ESA's telecommunications programme

The communications satellites developed or planned by ESA are characterized. Currently operative programs such as Meteosat, Marecs, OTS, and ECS are reviewed, and plans for the inclusion of specialized-services modules (to provide high-speed digital links, using the 14.0-14.3-GHz uplink and 12.5-12.75-GHz downlink bands, to multiple small earth stations) on the last four of the five ECSs are discussed. The L-Sat (Olympus) program will be begun in 1986 with the Ariane or Shuttle launch of a demonstration satellite with liftoff mass 3500 kg, array power 7 kW, and a 500-kg payload comprising propagation, specialized-services, television-broadcast and 20/30-GHz-communications modules. L-Sat could serve as a link between the planned European Retrievable Carrier (Eureca) and earth stations, and could provide experience for the design of clusters of intercommunicating independent satellites, or for assembly-in-space projects.