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In a TV studio, a man is shown explaining the functions of several model satellites, 1/3 the size, used during the time, including Syncom, Early bird, Intelsat, and ATS. U.S.A., 1968. Part 2. Syncom 1 was intended to be the first geosynchronous communications satellite. It was launched on February 14, 1963, with the Delta B #16 launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral, but was lost on the way to geosynchronous orbit due to an electronics failure. Intelsat I (nicknamed Early Bird for the proverb "The early bird catches the worm") was the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit, on April 6, 1965.[1][2] It was built by the Space and Communications Group of Hughes Aircraft Company (later Hughes Space and Communications Company, and now Boeing Satellite Systems) for COMSAT, which activated it on June 28, 1965. It was based on the Syncom series of satellites that Hughes had previously built for NASA to demonstrate that communications via synchronous-orbit satellite were feasible. Its booster was a Thrust Augmented Delta (Delta D). The Applications Technology Satellites (ATS) were a series of experimental satellites launched by NASA, under the supervision of, among others, Wernher von Braun. The program was launched in 1966 to test the feasibility of placing a satellite into geosynchronous orbit.[1] The satellites were primarily designed to act as communication satellites, but also carried equipment related to meteorology and navigation.