Communication professor emeritus A. Michael Noll wrote articles celebrating the 50th anniversary of the communication satellite Telstar. Telstar was the first active relay satellite that received a signal from Earth and resubmitted it back down to connect people on opposite sides of the Atlantic. John R. Pierce of Bell Telephone Laboratories invented the technology for Telstar, which is now inactive, and these innovations paved the way for communication today. Noll also recently edited "Bell Labs Memoirs: Voices of Innovation," which focuses on the people who worked there. Read his Telstar articles below. Telstar satellite: Proving the naysayers wrong Telstar: A half century of information from space