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Okay. It's 8.35 a.m. on July 10, 1962 in Crawford Hill, New Jersey. Inside the headquarters of Bell Laboratories, 52-year-old engineer John Pierce hunches over a malfunctioning television. He turns the

dial, searching for the station he needs, but all he gets is static. Then John glances at the clock.

He's running out of time. So out of frustration, John bangs his fist on top of the television.

And the picture miraculously snaps into focus. A wry smile crosses John's

lips. There's an irony in this poor signal. Today marks the launch of a rocket carrying Telstar,

a new communication satellite that John has spent the last two years developing. And if Telstar

works as planned, it will revolutionize radio and television broadcasting

and give America a rare success in the space race.

But right now, Telstar is still firmly on the ground, and John is stuck with a grainy television

picture.

His screen shows a black and white image of a Thor Delta rocket on a launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Telstar satellite is safely stowed inside the rocket's hole.

After fiddling with the antenna just a little bit longer, John barely has time to take his seat

before a voice counts down the last few seconds.

Then the rocket engines roar, flames shoot out, obscuring the launch pad from view for a moment,

before the Thor Delta rocket slowly lifts off, beginning a pioneering flight to take the world's

first communication satellite into orbit.

John Pierce and his colleagues at Bell Laboratories have spent years working on Telstar.

...