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The Applications Technology Satellite (ATS-6), the most powerful, most sophisticated, most versatile communications satellite flown to date, is the last of NASA's experimental satellites intended to demonstrate major advances in communications and spacecraft technology. It is a multipurpose, multidisciplinary spacecraft whose principal objectives were to demonstrate a large, unfurlable antenna structure and precise pointing and attitude control in the synchronous orbit. The spacecraft carries 27 different experiments, 3 of which demonstrate users' applications of satellite communications. Significant advances in antenna technology, precise attitude control, materials technology, spacecraft structures, and thermal control have been successfully demonstrated.