, began experimentally in the early 1970s and
quickly became technologically operational, although there are still
organizational questions concerning operational satellite remote sensing
that need to be resolved. The papers in this volume describe work
currently underway in the further development of satellite technology
and Earth-oriented applications. They include developments in
communications, meteorology, and remote sensing in a variety of
developed and developing countries. The field of satellite technology
and applications is so vast today that such a collection of papers
cannot begin to cover the full range of activities, but can only offer
some highlights of current work. Nonetheless, the collection as a whole
does accurately reflect a number of aspects of the international
structure of technological development.
