The spacecraft carries earth observation equipment and a 5W S-band downlink, to deliver 60Mbps into a 4m diameter dish system. The spacecraft is operational in mid 2000, and PAL real time images have been returned. The satellite also carries a 16MByte data store.
Pictures show the launch accommodation and launch configuration .
The spacecraft was to be placed into a 580km 51 degree inclined orbit and will weighs 34kg, and measures 450mm cube. The ground station is in Bresca, Italy. The spacecraft downlink is at 137.935MHz. It was placed into a 775km sun-synchronous orbit. The demonstration might lead to a larger communications network of up to 64 satellites with commercial adn military users.