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Origin and history

The Radôme de Pleumeur-Bodou, located in the Côtes-d Designed by architect Milton Plunnett and the American company Bird Air, it housed a 340-ton cone antenna, covered with a Dacron inflatable envelope, intended to follow the Telstar satellite. The latter, the first telecommunications satellite, allowed transatlantic links limited to 20 minutes per orbit. The site was inaugurated by General de Gaulle on 19 October 1962, after having made the first television transmission in mondovision between the United States and Europe on 11 July 1962.

Radome was at the heart of a larger complex, the Satellite Telecommunications Centre (CTS), which expanded in the 1970s-1980s with satellite antennas dedicated to geostationary satellites (Intelsat, Eutelsat). These infrastructures have played a key role in global telecommunications, including telephone, television and maritime links (INMARSAT). However, with the rise of fibre optic submarine cables in the 1990s, the site lost its competitiveness. It was gradually closed between 1999 and 2003, before being transformed into a museum: the City of Telecoms, opened in 1991.

The Radôme's horn antenna, nicknamed "La Grande Ear", operated with innovative technologies for the time, such as a liquid-cooled master (−269°C) to amplify the signals, or IBM 1620 computers to adjust its score with extreme accuracy (15/1000th degree). Two tracking antennas completed the system: one for a coarse acquisition of the satellite (at ±20°), the other for a precise locking (at ±2°). These equipments, now obsolete, bear witness to the technical challenges to establish reliable intercontinental communications.

The site reached its peak between 1962 and 1985, with up to 200 employees. Of the 15 antennas built, only 4 remain today (PB1/Radôme, PB3, PB5, PB8), the others having been dismantled between 2006 and 2007 for financial and technical reasons. The Radôme, listed as a historical monument in 2000 and labeled Heritage of the 20th century in 2004, is the last example in the world of this type of installation linked to the Telstar program. The site, renamed Pôle Phoenix, now hosts cultural, scientific and economic activities, including a planetarium and a reconstituted Gallic village.

The association Observation Radio de Pleumeur-Bodou has converted the antenna PB8 into a radio telescope, while projects aim to rehabilitate PB3 for astronomical observations. These initiatives highlight the scientific legacy of the site, which marked the history of space telecommunications. The Radôme remains a symbol of international cooperation in the technological conquest, as well as of French ingenuity in a field then emerging.

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