The 117 foot long horn antenna at the ground station, in Andover, Maine¹

• Telstar was built by Bell Telephone Laboratories, but it belonged to AT&T
• It was launched by NASA aboard a Deltra rocket from Cape Canaveral on July 10, 1962
• Original Telstar was multinational agreement between AT&T, Bell Telephone Laboratories, NASA, French National Post & Telecom Office, and the British General Post Office
• Telstar was an active satellite, meaning that it received, processed, and amplified signals; a passive satellite simply reflects it
• Telstar was the first satellite designed to transmit telephone and video signals
• Telstar was also the first privately owned satellite, it's predecessors being government sponsored
• Telstar had a capacity of 600 voice channels or one television channel
• Telstar looked like a sphere one yard in diameter; it weighed about 175 pounds
• Telstar contained many new technological inventions, such as the solar cell and a traveling-wave tube

"Arthur", the satellite dish biult to communicate with Telstar at the groundstation at Goonhilly Downs, Britain²

Now that we have seen how Telstar works, a few media clips showing how Telstar brought about communication can be found on the next page