The Philips Museum will look back on the launch of the first digital satellite in a documentary. The Eindhoven company played an important role in the construction and design of the satellite that was launched about 50 years ago.
The documentary about the satellite includes Kees Kramer, who was involved in the project as an engineer for Philips. Kramer says that even the Americans were astonished by the project.
“In March 1969, we approached NASA for the launch of the satellite. Even NASA could not believe that a satellite could be controlled digitally from Earth and agreed to cooperate,” says the engineer.
The ANS (Astronomical Netherlands Satellite) eventually went into the air in the US on 30 August 1974. In addition to Philips, Fokker and the Dutch universities were also involved in the project.
Deviating orbit
The launch was successful, although the satellite initially ended up in a deviating orbit. This was no problem for the observations that the satellite had to make. The onboard computer allowed the measurement programs to be adjusted from the ground. The device remained in the air for three years and ultimately made 30,000 observations. In June 1977, ANS burned up in the atmosphere.
The documentary will be shown on Thursday 5 September at 7:30 p.m.
Source: Studio040
Translate: Ayşenur Kuran
