a communications satellite 10 having an antenna 12 a main control unit or main controller 14 and a power supply 16 which is supplied with energy by a solar panel 18 for example furthermore the communication satellite 10 has an amplifier module 20 in the form of a traveling wave tube module 20 only one channel of the communication satellite 10 is shown in fig1 typically a communication satellite 10 can have multiple channels which can each comprise a traveling wave tube module 20 the communication satellite 10 can receive a high frequency signal 22 via the antenna 12 and relay it to the traveling wave tube module 20 the high frequency signal 22 is amplified therein to form an amplified high frequency signal 24 and can be emitted again via the antenna 12 or a further antenna the traveling wave tube module 20 is supplied with voltage 26 via the power supply 16 in this case furthermore the traveling wave tube module 20 can be activated by the control unit 14 and can receive telecommands 28 for example which have been received via the antenna 12 and analyzed by the control unit 14 for example fig2 shows a traveling wave tube module 20 in greater detail as a block diagram the traveling wave tube module 20 comprises a traveling wave tube 30 which receives the high frequency signal 22 via a high frequency input 32 and outputs the amplified high frequency signal 24 via a high frequency output 34 the traveling wave tube 30 comprises an emitter 36 using which an electron beam 38 can be generated and a.