Telstar 1, the first satellite to broadcast network television across the Atlantic Ocean in 1962, used only 14-watts of power generated by solar cells. Not only did it broadcast television, send faxes and telephone communications, it also allowed the United States and Europe to synchronize clocks accurately for the first time, within 1 millisecond. Previously, there was a 2 second mis-synchronization between European and American time based on 1950s cross-Atlantic wire technology.

It was destroyed in 1963, by the radiation from nuclear bombs being tested in atmosphere by the US and USSR -- and it's destruction was one of the reasons for the 1964 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, besides the fact that milk being sold in the US was showing up with alarming amounts of Cesium-137 from fallout.