Object Details
- Manufacturer
- Hughes Aircraft Co.
- Radio Corporation of America
- Summary
- This device is a traveling wave tube (TWT), built by RCA, for use in RCA communications satellites developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
- TWTs have been and remain a critical technology for communications satellites in geostationary orbit. After a satellite receives a signal, processes it, and then prepares to transmit it, the satellite must first amplify the signal to ensure that it arrives at a receiving antenna on Earth with sufficient strength and integrity. Typical TWTs can amplify a signal by a factor of 100,000 to 1,000,000.
- Lockheed Martin donated this artifact to the Museum in 1998.
- Credit Line
- Gift of Lockheed Martin
- Inventory Number
- A19980294000
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- SPACECRAFT-Uncrewed-Instruments & Payloads
- Materials
- Aluminum
- Paint
- Gold Plating
- Kapton Tape
- Anodized Aluminum
- Stainless Steel
- Plastic
- Rubber
- Adhesive
- Base: aluminum
- Electronics housing: aluminum
- OVERALL - ALUMINUM, COPPER, PLASTIC
- Dimensions
- 3-D: 21.6 × 20.3 × 11.4cm (8 1/2 × 8 × 4 1/2 in.)
- Storage: 26.7 × 25.4 × 15.2cm (10 1/2 × 10 × 6 in.)
- Country of Origin
- United States of America
- See more items in
- National Air and Space Museum Collection
- National Air and Space Museum
- Record ID
- nasm_A19980294000
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv9b19e6f31-973b-41c3-9bce-0f3d14cfd186
