Satellite phone? Terrific (7)

I believe the answer is:

telstar

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'satellite' is the definition.
(US satellite programme)

'phone? terrific' is the wordplay.
'phone?' becomes 'tel' (short for telephone).
'terrific' becomes 'star' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'tel'+'star'='TELSTAR'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for telstar that I've seen before include "Old satellite" , "Communication satellite" , "Distant transmitter" , "Early sixties satellite" , "Communications satellite" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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