Telstar 1 satellite launch. A Thor-Delta 316 rocket launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, on 10th July 1962. On board the rocket was the Telstar 1 satellite, the world's first commercial communications satellite. Telstar 1 was built and operated by the American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) company. It provided direct television transmission and telephone communication between America, Europe, and Japan. With an orbital period of 2 and a half hours, Telstar 1 could only relay signals between two ground stations for about 30 to 40 minutes during each orbit, when both stations were in its line of sight.