Spacebus

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Spacebus
Organization	Thales Alenia Space
Mission type	A platform for Communication satellite in geostationary orbit 62 orders, 47 launched
Launch date	Since 1985
Launch vehicle	All types of commercial launch vehicles
Mission duration	up to 15 years
Mass	from 1.1 ton to more than 5 tons
Power	up to 16 kW

Spacebus is the name given to a family of geostationary telecommunications satellites developed starting in the 1980s by Aerospatiale, now Thales Alenia Space, in its Cannes Mandelieu Space Center.

They can be equipped with different payloads, but they are most often used as communications satellites. Their typical orbit around Earth is geostationary.

Contents 1 History 2 Architecture 3 The Versions 3.1 Spacebus 100 3.2 Spacebus 300 3.3 Spacebus 2000 3.4 Spacebus 3000 3.4.1 Spacebus 3000A 3.4.2 Spacebus 3000B2 3.4.3 Spacebus 3000B3 3.4.4 Spacebus 3000B3S 3.5 Spacebus 4000 3.5.1 Spacebus 4000B2 3.5.2 Spacebus 4000B3 3.5.3 Spacebus 4000C1 3.5.4 Spacebus 4000C2 3.5.5 Spacebus 4000C3 3.5.6 Spacebus 4000C4 4 Express-4000 5 Synthesis as June 3, 2008 6 Records 7 Footnotes and Sources 8 External links

[edit] History

During that period, Aerospatiale was allied with the German company Messerschmitt (MBB) for the manufacture of satellites, among which was the Franco-German Symphonie program. After an in-house brainstorming within the two firms, it was Guy Lebègue, an engineer in the marketing department of Aerospatiale/Satellites, who invented the Spacebus name, with reference to the aeronautic program Airbus. The name is trademarked.

A franco-German Spacebus agreement was signed, on December 9, 1983 between Henri Martre, Aerospatiale's CEO and Hans Vogels, the MBB's President. The trademark was registered.

The Spacebus name becomes a product. Many dozens of them were built and sold on the export market, bringing a lot of curencies to the countries of the participating firms, increasing their Balance of trade as regard of the price of a Spacebus, close to the Airbus A 320 price.

A number follows the name representing the weight class of the satellites. 1000 for the metric ton, 2000, etc.

The name Spacebus was also given to satellites which were being manufactured while the trademark was being registered, although they have a different architecture (but not the Symphonie satellites which had already been launched several years before, and are not therefore in the Spacebus family.

• Spacebus100for the first generation Arabsat satellites
• Spacebus 300 for the direct television satellites in the Franco-German program, and the Swedish Tele-X program.

[edit] Architecture

Main article: Service module

A satellite is generally composed of two sections: the payload, which is specific to the mission (telecommunications, Earth observation, navigation, science, etc.) and the platform (or service module) which provides the payload with all the necessary functions.

The idea was to develop a generic platform able to adapt itself to various future missions and to the evolutions in the capacity of launch vehicles in order to reduce manufacturing costs and if possible to create a series effect.

And in fact, more than sixty Spacebuses have been built, since the SB1000 Arabsat satellites in the one-ton class in 1981 up to the SB4000, weighing more than four tons, of the years 2000.

The architecture of the platform is based on:

• A modular design with separate U-shaped payload module, allowing parallel integration between Aerospatiale for the Service Module and a telecom equipment manufacturer for the Communication Payload, followed by the final mating, and test in the Cannes Space Center.
• A central tube in composite material made of a composite honeycomb and carbon fibre sandwich, acting as the satellite’s spinal column, interfacing with the launcher, housing two fuel tanks. Several panels are attached to it caring equipment for servicing. Also attached are three panels carrying the telecommunications payload equipment, two of which (in honeycomb sandwich with aluminium sides to let calories pass through) will act as thermal radiators allowing the heat generated by the payload to dissipate into the cold of space by radiation. At the beginning, these elements were produced in the Les Mureaux centre of Aerospatiale. After the separation of its satellite activity, the space centre in Cannes Mandelieu took over the manufacture of these elements in composite materials, and in particular, the production of the all the plane structures. The central tube, requiring very special tooling remained in Les Mureaux, which had become EADS. A second source is SAAB in Sweden.

• A thermal control system necessitating very sophisticated computation programs and technologies which were developed in Cannes: dissipating radiators, super insulation, electric heaters, heat pipes.
• Rigid solar cells arrays, with various combinations of panels depending on the electrical power requirements
• An electric architecture developed by ETCA in Belgium, with batteries of evolving technology from Nickel-Hydrogen to Lithium-Ion.
• Chemical propulsion based on bi-propellant technology developed by MBB in Germany. The electric propulsion was also studied, developed and introduced for two satellites: Stentor and Astra-1K, both of which were unfortunately lost during launch.
• A three-axis attitude and orbit control system developed initially by MBB.
• Various mechanisms for opening solar arrays and antennas developed and built in Cannes.

