Editing Courier 1B (section)

==Mission==
Courier 1B launched on 4 October 1960 at 17:45:00 GMT from the [[Eastern Range|Atlantic Missile Range]] at [[Cape Canaveral]], [[Florida]]. The launch vehicle was a [[Thor-Ablestar|Thor-Able-Star]], comprising a modified USAF [[PGM-17 Thor|Thor IRBM]] first stage and a USAF Able-Star upper stage with a re-startable liquid engine. The satellite was successfully inserted into an orbit with a [[Apsis|perigee]] of {{convert|938|km}}, an [[Apsis|apogee]] of {{convert|1237|km}}, an [[Orbital inclination|inclination]] of 28.33°, and an [[Orbital period]] of 106.8 minutes.<ref name="Trajectory">{{Cite web |url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/displayTrajectory.action?id=1960-013A|title=Courier 1B: Trajectory 1960-013A|date=27 February 2020|website=nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov|publisher=NASA|access-date=29 April 2020}} {{PD-notice}}</ref> Messages were successfully received and transmitted and the satellite operated nominally until a command system failure ended communications 17 days after launch.<ref name="Display"/>

After completing a first orbit, a teletype message to the [[United Nations General Assembly]] from [[President of the United States]] [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] was sent to [[United States Secretary of State]] [[Christian Herter]], to be delivered by Herter to [[Frederick Boland]], President of the General Assembly at the United Nations then in session at New York. The message of Eisenhower was transmitted by Courier 1B from the Camp Evans, [[Deal Test Site]], a New Jersey off-base transmission facility of [[Fort Monmouth]]. The message was relayed to the Camp Salinas Training Area, a ground station and tracking installation in [[Salinas, Puerto Rico|Salinas]], [[Puerto Rico]]. If Courier 1B was in sight of the two ground stations at the same time, Courier 1B had the capability of "real time" messaging.<ref>Bartow, Mottley, Teetsel. "The Courier Communications System". In ''Telecommunication Satellites'', p. 157.</ref>

Courier 1B had an effective message transmission rate of 55,000 bits per second and:

''Used ultra–high frequency (UHF) communications. This portion of the electromagnetic spectrum had remained relatively unused and generally free from man-made and atmospheric interference. The Courier satellite could simultaneously transmit and receive approximately 68,000 words per minute while moving through space at 16,000 miles per hour, and could send and receive facsimile photographs.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://history.army.mil/html/books/030/30-17-1/CMH_Pub_30-17-1.pdf|title=Getting the Message Through A Branch History of the US Army Signal Corps|last=Raines|first=Rebecca Robbins|publisher=Center of Military History, US Army|year=1996|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=332|access-date=2018-05-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191026142001/https://history.army.mil/html/books/030/30-17-1/CMH_Pub_30-17-1.pdf|archive-date=2019-10-26|url-status=dead}}</ref>

After 228 orbits over 17 days, the payload failed to respond to commands. It was believed that the clock-based access codes got out of synchronization and the satellite would not respond to what it interpreted as unauthorized commands.