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2022.07.06 | Telstar 1 and the Goonhilly Ground Station
On The Space Show for Wednesday, 6 July 2022:
In this special episode, we mark the 60th anniversary of the launch of Telstar 1: the world’s first active telecommunications satellite. On only its second day in orbit, the satellite relayed the first live television pictures broadcast across the Atlantic. The satellite captured the imagination of people all around the globe and sparked a new age of instant worldwide communications.
The event also inspired a chart-topping musical tribute. "Telstar" is a 1962 instrumental recording originally written and produced by Joe Meek for the English band the Tornados. In December 1962, the track reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
Listen to an eerie goodwill recording from John F. Kennedy to the people of Japan relayed by Telstar 2 only two days before the U.S. president’s assassination in Dallas, Texas.
Telstar made one place in the United Kingdom very well-known to the public: the British Telecom (BT) ground station at Goonhilly in Cornwall. A BT feature outlines the history and operation of the Goonhilly facility.
The Space Show in conversation with Robert Gough, the Head of Business Development for Australia and Asia-Pacific, Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd, Goonhilly Downs, Helston, Cornwall.
The Telstar satellites were superseded by the Intelsat series of satellites. Early Bird 1 (Intelsat 1-F1) was the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geostationary orbit in April 1965.
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By Andrew Rennie for the Space Association of AustraliaOn The Space Show for Wednesday, 6 July 2022:
In this special episode, we mark the 60th anniversary of the launch of Telstar 1: the world’s first active telecommunications satellite. On only its second day in orbit, the satellite relayed the first live television pictures broadcast across the Atlantic. The satellite captured the imagination of people all around the globe and sparked a new age of instant worldwide communications.
The event also inspired a chart-topping musical tribute. "Telstar" is a 1962 instrumental recording originally written and produced by Joe Meek for the English band the Tornados. In December 1962, the track reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
Listen to an eerie goodwill recording from John F. Kennedy to the people of Japan relayed by Telstar 2 only two days before the U.S. president’s assassination in Dallas, Texas.
Telstar made one place in the United Kingdom very well-known to the public: the British Telecom (BT) ground station at Goonhilly in Cornwall. A BT feature outlines the history and operation of the Goonhilly facility.
The Space Show in conversation with Robert Gough, the Head of Business Development for Australia and Asia-Pacific, Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd, Goonhilly Downs, Helston, Cornwall.
The Telstar satellites were superseded by the Intelsat series of satellites. Early Bird 1 (Intelsat 1-F1) was the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geostationary orbit in April 1965.