Illustration of satellite Telstar 1 communications satellite, the world's first commercial communications satellite. Telstar 1 was built and operated by the American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) company. The satellite was put in orbit on the 10th July 1962. It provided direct television transmission and telephone communication between America, Europe, and Japan. With an orbital period of 2.5 hours, Telstar 1 could only relay signals between two ground stations for about 30-40 minutes during each orbit, when both stations were in its line of sight.