My dad helped design that satellite. Many, many years later we had to talk him into getting a satellite dish for his TV. I told him, “For crying out loud, Dad, you helped develop satellites! Why not use them?” He passed in 2016 with Alzheimer’s and the last time I saw him I showed him a picture of Telstar and I said, “Remember this?” He said it was some kind of ball and when I told him what it was he said, “Oh, yeah!!” He had it in his head that he had been an auto mechanic and forgot about his years at Bell Laboratories. He was a brilliant man!

My grandfather helped build Telstar , he worked at Murray hill and holmdell . Several times in my youth he would take us to the listening telescope (horn) ,at that time I had little idea the importance. For decades he would wear a Telstar tie tack. As I got older I became a machinist just as he had and he gave me his toolbox. The idea that I was using tools that helped put Telstar is space was a bit overwhelming . To think that a piece of technology that advanced was built and put into orbit using slide rules and vernier calipers is incredible .

@peggyfranzen6159

5 жыл бұрын

andrew arnold Really! Wow! That is truly amazing! July 9 th.! I do not know what to say. Thank you.

@mattyoung4336

4 жыл бұрын

andrew arnold .. I'm jealous. What a cool connection you have to this game changing technology 😁 lucky guy 👍🏼

@telswitch

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you for sharing this . Your grandfather sounds like a remarkable technologist, and I understand how walking in his footsteps would bring you a great sense of pride. I bet he is very proud of you too

@thegossipbox983

4 жыл бұрын

👩🏼‍🦳 ... 👌🏻 ... 🇺🇸

@thegossipbox983

4 жыл бұрын

The AT&T Campus is Huge ... now Lucent Technology in Murray Hill, NJ.

Ah, the early days of the Space Age when nothing launched into orbit was taken for granted. I remember watching a television special on a Sunday afternoon of the London Symphony, broadcast live over Telstar. It was a really big deal at the time, and I had a plastic souvenir medallion from the potato chip bag about Telstar. I was a Sputnik baby, born eight months before it went up and this is what we did for fun. My entire educational experience through the sixties was one way or another about space. This was many years before they called it STEM, but it was understood to be of national importance.

I always imagined Telstar to be about three times as large. Pretty amazing that she was so compact to achieve so much. It is great that this important history is documented in film.

@jaybee9269

2 жыл бұрын

I thought so too!

@patriciaschuster1371

Жыл бұрын

Me, as well.

@TomNovak2113

Жыл бұрын

Same. Always assumed it was the size of an SUV or so. Huh.

So many today won't believe or even care about this launch of the first communications satellite.Communications technology has so surpassed this event that it's difficult to believe that such at the time crude technology worked. You won't see this ever again. The cooperation of private industry and government to accomplish a great task. I'm proud to have been an employee of AT&T when it really was AT&T, always at the forefront of technology. RIP Ma Bell.

@bob4analog

5 жыл бұрын

Crude technology only by compsrison of today's standards. Yet in all it's crudeness, so much of it is still the same. Laws of physics don't change. We still use the same technologies, just more refined. I suppose that's obvious tho.

@user-jt5vm3mi1w

2 жыл бұрын

It's happening right now, cooperation

Watching this via Starlink right now :)

@GroovyVideo2

2 ай бұрын

Me too

I remember the first public telecast! It was amazing!

My great grandfather was the chairman on the other end of that phone call and he inspires me everyday.

I was four years old in 1962. My main memory of Telstar came in second grade, when we went to the auditorium to watch a movie about it. I couldn’t see it very well from where I was sitting, so I kept scooching my chair closer to the screen. Eventually my teacher kicked me out and sent me to detention. I was hopping mad. Shortly thereafter a visit to the eye doctor revealed that I was nearsighted, and I’ve worn glasses ever since. I can't say for sure, but this could well have been the movie.

@davidjames666

4 жыл бұрын

You were always a slacker Rick. Just like your father - a slacker.

@BryanTorok

4 жыл бұрын

A shame that your teacher couldn't understand that you were interested in the film and just trying to get closer so you could see. She should have helped you instead of punishing you. And, once it became clear that you needed glasses, she should have apologized to you. But, I'm betting she didn't.

@-fuk57

4 жыл бұрын

Well that little satellite helped handle 400+1 communication needs.

