Telstar: 50th Anniversary of the World’s First Transatlantic Television Signal

 When: July 12, 2012, from 1:30PM to 4:30PM
 Where: National Air & Space Museum, Washington, DC
 Public event (free)

July 12, 1962: The Day Information Went Global

Telstar, developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), was launched on July 10, 1962. Two days later, it relayed the world’s first transatlantic television signal, from Andover Earth Station, in Maine, United States, to Pleumeur-Bodou Telecom Center, in Brittany, France.

On July 12, 2012 the Smithsonian and the Embassy of France are marking this milestone with a live telecast between the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC and the Cité des Télécoms in Pleumeur-Bodou. The telecast and the seminar that will follow are both open to the public. This event celebrates the 50th anniversary of both the first live TV transmission between continents and the inauguration of the commercial use of space by Telstar, the first commercial satellite.

 Event website: http://telstar50.org
 Event webcast: http://airandspace.si.edu/events/lectures/webcast

Registration (not mandatory)

Bell Labs is celebrating the anniversary of the July 10, 1962 launch at their headquarters in Murray Hill, NJ: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/events/2012/telstar/

Video of the event