~ 2:57

I guess it must have been Echo I. The timeline is right for that. Echo was much larger than Telstar. You could see the sun's light reflected off something that size.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Echo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstar

When crazy ass jocks would shoehorn themselves into tin cans on top of glorified roman candles and boldly go and we'd watch with awe and amazement.

I would have that time again

Telstar is the name of various communications satellites.
The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962.

It successfully relayed through space the first television pictures, telephone calls, and telegraph images, and provided the first live transatlantic television feed.
Telstar 2 launched May 7, 1963. Telstar 1 and 2—though no longer functional—still orbit the Earth.

(Telstar = telecommunication satellite)

There is now a Telstar Bar and Inn @ 2555 7th St, New Kensington, PA.

But, my memory tells me there was a previous Telstar Bar closer to downtown 'New Ken' back in the 1960s,
near the now vacant Citizens General Hospital,
and it had a small imitation satellite over the entrance.

Info of interest to probably no one here.

Rhythm guitarist George Bellamy is the father of Matthew Bellamy, the front man for British alternative rock band Muse.

The guitar sound in the song was inspired by the 1962 number one hit "Telstar" by The Tornados (George Bellamy, Matt Bellamy's father, was the band's rhythm guitarist). The song, taken in entirety, also bears a striking resemblance to George Bellamy's composition "Ridin' the Wind".