What happened in 1962?

Telstar relays the first live television across the Atlantic

On 10 July 1962, the satellite Telstar 1 was launched from Florida. Within weeks, it relayed the first live television pictures between the United States and Europe. Viewers saw each other's countries live for the first time. A pop instrumental named after it reached number one in Britain and America. Satellites now carry television and phone calls worldwide.

John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth

On 20 February 1962, the astronaut John Glenn circled the Earth three times in the Friendship 7 capsule, in a flight of almost five hours. He was the first American to orbit the planet. In 1998, aged 77, he flew in space again on the shuttle Discovery.

Telstar, the first communications satellite to relay TV, is launched

On 10 July 1962, the satellite Telstar 1 was launched. Within weeks, it relayed the first live television pictures across the Atlantic, between the United States and Europe. Today, hundreds of communications satellites carry television, phone calls and internet data around the world.

Kennedy says 'We choose to go to the Moon'

On 12 September 1962, US President John F. Kennedy gave a speech at Rice University in Houston, promising to land astronauts on the Moon before the end of the decade, 'not because they are easy, but because they are hard'. Apollo 11 landed in July 1969.

Telstar 1 is launched

The first public live transatlantic TV broadcast

Nobel Prize awarded