Athena-Fidus (Access on theatres for Europeanallied forces nations-French Italian dual usesatellite) is a French-Italian telecommunication satellite providing high-throughput secure communications to both nation's armed forces and their emergency services. It was manufactured by Thales Alenia Space under the supervision of CNES, the Direction générale de l'armement (DGA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). It complements the lower-throughput but more secure Syracuse 3 satellites. The satellite has a wet mass of 3080 kg and was placed on geostationary orbit in 2014. Its expected lifetime is 15 years.
The satellite was launched by a Ariane 5 ECA rocket on 6 February 2014 during the VA217 mission.[3] After some on-orbit tests, official satellite commissioning took place on 14 March 2014.[4]
Although this is a common program, each country operates its own share of the payload. The satellite provides an encrypted, 3 Gbit/s throughput, using mostly Ka-band links.[5] It carries 14 antennas including 7 mobile spot antennas, enabling positioning of steerable 1750-km diameter spot beams over operational theaters requiring a high bandwidth.[6] France owns five beams and Italy, two. The system will enable communication with deployable ground stations (420 for France[7]), and with drones.[6]
The ground segment for the French part of the capacity is called Comcept. Comcept will provide a network of fixed and deployable ground stations using full-IP (Internet Protocol) technology. The system includes high-data-rate (HDR) ground stations which are installed in a transportable shelter and provide a speed of approximately 10 Mbit/s. The Comcept system is provided by Airbus Defence and Space and Actia Sodielec.[8]
^«Thales Alenia Space will build the Athena-Fidus dual use French_Italian telecommunication system, Thales Alenia Space presse release (in French), 10 February 2010, en ligne www.thalesgroup.com
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
