There are thousands of artificial satellites orbiting Earth. Ubiquitous but mysterious, they are a technological infrastructure in space on which society depends, yet we think of them only rarely – when our sat nav goes wrong, for example, or our tv stops receiving. The story of the satellite is, however, remarkable: an astonishing history of imagination, experiment and ingenuity. At first they symbolized Cold War political prestige, as satellites such as Sputnik, Telstar and Early Bird became household names, but they evolved into cultural signifiers, catalysts for design, even the subjects of pop records. These narratives are brought together for the first time in Satellite, an illustrated history that deconstructs the satellite as a cultural, political and technological artefact.

The book unveils the satellite, once trumpeted as the future present, anew, mapping its formative years to the tumultuous events of the twentieth century, but tracing its roots back to the imaginations and intellects of years before. Doug Millard asks the fundamental questions about those spacecraft orbiting above: what forms do they take? How did they evolve and why? Who required them? What do satellites do, exactly, and how? And how, ultimately, might the satellite have augured a space age that has barely begun, given the high costs of launching that still limit routine access to space? Written in a lively and engaging style, and illustrated with striking colour photographs, Satellite will appeal to the many fans of space exploration.