The Trabant, built before her in Trieste was the same in terms of size, appearance and technical design (1890, 610 t), its most similar boat in the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

Similar to the so-called Divisionstorpedobooten in Germany, the Imperial and Royal Navy ordered the three boats of the 360 t-displacing Meteor class as "torpedo ships" from Schichau at about the same time.

Nevertheless, the Imperial and Royal Navy ordered a very similar type from Schichau in 1891, for which the steel used was to be supplied to a large extent from Austria.

The boat with twin screw propulsion, started under construction number 482 in January 1892, was finally named SMS Satellit, was launched on September 21 and carried out its first sea test between Pillau and the Hel on 30 December 1892, reaching 21.86 knots became.

The Austro-Hungarian Navy's first twin-screw ship, delivered by Schichau, had four cylinder boilers that operated at up to 13 atm pressure and generated the steam for two triple-expansion engines that could produce up to 4800 PSI.

[1] The landing of Greek troops on Crete in February 1897 during the Greco-Turkish War led to the intervention of the great powers and the Austro-Hungarian Navy was one of the organizations that intervened massively.

The satellite[2] moved to Crete on 17 February 1897 together with the torpedo boats Sperber, Kiebitz and Elster as the first reinforcement group.

The flagship of the Austrian Intervention Association was the armored cruiser SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia.

[4] The marching division filled in Teodo (today Tivat, Montenegro) and reached Canea (Chania) on 22 February.

While the small torpedo boats had considerable difficulties in the wintry weather conditions, the Satellit managed to locate suspicious ships in the first few days of operation.

[5] The Cretan State, created under pressure from the great powers, led to a large-scale withdrawal of the intervention units.

The Satellit did not leave the mission group off Crete until December 13, which now had only eight units, in order to head north with the formation's new flagship, the coastal armored ship SMS Wien.

In spring 1904 she caught up with the squadron practicing in the Levant in Smyrna with the battleships Habsburg and Arpad and the coastal defence ship Monarch and then marched on via Alexandria, Kefalonia and Valona (Vlorë).

[1] The commander was cleared of any responsibility for causing the accident, but was convicted of failing to initiate rescue efforts and dismissed.

As a three-chimney destroyer, the Satellit was put back into service on 14 June 1913 and completed surveying tasks around the Istrian peninsula.

[1] On 1 August 1916, the Satellit discovered the crew of the Italian submarine Giacinto Pullino, which ran aground the day before near the small Dalmatian island of Galiola, fleeing on a sailboat.