What do televisions and space exploration have in common? No, we’re not talking about a cheesy physics joke; rather, this is the story of an often-overlooked piece of equipment that deserves a place in the annals of telecommunication history. Some would argue that the traveling-wave tube (TWT) has not received the recognition it deserves when it comes to the history of space travel and communications—until now. A group of researchers based at the Aix-Marseille Université in France has published a review looking into the history of TWTs, recently published in The European Physical Journal H.