On this date in 1962 the first TV transmission across the Atlantic was relayed by the satellite above. Telstar 1 was developed by Bell Labs (in fact, my Grandpa Wally worked on it) and the gigantic US ground station was built in Andover Maine, which is just to the east of Berlin, NH.
The first broadcast on July 23 was to have been President Kennedy, but signal acquisition came before JFK was ready, so they showed a baseball game!
Telstar later became the name of a hit song. The satellite is still up there, and the earth station at Andover is still standing.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Happy Birthday Telstar
