July 23, 1962: Telstar Provides First-Ever TV Link Between U.S., Europe
- 6:30 am |
1962: The Telstar 1 communications satellite relays the first trans-Atlantic television signal in history.
Telstar was the product of an international collaboration to push the development of satellite communications. NASA, AT&T, Bell Labs and the French and British national post offices were all involved, with Bell Labs doing the actual construction.
A spherical satellite festooned with solar panels and packed with transistors, Telstar used a helical antenna to receive microwave signals from the ground station, which were then amplified and rebroadcast to the main receiving station in southern England.
The satellite was launched July 10 aboard a NASA Delta rocket and placed in an orbit that provided for a narrow, 20-minute transmission period per orbit.
President Kennedy was supposed to launch this historic moment in communications with a trans-Atlantic press conference, but the transmission signal was acquired before JFK was ready, so Ernie Banks may have been the first human image relayed across the Atlantic. Needing to kill a little time, the producers picked up a TV broadcast of a major league ballgame between the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs from Wrigley Field.
This article first appeared on Wired.com July 23, 2007.