@foureyedchick

4 жыл бұрын

I was only 2 years old when Telstar was made. I still enjoyed the launching as a 2-year-old.

@foureyedchick

4 жыл бұрын

I was started in glasses at age 4. My prescription kept growing ever since.

Man, never thought I'd find myself actually CHOOSING to watch old AT&T videos... Now you gotta upload all the old "1800 C-A-L-L-A-T-T" commercials!

You just had to experience the words "Live via Satellite"! You would get 30 minutes or so of coverage while the satellite passed overhead in orbit. This was before Geo stationary comms was possible. I recall the 60 or 64 Olympics being relayed. It was so exotic and fascinating

@josephjames259

4 жыл бұрын

gk10002000 And Elvis in Hawaii 1974.

“The dry understatement of our English cousins” lol. Best line in this whole thing. That aside, I absolutely love these videos. It’s nostalgic and reminds me of a time when private companies and government worked together for the better of the country and people, not the profits.

ahhhhhh that crisp AT&T sound quality.

The look of Telstar would fit perfectly in Star Wars.

@uriituw

4 жыл бұрын

Pup Wolfy It probably served as inspiration for Star Wars.

@MultiPetercool

Жыл бұрын

@@uriituw you realize of course that many describe the current AT&T logo as the “death star”😜

I was 10 years old at the time. While I can't remember the content, I do remember the excitement of watching the first live TV transmission from Europe.

@765kvline

3 жыл бұрын

I was in second grade and remember it well. Also, Syncom I. Those were pretty "heady" days.

Magnesium, aluminum, sapphire, platinum. Damn it’s really a jewel! Amazing

I first saw this film when I was in 6th grade in 1965! Our teacher, Mr. Zirl, from Highland Park, NJ, borrowed a series of films to show in class from N J Bell which included this film

I love the ending note. The very fact you can see this message fills me with so much awe and joy at how much we have accomplished in such a relativley short time.

@morning1500

6 жыл бұрын

Even though a lot of this happened a few months before I was born, it brought tears to my eyes, seeing Old Glory on that TV screen... as it became the first EVER intercontinental TV image! :) GOD BLESS THE USA!! This was the BEGINNING of the technology we all use and take for granted, today! :)

I was 12 when Telstar was launched and I remember listening to the instrumental song written and recorded by the Tornados. Arthur C Clark first proposed that in the future satellites like Telstar would connect everybody with each other. Today there are hundreds of such satellites orbiting Earth transmitting data, phone calls, TV transmissions, and is the primary path of Internet communications.

"Someday, all men will see, and talk to each other, as friends." The internet has so far proven quite the contrary.

@EveryDooDarnDiddlyDay

3 жыл бұрын

This is true, but government force wont help it along. You cant force people to be something they aren't.

@antientdude1100

3 жыл бұрын

hahahaha no shit...!

@potatosalad5355

3 жыл бұрын

Just SHUT UP. ..!!! ASSHOLE...!!!

@dennis8196

3 жыл бұрын

And that's why being a radio ham still is better than sitting on the internet.

@incongruentalt8124

3 жыл бұрын

The internet is nice sometimes, until it isn't.

When you consider the evolution of long distance communication and the ways they did it is fascinating. From Coaxial cable, to microwave, then sattelite, and finally fiber optics which is he predominant method today.

I was ten years old at the time of Telstars launch and first tests. Along with my family I eagerly awaited the first broadcast. Being in the UK, our recieving ground station was Goonhilly Downs. We watched our TV and eagerly awaited the first ever TV broadcast for a communications satellite. Then there's was video of a man seated at a desk obviously saying something, but no sound! It turned out to be a fault with our receiving station, and the following day when the same broadcast was repeated, there was the sound and picture too! Fantastic!

My dad was one of those people in Holmdel that worked on Telstar

@lindypierce3766

2 жыл бұрын

Mine too!

It would be so nice if Telstar could be located, retrieved and brought back to Earth to be placed in a museum.

@dmcdonald8568

7 жыл бұрын

As with all things, what goes up must come down. I am sure it burned years ago.

@billyboi57

7 жыл бұрын

I can't say with any certainty right now, but I believe that it is still up there.

