Telstar - Space Junk Series #13 Traditional Cache

There is always an imminent threat of "something falling from space"...

This series commemorates space junk that fell to Earth off various satellites during the past few weeks. Extreme measures were exhausted to FTF these marvelous historic pieces for your enjoyment before muggles got to them, so please treat them with awe and respect. All space junk pieces have been scrutinised for outer space viruses, bacteria, other contaminants, ionisized Psychlodinian dust and ear worm eggs. Those that showed any threat were incinerated for your safety, except for the SPUTNIK piece.... It is Russian. It does not want to melt...

Each piece also warrants some edification on its source

This is America's little "R2-D2"

TELSTAR

Telstar was the name of a pair of communications satellites NASA launched in the 1960s. The twin prototype satellites, Telstar 1and 2, were the first satellites able to send a television signal between North America and Europe

Before the Telstar satellites achieved orbit, live television broadcasts from across the world were not possible. Live events, such as Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953 or the first manned launch in the United States in 1961, could not be shown across the ocean. Instead, networks relied on tapes shipped by airplane

Although the Telstar satellites could only show events for 18 minutes at a time as they whipped around their orbits, they served as important precursors for round-the-clock cable television coverage

Telstar 1 launched into space on 10 July 1962, was a 87cm spherical satellite, weighed 77 kg, was inserted into an orbit of about 5,640 km at its highest and 1,453 km at its lowest

Telstar's first live television pictures in France — relayed only a few hours after launch, according to NASA — showed a U.S. flag outside of a receiving station in Maine. The satellite was also equipped to handle telephone calls and even picture faxes, and had an experiment that could examine the radiation in the Van Allen belts above Earth

Telstar's legacy

All in all, Telstar showed that the communications business was an area of great flux in the 1960s and 1970s. The Telstar satellites ushered in an era where satellites turned from experimental machines to sophisticated systems with great value to the companies producing them

A new wave of advanced geosynchronous spacecraft shares the Telstar name, but these commercial satellites are far more advanced than their predecessors. Telstar 301 launched in 1983, followed by Telstar 302 in 1984. Telstar 302, renamed Telstar 3C, was put into orbit by a Space shuttle Discovery crew. A dozen more satellites bearing the Telstar name have since been launched

Telstar 1 is still in orbit but it is no longer functional

(Adapted from contents credit to SPACE)