TELSTAR 1

About This Satellite

Telstar 1 launched on July 10, 1962, as a Bell Laboratories spacecraft financed by AT&T and launched under an agreement with NASA. It demonstrated television relay across the Atlantic. Its place in communications history comes from a working international experiment, not from being a permanently fixed television platform.

The satellite was only one part of the television link

A successful relay also required transmitting and receiving stations and coordinated programme delivery on the ground. Telstar is a useful reminder that a spacecraft cannot create an end-to-end service alone. A marker over the ocean does not say whether a particular pair of stations can complete a link.

Do not confuse Telstar with the later fixed-sky architecture

Telstar belonged to the medium-orbit approach to active communications, unlike the synchronous-orbit Syncom experiments. A terminal had to account for the changing spacecraft position. The historical choice between these approaches involved the whole network, rather than assuming that a higher orbit was automatically better in every respect.

Mission reference: NASA: Telstar 1 and transatlantic television. Editorial review: 2026-09-12.

An active repeater was different from a reflecting balloon

NASA describes the early Echo spacecraft as passive reflectors and Telstar as part of the active communications experiments. In an active relay, onboard electronics participate in forwarding the signal. This difference matters when imagining the link: Telstar was not just a shiny object bouncing television signals back to Earth.

Reference: NASA History: passive and active communications experiments.

A recovery did not become a permanent return to service

NASA records a loss of command response in November 1962, a later recovery, and final transmitter failure on February 21, 1963. This page tracks the historical object, not a functioning Telstar broadcast. Its continued orbital presence must not be mistaken for a renewed communications service.

Reference: NASA experiment catalog: Telstar 1 transmission history.

Reading this orbital snapshot

Based on TLE epoch: 2026-09-05. Estimated altitude ranges from 944 km at perigee to 5,641 km at apogee, a difference of 4,697 km. The orbital period is about 157.7 minutes. Eccentricity 0.24287 shows why a single altitude cannot describe the whole path. In a two-body approximation, perigee speed is 1.64 times apogee speed. These are mean-element estimates, not instantaneous measurements. Distance per orbit uses an ellipse approximation.

Saved build snapshot. If a valid TLE is retrieved, this explanation and the orbit panel update together. Otherwise this dated snapshot is retained.

Ground track is not sensor coverage

An inclination of 44.81 degrees implies approximate geocentric ground-track limits of 44.8 degrees north and south. This is a prograde orbit, moving in the same general direction as Earth rotation. The plotted line marks the point beneath the object. It does not represent camera coverage, radio reception, or a guaranteed visible pass.

Accuracy and missing information

The introductory record describes the build snapshot. The orbital snapshot explanation and orbit panel share any successfully retrieved TLE; check the displayed epoch. Reentered objects retain historical data only. Mission history is not rewritten by TLE updates. TLE/SGP4 positions are predictions and can change after maneuvers or updated observations. The 14-day stale-data cutoff is a display safeguard, not an accuracy guarantee. Local passes are geometric predictions, not a visibility forecast. No verified operator or mission status means unknown, not active. Do not use this catalog for collision avoidance or operational flight decisions.

Catalog sources: CelesTrak SATCAT: NORAD 340 · GCAT: S00340 (source update 2026 Sep 4 2345:57). Supplementary metadata: SatNOGS DB, retrieved 2026-09-05T12:57:25.375Z. Page assembled 2026-09-15. GCAT phase codes describe trajectory phases, not mission health.

Learn more: TLE data · Perigee and apogee · Ground tracks · JOT (Jewawud Live Orbital Map)

Satellite Details