@bobweiss8682

7 жыл бұрын

Telstar was knocked out of active operation after 4 months by fallout from an earlier US nuclear weapons test (Starfish Prime), when the resulting radiation belt destroyed the early semiconductors. It is still in orbit, however, and can be tracked here: www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=340

@billyboi57

7 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the info. As for my idea, it's really of no matter whether it works or not. Just to bring it back and place it in the Smithsonian would be quite nice.

@ChristopherUSSmith

6 жыл бұрын

billyboi57 Would it still be radioactive? NASA could have retrieved it before retiring the shuttle fleet if it had been a priority.

Amazing how well mannered and respectable they were 60 years ago. Each generation before has worked harder, started with less and made great strides.

@llVIU

3 жыл бұрын

maybe they're well mannered because they're all men with a lot of experience, high paying jobs, that come from higher class family. Plus this is a tailored video, did you expect them to let employees shout at each other "fuck and shit"? Seriously, are you that naive? It was also a much better economy back then. A lot less stress when you don't have to worry about money. A lot more time to get "educated".

Amazing technology. 👏👏👏

Love these films! Keep them coming!

This is such a fascinating look back at pre-global communication days

The music in this video is not as well known as the Tornados instrumental Telstar but I can bet you've heard it many times elsewhere.

60 years ago...I alone can talk, see anyone around the world at my leisure from my living room.

I've been wanting to watch this since I was 6 when I found out about its existence! Thanks again!!

In question of whom the narrator, it is Alexander Scourby. There was a longer version, running 40 minutes, called BEHIND THE SCENES WITH TELSTAR, had a different narrator, heard in many industrial documentaries, but never credited his name.

@markdraper3469

5 жыл бұрын

Call me odd, but the great announcers of the day were my "heros" even then...

@johnsavard7583

3 жыл бұрын

And Periscope Films has that one, it's on KZread from them. It also begins with the same music.

Very interesting bit of history presented and preserved here .. thank you for the presentation. .

I enjoyed that tremendously. Thank You AT&T, Nokia Bell Labs, McDonnell Douglas, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Philips -Ford/Philco - Loral/ Space Systems.

@c0t0d0s7

4 жыл бұрын

Don’t forget Cyberdyne Systems and Ronco!

Fascinating look at how a small communications satellite can change the world and usher in a new era of telecommunication as we know it. Impressive!

really awesome that you guys uploaded this.

I am watching this again! I still love it! This is the best tech channel on the internet!! I wish I could work for this channel!!!

@wakkowarner4288

Жыл бұрын

I wish I could've worked for the *real* Bell, but alas, it was demolished when I was 13.

"It carries with it, through space, the hope that some day all men will see and talk to each other, as friends"

@jaitanmartini1478

3 жыл бұрын

@Azar Labuk =D

@jaitanmartini1478

3 жыл бұрын

@Azar Labuk WOW! That's really cool! according to wikipedia "The station was dismantled in the 1990s."

You know that feeling you get at the end, where you hear the hopes of ages past, so that when people are able to communicate around the world, we would understand each other and stop fighting? We live in those times, and the KZread comments section exists.

The flag shown during the National Anthem was just outside the earth station at Andover, ME.

More people at AT&T Labs worked on Telstar Project than any other concerted Bell Labs project.

Wow, fantastic

If you listen carefully at 0:26, you'll hear the NET jingle. This was before they used it for NET from 1967 through 1969.

@Naminski1a

6 жыл бұрын

The following program is from NET, the National Educational Television Network.

@doloreshuntoon7698

5 жыл бұрын

How about "The following program is from NET, the public television network," Mr. Naminski, sir?

@johnsavard7583

3 жыл бұрын

Isn't it also a well-known classical piece?

@johnsavard7583

3 жыл бұрын

I finally found what I thought it sounded like: the opening of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Very very interesting ... the Trial And Error behind 18:06 and the Third Stage Injection Booster is second to none ...

Video: "What will tomorrow bring?" *sees dome on the horizon* Me: Epcot?!?!

Yes, I wondered about that 'DE KF2XCK' morse code transmission as well. I wasn't sure whether the 'K' was a prosign for end of transmission, or part of the callsign. Interestingly, KF2XC is a currently licensed NJ amateur radio callsign, although it wouldn't have been so in 1962.

