OTD in Space – February 25: Western Union Launches Westar 4 Communications Satellite

On February 25, 1982, the Western Union company launched a communication satellite called Westar 4. Western Union was the first American telecommunications company to have a fleet of its own satellites. Westar 4 was twice as big as the first three Westar satellites and had four times the communications capacity. It lifted off from Cape Canaveral on a Delta 3910 rocket at 7:04 p.m. Eastern Time and entered a geostationary orbit. For 10 years the satellite relayed voice, data, video and fax communications before it was replaced. While it is no longer operational, it is still orbiting the Earth today.