The first Satellite dish to be built at the Goonhilly Earth station. This is an historical structure and indeed a listed building. It is important because it received and sent the first trans-atlantic televisual transmission together with a horn antenna in northern France (still standing – La Radome at Pleumeur-Bodou)
Telstar – the famous satellite was the development that made this possible. Arthur is surprisingly agile, it can turn 360 degrees in a horizontal plane and 180 degrees in a vertical plane, so that it could track Telstar as it passed overhead. Nowadays, satellites are “geostationary” which means that once you have tracked the satellite, it will always be lined up as the earth revolved. Much smaller satellite receivers are needed as a result, making Arthur and many of his neighbours obsolete. Many of these neighbours have now been dismantled but Arthur remains as he is of such huge significance.