Mr Pierce's Telstar, launched two years later, carried television pictures between America and Europe as well as phone calls.

ECONOMIST: John Pierce

Amazingly, after all that, Telstar is still up there, orbiting the Earth, a sleeping relic of a bygone age.

FORBES: Telstar, the Fifty Year Old Hero of Communication

In 1962, Telstar, the first television telecommunications satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral, making possible the first relaying of television programs across the Atlantic.

CNN: Thursday,

It was fifty years since the first live pictures from America were broadcast to Europe, via Telstar 1, the first communications satellite to relay a television signal.

FORBES: Telstar, the Fifty Year Old Hero of Communication

Completing a distinguished line-up of nominees are Brian Dennehy for Death of a Salesman at the Lyric, Con O'Neill for Telstar at the New Ambassadors, and David Threlfall for Someone Who'll Watch Over Me.

BBC: NEWS | Entertainment | Elliot show tops stage shortlist

Orbiting the Earth in a path that was inclined at 45 degrees to the equator, passing as close to 590 miles to the surface of the Earth, Telstar could be used for just twenty minutes out of each two and a half hour long orbit to relay signals between the America, France, and the United Kingdom.

FORBES: Telstar, the Fifty Year Old Hero of Communication