OTS
The Orbital Test Satellite (OTS) program was inherited by ESA in 1975 from its predecessor, the European Space Research Organization (ESRO). Two of the experimental spacecraft were built, but the first vehicle was lost during a Delta launch failure in 1977. The following year OTS-2 became one of the first GE0 communications satellite to carry six Ku-band (14/11 GHz) transponders and was capable of handling 7,200 telephone circuits. With a mass of approximately 445 kg on station, the OTS-2 bus was hexagonal with overall dimensions of 2.4 m by 2.1 m. Two solar panels with a span of 9.3 m provided 0.6 kW of electrical power. British Aerospace was the prime contractor from the European MESH consortium which developed the OTS vehicle. OTS-2 completed its primary mission in 1984 after which the spacecraft was involved in a 6-year program of experiments, including the testing of a new attitude control technique taking advantage of solarwind forces. In January, 1991, OTS-2 was moved out of the geostationary ring and into a graveyard orbit (Reference 1).
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