A closer look
The satellite that brought live television to the world was unceremoniously murdered by the US military's obsession with nuclear fireworks. Launched in 1962, Telstar 1 was a triumph of active communications, beaming live trans-Atlantic TV for the first time. Unfortunately, just a day before its launch, the US detonated a high-altitude nuclear bomb called Starfish Prime. The blast created a massive artificial radiation belt that basically cooked Telstar’s fragile, unshielded transistors. The crowning achievement of global communication was fried within months by friendly radioactive fire.
