This Day, That Year – July 10

This day in history we feature Telstar 1. The first communications satellite launched by NASA on this day in 1962. It was the satellite that allowed the first live broadcast of television images between the United States and Europe.

Trivia – Telstar 1

Telstar 1 remained active for only 7 months before it prematurely failed due to Starfish Prime, a high-altitude nuclear test conducted by the United States. Although the satellite is no longer operational, it remains in Earth orbit.

Related read – NASA plans to test-launch a catapult into space to save time and money

Germany was one of the countries that participated in the broadcasts, with live footage showing workers at a blast furnace in the industrial area of Duisburg, located in the west of the country. The images were extremely poor in quality by today’s standards. Since this time, thousands of satellites have been launched into Earth orbit, mostly for military, scientific and telecommunications purposes.

Source – Wikipedia

This day in history – Telstar 1