Editing NASA Pathfinder (section)

===Atmospheric satellite tests===
In July 2002 Pathfinder-Plus carried commercial communications relay equipment developed by Skytower, Inc., a subsidiary of [[AeroVironment]], in a test of using the aircraft as a broadcast platform. Skytower, in partnership with NASA and the [[Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications|Japan Ministry of Telecommunications]], tested the concept of an "[[atmospheric satellite]]" by successfully using the aircraft to transmit both an [[High-definition television|HDTV]] signal as well as an [[IMT-2000]] wireless communications signal from {{convert|65000|ft|m}}, giving the aircraft the equivalence of a {{convert|12|mi|km}} tall transmitter tower. Because of the aircraft's high lookdown angle, the transmission utilized only one watt of power, or 1/10,000 of the power required by a terrestrial tower to provide the same signal.<ref name=skytower1>[http://www.ewire.com/display.cfm/Wire_ID/1253 "SkyTower Successfully Tests World's First Commercial Telecom Applications from More Than {{convert|65,000|ft|m}} in the Stratosphere", ''Ewire'', July 22, 2002, accessed September 11, 2008] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20061120200950/http://www.ewire.com/display.cfm/Wire_ID/1253 |date=November 20, 2006 }}</ref> According to Stuart Hindle, Vice President of Strategy & Business Development for SkyTower, "SkyTower platforms are basically geostationary satellites without the time delay." Further, Hindle said that such platforms flying in the stratosphere, as opposed to actual satellites, can achieve much higher levels of frequency use. "A single SkyTower platform can provide over 1,000 times the fixed broadband local access capacity of a geostationary satellite using the same frequency band, on a bytes per second per square mile basis."<ref name=spacecom1>[http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/skytower_020724.html David, Leonard, "Stratospheric Platform Serves As Satellite" Space.com, July 24, 2002, accessed September 11, 2008] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515202902/http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/skytower_020724.html |date=May 15, 2008 }}</ref>

Ray Morgan, president of AeroVironment, has described the concept as, "What we're trying to do is create what we call an 'atmospheric satellite,' which operates and performs many of the functions as a satellite would do in space, but does it very close in, in the atmosphere"<ref name=cnn1>[http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9808/07/solar.plane/index.html Knapp, Don. "'Atmospheric satellites' could cut the cost of communications", CNN, August 11, 1998, accessed September 13, 2008]</ref>