Telstar
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The original Telstar had a roughly spherical shape. |
Telstar was the first active
communications satellite, the first
satellite designed to transmit telephone and high-speed data communications, as well as the first privately owned satellite. Its name is used to this day for a number of
television broadcasting satellites.
Belonging to
AT&T, the original Telstar was part of a multi-national agreement between AT&T,
Bell Telephone Laboratories,
NASA, the British
General Post Office, and the French National PTT (Post & Telecom Office) to develop
satellite communication. Bell also built the
Andover Earth Station in
Andover, Maine, and held a contract with NASA, reimbursing the agency three million dollars for each launch, independent of success.
The satellite was built by a team at Bell Telephone Laboratories. It was roughly spherical, was 34.5 inches (880 mm) long, and weighed 170 pounds (77 kg). Its dimensions were limited by what would fit in one of NASA's
Delta rockets. Telstar was spin-stabilized, so its outer surface was covered by
solar cells in order to always receive some power. The power produced was relatively tiny.
Telstar was equipped with a
helical antenna which received
microwave signals from a ground station, then amplified and rebroadcast the signal. The broadcasts were made from a series of somewhat directional
feed horns distributed around the satellite's "equator". The electronics switched which antenna was active as the satellite rotated.
When received back on the ground again, the signal was only a
nanowatt or so in strength and a
maser amplifier was therefore used to increase signal detection ability. Two primary ground stations were built, the
Andover Earth Station in the US, and
Pleumeur-Bodou in France. The orbital path was chosen to be visible from both stations.
Launched by
NASA aboard a
Delta rocket from
Cape Canaveral on
July 10,
1962, Telstar was the first privately sponsored space launch. A medium-altitude satellite, Telstar was placed in an
elliptical orbit (completed once every 2 hours and 37 minutes), revolving at a 45 degree angle above the equator. Because of this, its transmission availability for
transatlantic signals was only 20 minutes in each orbit.
Telstar relayed its first television pictures (of a flag outside its ground station in Andover) on the date of its launch. Almost two weeks later, on
July 23, it relayed the first live transatlantic television signal. The first broadcast was to have been remarks by
President John F. Kennedy, but the signal was acquired before the President was ready, so the lead-in time was filled with a short segment of a televised
major league baseball game between the
Philadelphia Phillies and the
Chicago Cubs at
Wrigley Field. During that evening it also dealt with the first
telephone call transmitted through space and successfully transmitted faxes, data, and both live and taped television, including the first live transmission of television across an ocean (to
Pleumeur-Bodou, in
France). President Kennedy gave a live transatlantic press conference via Telstar.
Telstar, which had ushered in a new age of the benevolent use of technology, actually became a victim of the belligerent uses of technology during the
Cold War. The day before Telstar was launched, the United States tested a high-altitude nuclear device (called the
Starfish Prime) which super-energized the Earth's
Van Allen Belt where Telstar took orbit. This vast increase in radiation, combined with further increases during subsequent high-altitude blasts overwhelmed Telstar's fragile transistors; it went out of service in early December, but was ingeniously restarted in early January of 1963. The additional radiation associated with its return to full sunlight once again caused transistor failure, this time irremediably, and it went out of service on
February 21,
1963.
Experiments continued, and by
1964, two Telstars, two Relay units (from
RCA), and two
Syncom units (from the
Hughes Aircraft Company) had operated successfully in space.
Syncom 2 was the first
geosynchronous satellite and its successor,
Syncom 3, broadcasted pictures from the
1964 Summer Olympics. The first commercial
geosynchronous satellite was
Intelsat I ("Early Bird") launched in
1965.
The next wave of Telstar satellites launched with Telstar 301 in
1983, and was followed by Telstar 302 in
1984 and Telstar 303 in
1985.
The next wave, starting with
Telstar 401 came in
1993 and was lost in
1997 from a magnetic storm and Telstar 402 was launched but destroyed shortly after in
1994. It was replaced in
1995 by Telstar 402R, eventually renamed Telstar 4.
In
2003, Telstars 4â€"8 and 13 â€"
Loral Skynet's North American fleet â€" were sold to
Intelsat. Telstar 4 suffered complete failure prior to handover; the others were renamed
Intelsat Americas 5, 6, etc. At the time of the sale, Telstar 8 was still under construction by
Space Systems/Loral, and was finally launched
June 23,
2005 by
Sea Launch.
Telstar 18 was launched in June
2004 by
Sea Launch.
Telstar 10 was launched in China in 1997 by APT Satellite Company, Ltd. The upper stage of the rocket underperformed, but the satellite used its significant
stationkeeping fuel margin to achieve its operational
geostationary orbit; it has enough on-board fuel remaining that will allow it to exceed its specified 13-year design life.
Joe Meek composed a popular instrumental recording in
1962, named
Telstar after the satellite; it was originally performed by
The Tornados and covered by
The Ventures among many others.
Sound effects on the record, intended to symbolize radio signals, were produced by Meek running a pen around the rim of an ashtray, and then playing the tape of it in reverse.
In the
Netherlands, a
football club formed from a merger was named
SC Telstar after the satellites.
In
Old Kilpatrick,
Scotland, the Telstar is a local pub that closed in 2006.
In the United States the
heavy metal band
Helstar took their name partly from the satellite as well.
In
Belgium, the Belgo-Dutch
rock trio Telstar base their name on the
Joe Meek song.
The Scottish band
Telstar Ponies included
Teenage Fanclub drummer
Brendan O'Hare.
The
Telstar was also the name of a
Ford car sold in
Asia,
Australasia and
Southern Africa.
A high school in
Bethel, Maine is named after the satellite. [
1]
Adidas named its
football with 32 black and white panels design Telstar. They were designed for use in the
1970 and
1974 FIFA World Cup tournaments.
There is an
Spanish company called Telstar. It is a manufacturer of freeze-dryers and other high-technology equipment. [
2]
Telstar was the name of a randomly encountered enemy in
Squaresoft's hit
role-playing game Final Fantasy VI. The enemy only vaguely resembles the satellite.
Project: Telstar is an anthology of robot and space themed comics published in 2003 by Adhouse willy.
Telstar Drug was the name of a drug store in
Calgary,
Canada. The store's roof featured a neon sign in the shape of a rocket with the satellite on its nose. After the store closed, the sign was taken down and put on permanent display in the
Glenbow Museum.
Satellite High School, in Satellite Beach, Florida has a student newspaper named the Telstar
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List of Communications Satellites
