Program: Symphonie
French and German telecommunication program. The French Saros project
and the German Olympia project merged with the help of a cooperation signed on
22 Jan 1963 and 16 Jun 1967. The satellites were built by CIFAS, a consortium
gathering Aérospatiale, Thomson CSF, SAT and MBB, Siemens and AEG
Telefunken.
The program enabled the use of the SAMSON (
Station à Antenne
Miniature pour Service Occasionnel Numérique) portable station:
transportable in 2 containers containing telecommunication equipments and a 4.8
m diameter antenna.
The system should have had a 3rd satellite that was never launched.
http://www.op.dlr.de/wt-rm/symphony.htm