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Space (News Items) - The
concept of "World Television" moved from the pages of science fiction to the
realm of reality, when the private communications satellite TELSTAR I was
shot into space atop a three stage, $3,000,000 Thor Delta rocket at 3:35
(EST) on Tuesday morning July 10, 1962 from sultry launch pad at Cape
Canaveral, Florida.
TELSTAR I, a 34 and 1/2 inch spherical orbiting
satellite weighed 170 pounds and cost 53 million dollars, an expense paid
for by the BELL SYSTEM. The experimental satellite successfully directed
microwave transmissions of television pictures and sound from the United
States who amplified the signals 10 billion times and relayed them to
France.
The Telestar sent its first pictures to Europe on its 6th orbit of
Earth. The images were of an AT & T antenna in Andover, Maine with the 50
star US flag flapping in the foreground while recorded music played "America
the Beautiful" and "The Stars Spangled Banner."
The first sound transmission
from TELSTAR I was to vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson in Washington, D.C.
from the chairman of the board Frederick R. Kappel of AT & T situated in
Andover, Maine.
Shortly after the first west to east broadcast, the French
were the first to send television pictures and sound east to west. The
British soon followed. The French originally agreed to a joint broadcast but
jumped the gun and beat the rest of Europe to the punch broadcasting Ives Montand singing and Guitarist, Michel Aubert performing. These two became
the first satellite celebrities.
The British had difficulty picking up the
signal with television commentator Richard Dumbleby anxiously awaiting the
signal which finally broke through undisturbed hours over deadline while
most Britons were already in bed.
The French transmission site was Pleumeur
Bodou near the French Coast. The English transmission site was Goonhilly
Down on the southwest coast of England.
(T-MINUS 4) On March 1, 1965 the CBS documentary
"T-MINUS 4 years, 9 months & 30 days" examined whether the United States
would reach its goal of landing a man on the moon by 1970. The race for
space was inspired by President John F. Kennedy after the Russians had
started the ball rolling by launching Sputnik 1 (a grapefruit sized satelite)
into space on October 4, 1957. EXPLORER 1, the first American satelite was
launched on January 31, 1958.
(EARLY BIRD INTELSTAT I) On April 6, 1965 the
satellite EARLY BIRD INTELSAT I was launched as a joint effort of NASA and
Hughes Aircraft. It was the first commercial communications satellite and
the first synchronous communications satellite.
(OUR WORLD) On June 25, 1967 the National Educational
Television (NET) production of OUR WORLD was the first "live" worldwide
broadcast transmitted by four satellites to nearly thirty nations on five
continents. Appearing on the broadcast were Franco Zeffirelli, Joan Miro,
Leonard Berstein, Marc Chagall, Van Cliburn and The Beatles. In 1985 the
LIVE AID Rock 'n Roll telethon broadcast a worldwide plea to feed the hungry
of Africa.
(APOLLO 7) On October 13, 1968 Americans viewed a
live transmission from their astronauts in space. The APOLLO 7 crew of Navy
Captain Walter "Wally" Marty Schirra, Air Force Major Donn Fulton Eisele,
and Marine Corps Major Walt Cunningham held up cards to the cameras mounted
onboard their capsule that read: "Keep those cards and letters coming in,
folks." The flight was launched from site No. 34 at Florida's Kennedy Space
Center and lasted 260 hours and 8 minutes. Earlier in the space program on
May 15, 1963, astronaut Gordon Cooper sent the first live television
pictures from an American in space, but NASA refused to allow the networks
to show them.
(APOLLO 11) On July 20, 1969 the most witnessed event
in world history occurred when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
landed on the lunar surface and broadcast their historic deed back to Earth
to over 750 million viewers. Proudly transmitted from the Moon "The eagle
has landed." and then "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind." Planted on the Moon's surface was a small commemorative plaque
that read: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon,
July, 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."
(DISCOVERY) On October 29, 1998, former astronaut
John Glenn returned to space with the crew of the shuttlecraft Discovery.
After 9 days, 135 orbits and 3.6 millions miles, he returned to Earth on
November 7, 1998 as the oldest man to travel into space. See also -
DEATH MISCELLANEOUS: "Challenger Disaster"
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