People on Earth may
take for granted today's high-tech world of cell phones, GPS and the satellites
high above the planet that make instant communication possible. But it all
began 50 years ago with one giant space balloon. 10 July 1962 marked the birth
of satellite communications. On this day the Telstar satellite commenced its
journey into space and became the first ever active communications satellite.
It carried the first live trans-Atlantic TV broadcasts. Telstar was built by a
team at Bell Telephone Laboratories in USA and incorporated many innovations
such as the transistor and the 3,600 solar panels that powered the satellite.
Telstar produced 14 watts and relayed its first and non-public television
pictures on 11 July 1962. The satellite could carry 600 voice calls and one
black-and-white TV channel from an egg-shaped orbit. Today, we use satellites
for GPS, TV, radio, weather tracking, military surveillance, space exploration
and global communications, among other things.
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