An artist's concept of Hellas-Sat deployed in space. Credit: Astrium

Hellas-Sat built by Astrium for the Hellas-Sat Consortium, the first Greek-Cypriot satellite is due for launch aboard an Atlas 5. Hellas-Sat will provide television and telecommunications services for the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004.

The high-power Hellas-Sat spacecraft is a Eurostar E2000+ model equipped with 30 active FSS transponders operating in Ku-band, allowing the transmission of digital TV direct to home receive antennas as small as 60 cm. It will have a launch mass of 3300 kg and will be located at 39 degrees East two deployable antennas will provide Pan European coverage, including Greece, the Balkans and Eastern Europe, while two steerable beams can be moved to cover South Africa and the Middle East.

Hellas-Sat has been built entirely, both platform and payload, by Astrium. Based on its well proven Eurostar E2000+ platform, the spacecraft will have a power level of 7.5 kW and a designed lifetime of up to 15 years. Its performance is particularly suited for television broadcasting.

Thirty three Eurostar spacecraft have been ordered to date, of which 22 have already been launched and have proved highly reliable in operational service.

For Antoine Bouvier, CEO of Astrium, "this satellite demonstrates the flexibility of Astrium and its ability to adapt to the needs of its customers. Our Eurostar product has been ordered by nearly a dozen of the world's leading satellite operators. We are extremely pleased to be working for a new, dynamic customer, and we heartily applaud the symbolic link that Greece has made between the Olympic Games and the space age."

For Mr. Lefteris Antonacopoulos, Chairman and CEO of OTE, the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, the main founding party of the Hellas-Sat Consortium "It is a leap forward made jointly with our Cypriot partners. This project widens our horizons placing Greece among those countries with a presence in space. The Hellenic satellite permits the coverage of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games worldwide, while representing the main channel of broadcasting communication between Greeks abroad with Greece and Cyprus. Moreover, it enables the provision of a broad array of services (for example satellite Internet etc.). Especially for OTE it gives the possibility to provide telecom infrastructure in Greece and to enhance its position in those countries where it is already present".

Five companies are part of the Hellas-Sat Consortium: the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, the Cypriot Company Avacom Net, the Cyprus Bank of Development, the Hellenic Aerospace Industry and Canada's Telesat.

ASTRIUM will be owned at 100% by EADS, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company.With its 7200 employees in France, Germany, United Kingdom and Spain, Astrium and its subsidiaries are currently focusing on satellite business activities covering civil and military telecommunications and Earth observation, science and navigation programmes, avionics and equipments.