A European Strategy for Future Satellite Communications Systems
- Paper ID
IAF-96-M.1.05
- author
- company
ESA/ESTEC
- country
The Netherlands
- year
1996
- abstract
When ESRO, the predecessor organization to ESA, initiated studies of communications satellite systems in the early 1970s, together with the parallel development of relevant space and earth segment technology, it was, to a great extent, “breaking new ground” in Europe. The U.S. had already developed an industrial base capable of providing communication satellites, and a number of U.S. built satellites were already in orbit at that time, being operated by the U.S. dominated INTELSAT organization. In Europe at that time, there were also certain national and bilateral communication satellite activities being initiated (the Italian SIRIO, and the Franco-German SYMPHONIE programmes). These were, however, relatively limited in performance (both in capacity and lifetime). The ESRO activities, supported by essentially all of the Member States, were aimed at the development of a pan-European system that would have significant capacity for both intra-European telephony and television distribution.