On July 10, 2002, Loral Skynet will mark the 40th anniversary of the launch of Telstar 1, the world’s first active communications satellite built by Skynet’s predecessors at AT&T and Bell Laboratories.
Telstar 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a Boeing Thor Delta rocket and soon thereafter broadcast the first live television signal from Andover, Maine to Goonhilly Downs, England and Pleumeur-Bodou, France.
The transmission showed the American flag streaming over the Andover earth station to the sounds of the “Star Spangled Banner.” The same day, Telstar 1 carried the first long distance telephone call via satellite between AT&T’s then chairman, Fred Kappel, and U.S. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.
During its seven months in orbit, Telstar 1 dazzled the world with live images of baseball games, plays, musical performances, news broadcasts, scenes of the World’s Fair in Seattle and a U.S. Presidential news conference.
More than 200 million people watched as the United States and 16 European countries exchanged numerous live video signals of national monuments and famous images, including the United Nations building, Niagara Falls, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.
President Kennedy issued the following statement on the event’s significance:
“The successful firing and subsequent operation of the Telstar communications satellite is an outstanding example of the way in which government and business can cooperate in a most important field of human endeavor. The achievement of the communications satellite while only a prelude already throws open to us the vision of an era of international communications. There is no more important field at the present time than communications and we must grasp the advantages presented to us by the communications satellite to use this medium wisely and effectively to insure greater understanding among the peoples of the world.”
Telstar 1’s technology differed from previous “passive” satellites – large reflective balloons that reflected radio signals – in that it received a signal from the ground, amplified it and sent it back to earth. The technology on Telstar 1 set the standard for all communication satellites that are in use today.
Telstar 1 had the ability to transmit either one television channel or roughly 500 simultaneous telephone calls. One of today’s most advanced communications satellites, by comparison, can carry more than 500 television channels and thousands of data circuits.
An experimental satellite, Telstar 1 remained in orbit for seven months, ceasing transmissions in February 1963.
Since 1962, Skynet has operated 14 satellites carrying the Telstar name. Skynet is currently constructing three new satellites – Telstar 8, Telstar 13 and Estrela do Sul 1 – that will carry on the Telstar heritage.
Comparison between Telstar 1 and one of today’s most powerful satellites:
Telstar 1 Telstar 7*
Size Spherical - 34 inches 18' X 28' X 102'
Weight at launch 171 lbs. 8300 lbs.
Power 15 watts 10,000 watts**
Lifespan 7 months 15 + years (expected)
Cost $6 million Approx. $200 million
* Telstar 7 was launched in September 1999
** Beginning of life
AT&T and Bell Labs began development of the Telstar satellite communications system in the fall of 1960. In April 1961, the AT&T and Bell Labs team joined with NASA, the British Post Office, and the French National PPT (Post Office), to continue joint work on the Telstar project.
