Technical Specifications

The Applications Technology Satellite (ATS) series was a set of six NASA spacecraft launched from Dec. 7, 1966, to May 30, 1974, to flight-test and demonstrate new technologies and techniques for communications, meteorological and navigation satellites. ATS was a multi-purpose engineering satellite series, testing technology in communications and meteorology from geosynchronous orbit. The major objective of the early ATS satellites was to test whether gravity would anchor the satellite in a synchronous orbit (22,300 statute miles above the Earth), allowing it to move at the same rate the Earth is turning, thus seeming to remain stationary.  Although the ATS satellites were intended mainly as test beds, they did collect and transmit meteorological data and functioned at times as communications satellites. ATS provided the first color images from space as well as regular cloud cover images for meteorological studies.