Telstar 1

Alexander G. Bell and Thomas A. Watson, who sent the first telephone message in the world, founded the Bell System in 1877. In 1885, they created a larger manufacturing organization for the Bell System, American Telephone & Telegraph. This company monopolized the telecommunications industry in the 20th century. It raised money by selling bonds to the public, and was used for communications in WWI by the U.S. government. In 1925, a section of AT&T became Bell Telephone Laboratories. In WWII, these researchers created many new inventions such as radar, microwave-radio relay systems, coaxial cables, and transistors, which would all facilitate the development of new technologies in the post-war period.

By the mid 1950s, the structure was set for a revolutionary technology, and it was only a matter of time before it was produced. Telstar was built on the research collected by scientists and engineers in the preceding decades.

"The space program of the late 1940s disappeared in a wave of cost-cutting, but a few years later many space and rocket programs had a rebirth and industry began considering the economic benefits of communications satellies."
~ David J. Whalen

"The credit for Telstar probably belongs to scientific development based on research that reaches out ahead of man's immediate needs."
~ Telstar! (Film)

Dr. John R. Pierce at Bell Laboratories foresaw the possibility of satellite communications technology.

"Even then, there was little doubt of the eventual means of improved means of communicating overseas."
~ Telstar! (Film)

Launched on October 4, 1957, by the Soviet Union, Sputnik 1 was the world's first artificial satellite. 

"The Launch of Sputnik 1 was the spark that led to the development of communications satellites."
~ David J. Whalen

The United States founded the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in response to Soviet space progress.

President D. Eisenhower addressed the development of satellites in his State of the Union Address:

President John F. Kennedy called for satellite use to fight communism in his State of the Union Address:

In addition to stating the United State's intention to create satellites for political use, President Kennedy allocated a large sum of government money toward this goal which demonstrated how eager the United States was to utilize this new technology.

When the ambitions of a private company came together with the political goals of the United States, the Telstar satellite was born. The Telstar 1 satellite was financed, built, and launched by Bell Telephone Laboratories, under AT&T, in cooperation with NASA and the U.S. government. The satellite was 34 inches in diameter and contained 10,000 electronic components and 3,600 solar cells for power. 

"At Cape Canaveral, private industry and government work shoulder to shoulder under a unique arrangement."
~ Telstar! (Film)

"AT&T exploited American fears that the United States was losing this competition by publicizing its Telstar satellite as a privately designed product, ostensibly proving the superiority of a free enterprise system."
~ Layne Karafantis