What if the first satellites had gone differently?

A beeping metal sphere in orbit, and, soon after, weather, navigation and global broadcasting from space.

If it had gone differently: Space stays out of reach; there is no satellite weather, no global live television, no GPS.

The real history on Wikipedia ↗

Later turning points that leaned on the first satellites. Change it in the game and the ripples reach all of these.

1. 1969The Moon landing. Without it, No one leaves Earth; the high-water mark of 20th-century ambition, and a generation's sense of the possible, never happens.
2. 1983The mobile phone. Without it, The phone stays tied to the wall; being reachable anywhere, and the always-on culture that follows, never arrives.