Science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke passed away at his home in Sri Lanka at the age of 90, his personal aide Rohan de Silva said. He wrote over 100 books including 2001 – A Space Odyssey.
In the television sector, he is probably best known as the visionary who first thought of communication satellites using the geostationary orbit: he proposed the idea in a paper titled “Extra-Terrestrial Relays” published in Wireless World in October 1945. In his honour the orbit is also known as the Clarke Belt.
SPECIAL – In 1985, Jonathan Marks from Radio Nederland visited Clarke in Sri Lanka, and interviewed him for the Media Network radio programme. You can listen to the interview to by clicking here. in the MP3 format via RNW’s Historical Audio Archive.
On the Eutelsat website you can find a PDF of the original Clarke article about geostationary satellites in Wireless World.
