Many inventions went into communications satellite

Telstar was not one invention but rather a synchronous use of sixteen inventions patented at the labs over the course of twenty-five years. "None of the inventions was made specifically for space purposes," the New York Times pointed out. On the other hand, only all of them together allowed for the deployment of an active space satellite.

Jon Gertner, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation (New York: Penguin, 2012), p. 222