| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Fifty years ago, the Space Age was not yet five years old but the broad outlines of US space interests were visible. The year 1962 saw the first US human orbital flight by John Glenn on a converted Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Telstar 1 demonstrated the first transatlantic television, telephone, and fax transmissions by an active satellite. The United Kingdom became the third country to operate a satellite with the US launch of Ariel 1. Later that year, both Telstar 1 and Ariel 1 were seriously damaged when the United States detonated a 1.4-megaton nuclear device 250 miles over the Pacific Ocean in what was titled the Starfish Prime test. The Glenn flight and the Starfish Prime test respectively represented the civil and military bookends of US space interests that were to shape international, commercial, and scientific space activities.
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