The experimental communications satellite Artemis is to spend its final years operating in orbit with a different owner. The European Space Agency ESA has agreed to sell the Artemis satellite to the London based Avanti Communications firm for a nominal sum so that the firm can use and hold the satellite and its GEO postion of 21.5E. The transaction will be completed by the end of the year. Under the deal ESA will still be able to use Artemis in mid 2014 to providing relay communications to ATV Control Centre in Toulouse, France during the tracking of the final ATV flight. The satellite, which was used for tests on laser communications, also has a communications payload of Ka, Ku and L-band transponders and is expected to work for about two more years. A more detailed description of the transaction is available on Space News.
Artemis experimental comsat and location to be sold to Avanti Communications by ESA
About Seradata
Seradata produce the renowned SpaceTrak Launch & Satellite Database. Trusted by 100 of the world’s leading Space organisations, SpaceTrak is a fully queryable database used for market analysis, failure/risk assessment, spectrum analysis and space situational awareness (SSA).
For more information go to www.seradata.com/spacetrak
Related Articles
A Spanish-German start-up Plus Ultra Space Outposts (Plus Ultra) as expended on its plans to provide reliable, high-speed connectivity for Read more
During December 2021 American "Space infrastructure" company Loft Orbit raised US$140 million in funding. This is its largest round of Read more
Bulgarian small satellite maker Endurosat has joined forces with Kenya's SayarLabs who will respectively build and operate a 3U cubesat-class Read more
While for the most part SpaceX Starlink satellites have proven to be reliable - or at least reliable enough to Read more
The Boeing/Lockheed Martin owned launch provider, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) which mainly specialises in US military launches, successfully launched Read more
SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 49 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, USA. The flight lifted-off Read more
The SpaceX Transporter-3 rideshare mission launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1525 GMT, 13 January carrying over 100 satellites. The Read more
Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, current commander of Expedition 66, and Peytr Dubrov, made a spacewalk from the International Space Station Read more