Olympus-1

Olympus-1

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)[1]
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.^[1] 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.^[2] The Olympus bus was reincarnated as Alphabus, made by the same manufacturers, this time for Inmarsat (Inmarsat-4A F4).

• "The sad story of Olympus 1"
• "The Olympus failure", ESA press release, 26 August 1993
• "OLYMPUS", NASA Satellite Communications Systems and Technology, July 1993