Given the theme Communication in History, I reflected on the dramatic change in communication over the past century that has occurred as a result of science and technological development.  Initially, “United States Satellites” was my broad topic. Through general research, I learned much about the Cold War and its significance as the catalyst for a technological revolution, given the tension between the Soviet Union and the United States to outdo each other. I started to narrow my focus to get at a very specific achievement that revolutionized the world, and found the Telstar Satellite to be an incredible launch point for so many rapid developments over the next decades.

The general research I had already conducted helped me to better understand the context in which this incredible scientific achievement took place. I started with the United States vs. Soviet Union conflict of the Cold War, and explored how Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy devoted national resources to the development of science greatly in part to ensure a U.S. victory in that fearful conflict. I found primary documents of speeches from both Presidents that told of their plans to extend communication networks across the globe to fight the spread of Communism and promote peace. I also discovered some of the first transatlantic communications transmitted by Telstar that gave messages from President Kennedy to countries across the world. 

In addition to these very historical relevancies, I learned more about how communication functions in today’s society in order to better understand the revolutionary impact of Telsar. I read books borrowed from my grandfather on the functions of satellites, radio, and ground station technology in facilitating global communication. I found that I was reflecting greatly on the dependence of our culture on our communicative interconnection and wanted to include how Telstar affected the culture of the people who lived when it was launched. Similarly, I wanted to understand how Telstar started the rapid increase in communications technology that, in a very short span of time, so radically changed the world. I spent much time researching primary news coverage of the Telstar launch to see how Telstar was received during its time and get a sense of the public attitude toward this communication revolution. New York Times news reporters, Walter Cronkite, and NPR all gave me wonderful quotes that showed how people were amazed and inspired by the Telstar satellite.

I chose to build a website to develop my skills in an area that I was not familiar with and explore new media to express my ideas. The website category also seemed fitting to convey a message about the importance of technology in communication.

Telstar is highly relevant to communication in history because it was the first step to the modern, global communications that we enjoy today and in addition to this impact, Telstar helped shape history by showing off America’s technological power and control to the world and inspiring wonder for the future in the minds of the people.