Artemis solar array deployment test in ESTEC's facilities. Carrying three payloads plus a number of experiments, Artemis (Advanced Relay and Technology Mission Satellite) was developed for testing and operating new telecommunications techniques.

The L-band mobile payload allows two-way voice and data communications, via satellite, between fixed Earth stations and land mobiles - trucks, trains or cars - anywhere in Europe and North Africa.

Artemis carries two payloads for communications directly between satellites, which receive data from low-Earth-orbiting satellites and transmit them directly to Europe:

• a laser-optical relay terminal called SILEX
• a double S/Ka-band terminal called SKDR

Artemis was launched on 12 July 2001 aboard an Ariane 5 launcher.