Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer

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.

 Display Status

This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.
Object Details
Country of Origin United States of America Type SPACECRAFT-Uncrewed-Instruments & Payloads Manufacturer Hughes Aircraft Co.
Radio Corporation of America
 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.)
 Materials Aluminum
Paint
Gold Plating
Kapton Tape
Anodized Aluminum
Stainless Steel
Plastic
Rubber
Adhesive
Base: aluminum
Electronics housing: aluminum
OVERALL - ALUMINUM, COPPER, PLASTIC
 Inventory Number A19980294000 Credit Line Gift of Lockheed Martin Data Source National Air and Space Museum Restrictions & Rights Usage conditions apply
For more information, visit the Smithsonians Terms of Use.