Telstar I

Overview
Telstar I, the first commercial experimental communications satellite, was launched by Bell Telephone Laboratories of AT&T on July 11, 1962. Telstar was to become the most famous of the experimental communications satellites. Its impact on the public was so great that, for a while, the name Telstar became generic for "communications satellite."

Source

 * U.S. Navy, ”From the Sea to the Stars: A Chronicle of the U.S. Navy's Space and Space-related Activities, 1944-2009”," at 50 (2010) (full-text).