Happy Birthday Telestar - 50 today?

It cost 50 million dollars to launch the first telecommunications satellite in July 1962. I love the newsreel story. It would seem the French had not completed the receiving station by the time the rocket launched. Yet, they got clearer signals in the end than the Brits in Cornwall. More lovely stuff here. The horn antenna at Andover is something else! Thank goodness they made more sensitive receivers soon afterwards. Great that the French embassy in Washington DC is leading the celebrations. Why wasn't this something for the European Broadcasting Union, since they keep using Telstar to tell their story - without it Eurovision wouldn't exist?

Thanks to Media Network reporter Lou Josephs for the tip.

Andover Satellite Receiving Station, Maine, USA

Looks like an interesting webcast later today from the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.