France and Italy will build a high-speed dual-use telecom satellite to help their military and government agencies fill a growing call for high-volume communications. Construction of the spacecraft, Athena-Fidus, was approved on Dec. 16 by Yannick d'Escatha, head of French space agency CNES, and Enrico Saggese, director of Italian space agency ASI. The agreement, which had been in the works for more than a year, followed a letter of approval issued in November 2007. Belgium has also agreed in principle to utilize Athena-Fidus (Access on THeaters and European Nations for Allied forces opportunities-French-ltalian Dual-Use Satellite).
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