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Sixty-four years ago, on July 23, 1962, a small (less than 36 inches in diameter) satellite that orbited the Earth once about every two-and-a-half hours transmitted the first of two scheduled, scripted, public, transatlantic television programs onto home TV screens throughout the Western world. For the first time ever, families could sit in their living rooms and view, in real-time, what was happening in another country.
The broadcast was called "America, July 23, 1962." Sixteen nations participated in it (during the approximately 30 minutes that the satellite technology of the time was able to hook them all up), and it was hosted by Walter Cronkite and Chet Huntley in the US, and by Richard Dimbleby in the UK:
A smorgasbord from North America was shown, including part of a baseball game (the Phillies vs. the Cubs at Wrigley Field), Niagara Falls, the Statue of Liberty, Cape Canaveral (with John Glenn explaining the future of the American space program), the Seattle World’s Fair and Space Needle, the Black Hills of South Dakota (Cowboys! Indians! Mount Rushmore!), the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the UN, and a portion of President Kennedy’s scheduled news conference.
A few hours later, on a subsequent overhead pass, Europe returned the favor, with Richard Dimbleby intoning “Hello, North America” over a scene of Big Ben, and including scenes from the Vatican, the Eiffel Tower, the Coliseum, the Alps, and many more.
The miracle of mid-20th-century engineering that made it all possible was Telstar 1, the satellite which had been launched just two weeks prior to the event. Its ascendancy was short-lived, as a few months later, it succumbed to high radiation levels in the Van Allen Belt. It disappeared from service, reappearing for a week or two in January 1963 before going dark forever.
But, while it lasted, such a short time ago, it changed our view of the universe, making it both smaller and more immediately accessible, and larger and more complex, than ever we imagined possible.
I was never all that tuned in to British pop music of the early-to-mid 1960s. But one of the 45rpm records we owned was this one, the opening bars of which catapult me back to a childhood and simpler world every time I hear them:
Discussion (9)
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When I was growing up in Maine we always heard about the Telstar receiver someplace up state.
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Somehow the name Goonhilly Downs has stuck in my memory. Such a goofy-sounding Brit name.
Edit: For those who don't remember, Goonhilly Downs was the location of the primary British ground station for the project. There was quite an array of equipment there over the years. See
goonhilly.org
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I didn't know the origins of the song, and I didn't know of the group. But I sure remember the music!
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The very brief portion of the Cubs-Phillies game has an interesting story. When the broadcast went live an announcement was made over the PA system at Wrigley.
Author Al Yellon picks up the story from there:
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I've always liked that song. It is other-worldly.
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