@allanrichardson1468

7 жыл бұрын

clvdjeff It's likely that the call sign was used in 1962 and its license allowed to lapse at the end of the project, then reassigned, possibly several times, until the current holder received it. I don't know what the FCC rules are about reassigning unused call signs are, but surely it must be possible eventually.

I live near the antenna in France, it's the telecom museum now, the balloon style radome is still an impressive landmark.

I love these.

I knew John Taylor a truly brilliant guy

Telstar was a casualty of the starfish prime nuclear test.

@johnsavard7583

3 жыл бұрын

That is sad, but the nearly identical Telstar II satellite only lasted 2 years even without a nuclear test to damage it.

A very key , historic event that would help shape the world today 👍 The Tornadoes were inspired to make a huge instrumental hit that would make it to # 1 on the US chart in Decembet 1962

@J.R.Psych74

Жыл бұрын

Yes, thanks to Joe Meek.

@suretobringskills, a three-stage Delta rocket built by Douglas, today a Boeing heritage company.

Amazing!!!

So Cool!

That horn is still in holmdel. Both Telstar 1&2 are out of service, but still in orbit

Referred mainly as Andover, I assumed they were talking about Andover, Massachusetts rather than Andover Maine. I was surprised how little actual room there was inside the satellite after its structure crisscrossed the interior.

@DowneasterProductions

6 жыл бұрын

ohbobpleez no Maine they was the US transmission point and reception

@macmedic892

3 жыл бұрын

According to the video description, it’s Andover, Maine.

@petecoolidge6527

2 жыл бұрын

Nope....Andover Maine. We Andover people could't believe they would ever tear down the radome and the horn but they did. The "satellite station" as we call it, is still in existence today.

So cool

awww Ondes Martenot introduction!

The Actor at 25.29 is Yves Montand.

That electronic music sounds a lot like Edward's Siday's Identitone intro to NET, the early version of PBS.

@sillygoose635

6 жыл бұрын

It is.

@doloreshuntoon7698

5 жыл бұрын

How about that!!!

@johnsavard7583

3 жыл бұрын

And the melody appears to me to be the opening notes of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Looks like an interrogation probe from star wars shits dope

Live via Telstar!

didn't realize this satellite was named after the hit song by the tornados! the more you know!

The first 25 seconds are ear-bleeding.

Thank you to the uploader! I love seeing old documentaries about technology. I don't remember if Telstar was in geo synchronous or geo stationary orbit? Maybe someone here knows. And because of the greater and greater load of communications wasn't Telstar obsolete in a few short years? Anyone know?

@radiorob7543

9 жыл бұрын

Not geo synchronous, but a elliptical orbit. Because of damage about 3 months after launch, the satellite was officially placed out of service in Feb. 1963.

@MrShobar

9 жыл бұрын

Radio Rob Correct. It was not high enough to be in geosynchronous orbit. Telstar was severely damaged by the 1962 Starfish Prime atomic tests in the Pacific.

@KeizerPaPa

9 жыл бұрын

Radio Rob damage from ??? And when it failed, was that when they realized that the ionosphere naturally reflects radio transmissions. Or did they figure that out on the Echo project and use the public's ignorance against them to enable them to launch the now orbiting weapons of the cold war for first launch strategy? cause the telstar was placed above the range of radio signal transmission.

@MrShobar

9 жыл бұрын

Damage to Telstar electronics was from high energy particles/ionizing radiation from a recent very high altitude atomic test (Starfish Prime). The ionosphere reflects radio waves in the high frequency (HF) range. Telstar uplink/downlink was in the UHF range and is unaffected by the ionosphere.

@KeizerPaPa

9 жыл бұрын

MrShobar What range are x and gamma?

At 07:00 Dr. Pierce was not the first person to come up with this idea. One of the first known was Tsiolkovski in Russia, decades earlier. Herman Oberth proposed it in Germany in the 1930's. The first published article which proposed exactly the same concept as Pierce was by Arthur C. Clarke, published in Wireless World magazine in 1947.

Would be interesting the layout and components of the power systems

I love the future!

Hello old friends.

At 5:55 we se someone drinking something. If the cup flips over in that control board, Houston we have a problem...

