SATNET

SATNET had its origins in Larry Roberts' 1970 proposal for a link between the ARPANET and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) network.

ARPA had an existing 2.4 kilobit/second link to NORSAR (used for seismic research), which at the time passed through a satellite station in the UK, then continued via cable to Norway.

[1] Peter T. Kirstein's research group at University College London (UCL) was chosen instead of NPL in 1971 to connect the ARPANET.

Funding was finally approved in 1973, by which time the trans-Atlantic connectivity had changed: the NORSAR link now crossed the Atlantic via the Nordic satellite station in Tanum, Sweden, then continued via cable to Norway.

Their proposal, published the next year, incorporated concepts developed by Louis Pouzin and Hubert Zimmermann, designers of the CYCLADES network.

Peter Kirstein chaired the International Cooperation Board (ICB), formed by Cerf in 1979, to coordinate activities to develop packet satellite research.

Their worst fear was that somebody in Europe would call up, through some kind of a network, to a British Telephone installation, and get through it into the Atlantic link and get to the United States, and somehow bypass the fifteen cent toll, and, "Christ," I said, "this is just a research and development thing.

Trans-Atlantic link to NORSAR and University College London in September 1973 (prior to SATNET)
SATNET, from the Peter T. Kirstein report to DARPA, 1977
First Internet demonstration, linking the ARPANET, SATNET, and PRNET on November 22, 1977
SATNET diagram, mid 1979