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Intelsat is a satellite communications company that operates a global network of satellites and ground infrastructure and was acquired by SES in 2025. Its headquarters are in Luxembourg.
History
Intelsat was founded as a public-private consortium in 1964 by the telecommunication agencies of 18 nations, including the United States, which had proposed the organization. The transmitting and receiving apparatus in each country was owned by that countryâs Intelsat member, its national telecommunications agency. Within 10 years the membership of Intelsat had grown to include agencies from 86 countries, and by 2001 about 150 countries were members.
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Engineers Stanley R. Peterson (left) and Ray Bowerman checking out Early Bird, or Intelsat I, the worldâs first commercial communications satellite, which was launched April 6, 1965.
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Space shuttle Endeavour astronauts capturing the 4.5-ton Intelsat VI, a communications satellite stranded in an unusable orbit, in order to repair it, 1992.
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
The consortium contracted with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to launch its satellites. The first of these was Early Bird, later renamed Intelsat I, which was placed in a geostationary orbit over the Atlantic Ocean at the Equator in 1965. Early Bird was the first operational commercial satellite providing regular telecommunications and broadcasting services between North America and Europe.
Early Bird was followed by Intelsat II F-2 and II F-3, launched in 1967 and covering the Pacific Ocean region, and Intelsat III F-3, launched in 1969 and covering the Indian Ocean region. Intelsatâs satellites in geostationary orbit provided nearly global coverage. On July 20, 1969, 19 days after Intelsat III F-3 was placed over the Indian Ocean, the landing of the first human on the Moon was broadcast live through the global network of Intelsat satellites to more than 600 million television viewers.
Intelsatâs satellites were a key part of the global communications network during the second half of the 20th century. Many events that were watched worldwide, such as the Olympic Games or the World Cup, used the Intelsat system. The Direct Communication Link, or âHot Line,â between the White House in Washington, D.C., and the Kremlin in Moscow was converted in 1978 from a terrestrial cable to a service transmitted over Intelsat satellites. In 2000, 70 countries used Intelsat for all international telecommunications.
During the late 1990s, however, Intelsat was facing competition from private telecommunications companies, and its governing structure had grown unwieldy from having too many members. Therefore, Intelsat became a private company in 2001, with its public services under the oversight of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO), based in Washington.
In 2005, Intelsat was acquired by Zeus Holdings Ltd., a company formed by the investment firms Apax Partners, Apollo Management, Madison Dearborn Partners, and Permira. Intelsat was then acquired in 2008 by Serafina Holdings, Ltd., a company formed by the private equity firms BC Partners and Silver Lake.
In 2025, Intelsat was acquired by Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES, combining two major satellite communications companies and expanding their capabilities across geostationary and medium Earth orbit satellite networks.
