The OLYMPUS and ITALSAT propagation programs of the Italian Space Agency: an overview of the first experimental results in the 12 to 50 GHz frequency bands

The programs of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in the field of the propagation of centimeter and millimeter waves in Earth space links essentially consists of two experiments: one conducted with the OLYMPUS satellite (at 12, 20 and 30 GHz) and other with the ITALSAT one (at 20, 40 and 50 GHz). In this second case the satellite is owned by the ASI itself, which made the experiment open to a broad participation of European experimenters wanting to cooperate within a common project. The experiments are still in progress and only preliminary results are presented