From Telstar, a new age of telecommunications (pictures)

The humble little satellite could handle just a single black-and-white TV channel, but it was the cutting-edge technology of its day. JFK gave it a spin 50 years ago today.In 1962, the satellite era was still in its infancy. It had been only five years since Sputnik had arrived in orbit, and though there had been a smattering of launches since then (for the U.S., that included Explorer 1, Courier, and TIROS), NASA scientists and other researchers were still laying down their base of knowledge and there were many firsts yet to be achieved.

So it was with Telstar, which, after Sputnik, may be the second most famous satellite in history. On July 12, 1962, Telstar relayed the first transatlantic television signal, which traveled from the Andover Earth Station in northwestern Maine to the Pleumeur-Bodou Telecom Center in Brittany, France. [Read more]