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HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRIVATE COMMERCIAL SPACE
By Dr. Tom Matula
For my friends at The Space Show and elsewhere:
July 10 was the 60th Anniversary of the birth of the private commercial space industry with the launch of Telstar. It was design and built entirely with money from Bell Labs who owned and operated it. Bell Labs also paid NASA to launch it, a practice the commercial satellite industry continued into the 1980’s, only ending after the Challenger accident.
The commercial communication satellite industry as you know started with the Communications Satellite act of 1962 which was signed into law by President Kennedy on August 31, 1962. It was the first of the 5 space goals that President Kennedy called for in his famous May 25 1961 “go to the Moon Speech” that succeeded.
The Comsat Act created the Communications Satellite Corporation which became the first space company to go public with it’s IPO on June 2 1964. It’s IPO price of $20 rapidly doubled to $40 within two months, making it the first successful commercial space venture.
I was surprised not to see anything mentioned about Telestar on any space news sites. Incidentally, although it stopped operating as a result of the Starfish Prime nuclear test it is still in orbit. It would be great for it to someday take its place of honor in the Smithsonian.
Happy Birthday Private Commercial Space and Telestar!
