The mission was plagued by bad luck at first, but delivered afterwards

Jun 1, 2012 16:03 GMT  ·  By

ESA launched its geostationary Earth orbit satellite (GOES) for telecommunications, Artemis, on July 12, 2001. At first, it had troubles reaching its intended destination, since it was injected in a much lower orbit. After engineers managed to get it to its correct spot, it finally began its science mission.

The spacecraft was launched aboard an Ariane V delivery system, from the Kourou Spaceport, in French Guiana, South America. Selecting the right rocket was also a problem fro ESA, since several delays forced officials to consider using a Japanese H-II rocket instead.

Now in its 10th year of operations, Artemis has long since exceeded its expected life span, and is moving forth with patching communications between Earth and a variety of other spacecraft.

“Artemis has demonstrated technologies that have become standard for many satcom missions and, at the same time, has provided communication services that have exceeded the initial design goals,” ESA Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications, Magali Vaissiere, says.