Telstar: narrowing transatlantic divide to size of TV screen

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Telstar: narrowing transatlantic divide to size of TV screen<br>A look at the day in 1962 when the world witnessed a huge advancement for international communications via satellite

Steve Herman<br>Jul 24, 2026

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As Paul Stevens, editor of the Connecting newsletter for Associated Press alumni, noted in Thursday’s edition our colleague Mark Mittelstadt, at the age of 8, in the year 1962, was not able to comprehend the full significance of what we saw or realize what the advancements in international communications would mean to what would become his employer – The AP - two decades later. He recalls the event from 64 years ago when a large antenna in Andover, Maine, relayed an electronic signal to a 171-pound satellite to begin a live television broadcast from the United States to Europe.<br>With his own research and that of Sarit Hand of AP Corporate Archives, he writes about Telstar. Mark has kindly given permission for us to post his compelling article here today.

Before the start of the American Telstar broadcast, host Walter Cronkite checked voice links to correspondents in European cities.<br>Mark Mittelstadt - At 3 p.m. Eastern 64 years ago today (July 23), a large antenna in Andover, Maine, relayed an electronic signal to a 171-pound satellite to begin a live television broadcast from the United States to Europe.<br>Telstar 1, launched from Cape Canaveral 13 days earlier, was the first telecommunications satellite and achieved live international transmission of television images.<br>“Americans got a look at Europe, and Europeans got a look at the United States Monday in the first exchange of live television programs,” a New York-datelined story from The Associated Press said. “Pleasantries were expressed on both sides of the Atlantic, as the once-formidable distance between the two continents shrank to the size of a home television screen.”<br>The Newsguy at the Newslab is written by Steve Herman of the Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation at the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media. Please subscribe. It will always be free.

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The 20-minute American broadcast, and a subsequent European feed hours later, marked a huge advancement for international communications via satellite. It supported much of what AP and other companies would later achieve. It also was a Cold War thumb in the eye to the Soviet Union, whose launch of its Sputnik 1 satellite in 1957 caught American officials off-guard and is viewed by many as the start of the global space race.

The Telstar satellite circled the globe about every 157.8 minutes, with a perigee of 503 miles and an apogee of 3,502 miles. (AP Wirephoto Map)<br>The American part of the broadcast was hosted by CBS anchor Walter Cronkite and NBC co-anchor Chet Huntley. Europe received panoramic glimpses of American life including the Statue of Liberty, a presidential news conference, a busy Detroit expressway, a summer theater, hula dancers, astronauts, the United Nations, a fairground and the chiseled faces on Mount Rushmore.<br>In an apparently unscripted moment, Huntley announced the Maine center had linked with the satellite early so to fill time before President John Kennedy’s news conference producers cut to a broadcast of a Chicago Cubs - Philadelphia Phillies baseball game. During the minute and a half feed, it was announced to the Wrigley Field crowd that the game was appearing on Telstar and they were encouraged to stand and cheer. Which they did.<br>Europe followed approximately three hours later with pictures of Big Ben in London, a Paris street scene, a Swedish maid, Sicilian boats and fisherman, a Vienna riding school, the Square of the Republic in Belgrade, a Rome opera, a scientific center in Geneva and the heart of industrial Germany.<br>The short Mount Rushmore segment provided the memory of a lifetime for our family. Tent camping in the Black Hills, our parents drove us to the national monument. As we became aware much later of the significance of July 23, 1962, my sister and I don’t know whether our folks knew they were taking us to an historic event that included a short performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, or just to see the iconic 60-foot faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir performed at the foot of Mount Rushmore on July 23, 1962, part of the first live international satellite broadcast called Operation Telstar. (LDS Church Archives)<br>In a scrapbook entry, our mother wrote that “the line of cars moved slowly and some stalled along the way... Cars were turned away because of performance of Mormon Tabernacle Choir on Telstar. As we approached the entrance, we were flagged into (the) parking lot. Crammed down peanut butter sandwiches and ran to the amphitheater. Saw the cameras taking pictures. Heard the beautiful music. Hawk circled overhead.” Dad used his Brownie...