One big nuclear family?

For months after it was launched, Telstar provided opportunities for brief exchanges of news and greetings.

It often functioned as the world's most high-tech telephone call at the time, relaying direct telephone transmissions across the ocean.

However, Telstar soon also ran afoul of the less peaceful aspects of space in Cold War Europe. In 1962, the American nuclear weapon test Starfish Prime exploded four hundred meters in the air the day before Telstar launched, an event that is believed to have caused major damage to the satellite.

It fell silent in December of 1962 and, after a brief re-activation, fell silent for good in February of 1963.

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