I was feeling a bit fancy today and so I decided to splurge and indulge myself with a 240p upgrade. Oooh it tickled my fancy in all the right places and dare I say, some wrong ones ;----)

Wow, not even capturing audio but two boom mics at 3:40

does anyone know what the intro music is? It sounds like its from a large score almost like Mussorgsky if its part of a larger piece i would love to hear it

Funny to think that it’s still in orbit and still spinning at the same velocity.

I worked at ATT&T and I was at the horn in western Illinois. It was in the 80s .I don't think it was working. All I remember that it very very big.

@clvdjef that may have been a experimental radio service call sign.

I love the need for a 'special air conditioned truck'... as if it was going to be installed in a 'special air conditioned spaceship'.

0:26 - This is NET, the National Educational Television Network.

@peggyfranzen6159

5 жыл бұрын

Naminski No surprise.

@doloreshuntoon7698

5 жыл бұрын

How about "This is NET, the public television network"?

@doloreshuntoon7698

5 жыл бұрын

How about "This is NET, the public television network," Mr. Naminski?

Amazing they could communicate with Telstar at all judging by the terrible quality of their local voice communication. An amazing feat! My cellphone calls sound pretty much the same now in 2018, so not much changed regarding audio voice quality really :O

@nunyabizness199

5 жыл бұрын

You are kidding right ?

Me: Watching this video on my satellite internet.

I miss the days when at&t was an innovator and builder instead of outsourcing everything and just taking in money.

@wakkowarner4288

Жыл бұрын

Find out why that happened. It happened in 1984. Find out *why*. Then ask yourself "was that the right course of action?" History would argue it was a monumentally bone-headed idea.

The Morse ID at 20:30 is KF2XCK, which didn't come up in an FCC database search. Anyone know the story behind that call sign?

@edwardlittle9362

4 жыл бұрын

Looks like I have an answer to my own question. Experimental radio stations in the United States have call signs that are formatted like amateur radio call signs, with the suffix beginning with X. KF2XCK would have been an experimental station associated with satellite communication testing.

LOL !! That's one expensive disco ball @10:47.

What people don't realize is that Telstar was launched from Joe Meek's backyard, with the aid of an Estes Inc. booster ... true story!

I remember the first Telstar telecommunications satellite got fried by the operation fishbowl nuclear tests in high altitude and outer space.

0:26 "This is NET. The public television network"...

They’re all wearing those identical “nerd” glasses. Plaid shirts look like the way you had to go!

And before this was echo 1 the big balloon that "relayed" or bounced the signal. Crude but it worked

@gowdsake7103

4 жыл бұрын

Not reliable AT ALL !

Sen Pastore. Me from Rhode Island

look at the size of that antenna. Now compare that with Sat Phones, desktop terminals, routine sitcom devices in ships, planes, cars, etc

screaming at a disco ball in space

It is very interesting how many women scientists appear on this video.

@dutchman55

4 жыл бұрын

Interesting indeed 🤔

@brianletter3545

3 жыл бұрын

There are no "men" scientists(!) either. These are all engineers, the kind of people that make things that work.

How much was a three minute call via Telstar?

What's the most annoying noise ever? The first few seconds of this without warning.

@JustJohnny

8 жыл бұрын

+davek12 It's OKAY if you end it by yelling... INNNN SPAAAACEEEEE!

@petecoolidge6527

2 жыл бұрын

Should have been in the radome when that alarm sounded if you think this was annoying!!!!

And now most phone calls pass over the fiber optic cable under the sea.

Where do I know that opening fanfare from?! It sounds so familiar...

@RockmanYoshi

2 жыл бұрын

I remember it too, but I have no clue where from. I believe it was from a vanity card or tv ident from way back when.

@eddievhfan1984

2 жыл бұрын

@@RockmanYoshi I just found out earlier; it was the fanfare for NET (National Educational Television), the predecessor to PBS.

what band was the TV on back then was it B band or A band?

@johnorlitta

3 жыл бұрын

VHF

My grandpa road on Sputnik and spent four days in space, fighting astronauts

Does anyone know what the intro music is? I've heard it on NET and here and yet idk what it is

@johnsavard7583

3 жыл бұрын

It sounds to me like the opening notes of Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

A pretty big deal in its day. Even spawned an instrumental pop hit.