---

Artemis finally reaches operational orbit
 
31 January 2003
ESA PR 07-2003. Artemis has finally reached geostationary orbit, some 36 000 km above the Earth, at 21.5°E.
 
This announcement would, if all had gone to plan, been made just a few days after lift-off on 12 July 2001. Now, eighteen months and some serious brainstorming further on, the most advanced ESA telecommunications satellite ever commissioned is on station, ready to play its part in the development of new telecommunications services.

---

Artemis in testing at ESTEC

Artemis vital statistics   Satellite characteristics Mass at launch 3,100 kg Power consumption 2.5 kW Height 4.8 metres Length 25 metres (solar array tip to tip) Width 8.0 metres (with antennas deployed) Launch 2001 Lifetime 10 years Orbital position

---

Mobile payload
Coverage	Europe (to Urals), North Africa & Middle East
Frequency bands	1.5 GHz (L-band) to/from mobiles 12/14 GHz (Ku-band) to/from fixed Earth stations
Voice channels	<360 bi-directional (eurobeam) <662 bi-directional (spotbeam)
Mobile terminal antenna size	20 cm by 40 cm
Data relay payload
Coverage	Approx. 65% of orbits
Feeder/downlink coverage	Western Europe
Inter orbit link (S-band 2GHz)	1 Mbps in the forward direction (i.e. Artemis to low altitude spacecraft) 3 Mbps in the return direction (i.e. low altitude spacecraft to Artemis)
Ka-Band (23/26 GHz)	10 Mbps in the forward direction 3 x 150 Mbps in the return direction
Optical (0.8nm)	2 Mbps in the forward direction 50 Mbps in the return direction
Navigation payload
Coverage	global (specifically Europe)
Mass	25 kg
Power	110 W
Antenna	(downlink) horn antenna (uplink) LLM antenna (2.8 m Ø)
Frequency band	(downlink) 1.6 GHz (L-band) (uplink) 14 GHz (Ku-band)

 

---