The world was startled one day in 1957 when the media reported the launch of the first artificial satellite.
What was even more surprising was that the little beeping object orbiting Earth was not American - but Russian.
Rather lost in the Cold War hysteria was the fact that this was the start of a new age - the Satellite Age.
William Pitfield was born in 1921. His first experience with the phone was in the army during the Second World War using field telephones laid by the Signal regiment.
Having been demobbed, he became a journalist for a local newspaper in Dorchester during the 1950s, before working for some of the major London papers. During this period he began to use the phone in earnest.
Here he talks about how essential the phone became for filing copy through to the newspapers, and how he employed a runner to phone in football results at various times as a match progressed.
Play the audio clip and view the transcript to learn more. A new window will open.
When Neil Armstrong became the first man to step on the moon, on July 20, 1969, the human race accomplished its most spectacular technological achievement so far.
It was also a remarkable achievement for the Post Office's Goonhilly Earth Station in Cornwall, which was designated to act as Europe's receiving station for these historic television and radio broadcasts. Over the period July 16-24, Goonhilly received NASA's transmissions from the USA via the just-launched INTELSAT 3 and relayed them by microwave - not only to British stations but all over Europe as well.
The moon landing transmissions rank with the first satellite link-up with the USA in 1962 as the most significant broadcasts handled by Goonhilly. The station was the first to transmit by satellite a live television programme from Europe to the USA and the first to transmit colour television. It was also the first European earth station to pick up television transmissions direct from Australia and colour television direct from Canada.
Fenced off behind security wire looms the biggest satellite earth station in the world. Looking like a relocated space centre Goonhilly Earth Station sits with its 25 dishes at the tip of Cornwall.
Goonhilly simultaneously handles hundreds of thousands of international telephone, fax, video and data calls, alongside BT's four other Earth Stations. The site can handle 600,000 worldwide telephone calls simultaneously.
The dishes also transmit live television feeds all over the world. In fact, since opening in 1962, Goonhilly has probably helped the world share more amazing moments than anywhere else.
The very first satellite messages from Early Bird and Telstar, the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969 and the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, were all transmitted through here.
More recently Goonhilly has been expanded to handle international submarine fibre optic cables, making it the prime British link station to North America, Europe and the Channel Islands.
