Sometimes it goes haywire at Tesat - for our TWTAs and MPMs there is only one direction: UP! And this in the truest sense of the word, because most (though not all) of our devices climb to about 36,000 km.

Such a satellite start is something special and always interesting to see, even if it is quite quickly over. Here I can especially recommend the starts of ARIANE. In the Internet, not only the start is shown live, but also all sorts of interesting facts about the satellites and their construction are told. With some luck you can sometimes even see some of our amplifiers. The launches take place mostly at night, but if you do not want to stay up, you can watch the clip the next day - but then the tension is gone because you know how it went.

In 2015 a lot of our devices have already been shot into the sky.

• 01/20/2015: Start of 601AG, third flight set. We built the seven SINGLE MPMs in 2010 and since then they were obviously stood on the floor quite long. Photo 1 is an unusual long exposure of the launch, where even the starry sky (or dust in the lens?) can be seen.
• 01/02/2015: Start of INMARSAT 5, second sentence flight. With 42 DUAL MPMs a real hunk - all in Ka-band.
• 02/03/2015: Start of ABS3A with SATMEX-7. Overall, even more devices, namely 54 DUAL MPMs.
• 03/19/2015: Start of EXPRESS AM7, built for Airbus. There were 42 DUAL MPMs and three SINGLE L-band MPMs on it.
• 03/27/2015: Start of Galileo, flight sets 7 and 8, for SSTL (12 SINGLE MPMs in total).
• 03/28/2015: Start of IRNSS 1D - the fourth satellite for an Indian Navigation System. Six SINGLE MPMs are there on board. Photo 2 shows a dramatic photo of the launch.
• 04/29/2015: Start of THOR 7 for SSL (and Norway) with 11 DUAL and five SINGLE TWTAs.
• 05/16/2015: Large bust! The first MEXSAT satellite with six SINGLE MPMs crashed at startup. An error in the third stage of the Proton launcher led to failure.
• 05/27/2015: Therefore here are two satellites launched by one Ariane: namely DTV 15 for Airbus with 75 DUAL MPMs (an almost incredible amount of equipment. The satellite was formally peppered with MPMs, on every corner watching the collectors of TWTs out!) and DTH 1 for orbital with 32 SINGLE MPMs.
• 07/16/2015: The Ariane 5 brings Star One C4 with 64 SINGLE MPMs / TWTAs on board into space.
  

So til middle of July we brought 353 MPMs and TWTAs into orbit in 2015. Now they just have to work another 15 years without interference.

IMAGE SOURCE: Günther Jaumann