Telstar an Amazing Story

Telstar and adjoining scientist 

"Telstar"

(An Amazing Story)

By Glenn Peppers                                                                         August 28, 2013

Hey gang, Ya wanna know where a large part of all our cell phone, and cable communications technology started? Why it all started with Telstar, the worlds first communications' satellite. A project set in motion by AT&T! I was a small child when they launched Telstar in 1962! I sat on the living room floor in front of the television and watched in wonder as Telstar blasted off into space, and into history!

Little did I know that we'd soon be able to receive broadcast television programs, and get and receive phone calls from overseas, and would one day be analog free (like I knew what the heck analog was back then), and that we all would one day have wireless communications abilities around the globe! Well, actually, I wasn’t thinking that deep. But I had hope! Hope for the future! Kids my age always wondered what would things be like in the year 2001! Would they be like things were in Buck Rogers comic books? 

Well, its 2013, and I’m much older, and I’ve discovered that with all this major high tech advancement about us, most of us can seem to only manage to just play Angry Birds or goof on Facebook most of the day!... Hey, that goofing on Facebook a good part of the day would resemble "me" most times indeed! 

Back in 1962 after Telstar launched, there was even an instrumental pop record released by a band called The Tornados. The song was simply called “Telstar!” Telstar and the Space race itself was all a big deal back then. 

Ah, the Space Age. Its here in full swing folks, and kids now days think that this is the way things have always been! Sure, everything was always wireless!... Yeah right! Mention Star Wars to them, and they don't even know what you’re talking about in some Kid-Geek circles. Tech Kids have advanced so far away from Star Wars, it now seems boring and passe! Children today are the Product of Progress, not knowing (or caring) where all the tech came from in such a short time span! 

Why just fifteen years ago, the average home barely had a cable box in it, let alone a computer. Now days most every home has got at least two flat screen computer monitors and two smart TV's. We all have smaller, more compact super Computers. Which are the rage, and so are the new Smart Phones, and Computer Tablets, and such; and ya know... Given what we've done with it all this high tech stuff since Telstar's advent in 1962, all this Giga-tiga bit Tech-Race stuff hasn't really changed mankind much for the common good, on a human scale at all! 

We walk around with our heads down, looking at the beautiful bright colors on our smart phones, and tablets. Not talking to many people along our journey at all. Just-a-texting, and-a-posting. Posting and texting! Oh, and also gaming. I forget that one! 

Well now I'm sure that all this wireless/star wars type futuristic lifestyle stuff is The Space Age come true. Its science fiction technology we dreamed of as children in the 1960's! Yet for some reason, it doesn't feel as cool as I thought it would be! Was it better to dream and anticipate it, rather than actually attain it?

James Bond’s high tech gadgets don’t seem very high tech anymore when your eight year old has the same options as 007‘s watch as an App on his smart phone! I think the reason it doesn't seem as cool as I thought they would be is because everybody has access to all the cool high technology stuff! Cool gadgets only seem really REALLY COOL when you're the only one who has them! 

The good things involving things like Telstar is that, Telstar and high tech is partly accredited for many advancements in medicines and advanced travel; and all manner of design have gone through the roof! 

Since the computer space age launched in the early 1980's, we've built better cars by using computers. Built better homes, Earthquake resistant buildings, and engineered and solved amazing physics dilemmas, and vastly improved space travel in ways never thought of back in 1962. Yet in short, we've become so advanced that we are now on the verge of replacing ourselves in the business of manufacturing things pertaining to ourselves... Human Beings! Hmmm!

Sure because of Telstar, things are far more convenient for everyone; making life easier by connecting us in ways we only dreamt of just twenty years prior. Because of things like Skype and Face time on Apple iPhones, we have now become The Jetsons, talking to each other on telephones, TV’s, computers and tablet screens! 

And all because of Telstar, this form of advanced communication is right there at our fingertips. But I guess no matter how advanced we become Tech wise, our becoming more civil and peaceful toward each other will always depend totally upon us as humans making the effort. Yes us! Those same human beings who created Telstar, and all the other bevy of satellites orbiting our dear planet earth, making it easier for us to access our iTunes, Facebook and Netflix accounts! 

Glenn Peppers