| Mission type | Communication, experimental |
|---|---|
| Operator | ESA |
| COSPAR ID | 1989-053A  |
| SATCAT no. | 20122 |
| Mission duration | 4 years, 1 month |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Bus | L-Sat |
| Manufacturer | Astrium Thales Alenia Space |
| Launch mass | 2,612 kilograms (5,758 lb) |
| Power | 3600 watts |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 12 July 1989 (1989-07-12) |
| Rocket | Ariane 3, V32 |
| Launch site | Guiana Space Centre Kourou, French Guiana |
| Contractor | Arianespace |
| End of mission | |
| Disposal | Decommissioned |
| Deactivated | 12 August 1993 (1993-08-13) |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Geostationary |
Olympus-1 was a communications satellite built by Astrium (at the time of the construction of the satellite British Aerospace and Matra Marconi Space) and Thales Alenia Space (also at the time Alcatel Espace and Alenia Spazio), along with Fokker and SPAR Aerospace, for the European Space Agency. At the time of its launch on 12 July 1989, it was the largest civilian telecommunications satellite ever built, and sometimes known as "LargeSat" or "L-Sat". The satellite had a series of unfortunate accidents in orbit and went out of service on 11/12 August 1993. The first accident was the loss of ability to articulate the satellite's solar arrays. This was later followed by the loss of an on-board gyro during the height of the Perseids meteor shower. The satellite spun out of control and efforts to stabilise it resulted in the expenditure of the majority of its fuel. Subsequently, it was moved to a GEO disposal orbit and was put out of commission. The Olympus bus was reincarnated as Alphabus, made by the same manufacturers, this time for Inmarsat (Inmarsat-4A F4).
References
- ^ "ESA Achievements BR-200 - Olympus" (PDF). ESA. November 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
- "Shooting Stars Can Shoot Down Satellites". IEEE. 31 March 2010. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
External links
- "The sad story of Olympus 1"
- "The Olympus failure", ESA press release, 26 August 1993
- "OLYMPUS", NASA Satellite Communications Systems and Technology, July 1993