Page 22 - Italy In Space
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Telecommunication Satellites [7]
February 7, 2001. SICRAL (Sistema Italiano per Comunicazioni Riservate ed ALlarmi, Italian System
for Protected Communication and Alarm management), is launched from Kourou on top of a Ariane
44L launcher. Built by Alenia Spazio (structure) and FiatAvio (engines), it is the first Italian military
encrypted telecommunication system. Commemorative launch cover cancelled in Kourou on the day of
launch. with the manual Ariane 4 postmark.
July12, 2001. Launch of Artemis from Kourou. Built under the prime contractorship of Alenia Spazio,
Italy, Artemis is an geostationary earth orbit satellite (GEOS) for telecommunications and precursor
for the EDRS programme. It is operationally used for data relay from ESA's satellites in LEO. It can
also be used on an emergency basis; e.g., it was used to relay information from the ATV Jules Verne
while mission control at Houston was unavailable due to a hurricane. Launch Cover canceled with the
manual Ariane 5 launch postmark which was in use from June 1996 (maiden flight of Ariane 5)
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