[edit] The Versions

The Spacebus evolution towards heavier satellites followed the capacity of launchers from Ariane 1 to Ariane 5. But it should be noted that Spacebuses have always been designed to adapt to all available launchers on the commercial market: not only the various versions of Ariane, but also Thor Delta, Atlas rocket, Soyuz, Proton, Long March and even exceptionally for launch by the Space Shuttle Discovery for one of the Arabsat satellites launched on the STS-51-G mission. These versions will be declined in the following charts. The tables show the “end of mission” meaning the end of operational use; after which, the satellite is often uncontrolled, perhaps slightly de-orbited (a manoeuvre strongly recommended by the satellite operator), and will drift for eternity, its “end of life” not signifying very much. Please also note that certain satellites have changed operators, either before launch or during their orbital life. They can even in this case change their orbital position.

[edit] Spacebus 100

This was, in 1981, the first appearance of the definitive architecture with the production of the first three Arabsat-1 satellites for the 22 members of the Arab League and its Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat), with 2 KW of electrical power. Later on during the programme, the name Spacebus 1000 may be used, to allow more easy comparison with the Spacebus 2000 satellites.

Launchers

• Two were launched by Ariane in its Ariane 3 and Ariane 4 versions
• Arabsat-1B was lauched by the Space Shuttle, STS-51-G mission to which Patrick Baudry was participating. It needs an additional rocket motor to transfer the satellite between the Low Earth orbit of the Shuttle to the geosynchronous transfer orbit: PAM-D.

The Spacebus 100’s listed in chronological order of launching

N°	Contract Date	Satellite	Customer	Mass (kg)	Payload	Launcher	Launch	End of mission	Comment
1	May 25, 1981	Arabsat-1A	Arabsat	1170	25C + 2S	Ariane 3 V12	February 2, 1985	1991
2	May 25, 1981	Arabsat-1B	Arabsat	1270	25C + 2S	Space Shuttle	June 17, 1985	oct 1992
3	May 25, 1981	Arabsat-1C	Arabsat	1360	25C + 2S	Ariane 44L V49	February 26, 1992	1997	sold 1997-> Insat 2DT

[edit] Spacebus 300

As mentioned in the history chapter, this name was given to five direct-to-home television satellites, with 4.3 KW of electrical power, in the Franco-German program:

• TDF for France and
• TV-SAT for Germany,
• and the Swedish Tele-X program for the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC).

Launchers

Both were launched using Ariane (rocket)

• Ariane 2, in single launch
• Ariane 4, in dual launch.

The Spacebus 300’s listed in chronological order of launching

N°	Contract Date	Satellite	Customer	Mass (kg)	Payload	Launcher	Launch	End of mission	Comment
1	July 14, 1982	TVSAT-1	Deutsche Bundespost	2077	5 Ku 230W	Ariane 2 V20	November 21, 1987	No mission	satellite failure when launched
2	July 14, 1982	TDF-1	TDF	2136	5 Ku 230W	Ariane 2 V26	October 28, 1988	fin 1995
3	October 10, 1983	Tele-X	SSC	2142	5 Ku 230W	Ariane 2 V30	April 2, 1989	mid-1996
4	July 14, 1982	TVSAT-2	Deutsche Bundespost	2130	5 Ku 230W	Ariane 44LP V33	August 8, 1989	mid-1996
5	September 9, 1985	TDF-2	TDF	2096	5 Ku 230W	Ariane 44L V37	July 24, 1990	mid-1997	Launched with DFS2

[edit] Spacebus 2000

The architecture evolves upwards with the availability of the new Ariane 4 launcher. Electrical power supply is 3.5 KW.

The customers diversify.

• Eutelsat. It becomes the first customer of the Spacebus family, ordering 6 satellites.
• Nahuelsat, an Argentinean company of which SES became a shareholder.
• Türk Telekom and its series of Turksats for Turkey, delivered on a turnkey basis.
• GE Americom which takes over the Nahuel 1B satellite which becomes GE-5 for the United States and which became AMC 5 when taken over by SES.

GE-5 is the First European satellite saled to USA.

Launchers

• Ten amnong eleven of these satellites were launched by Ariane 4, but unfortunately two of them were lost due to a launch failure of V63 on 1994-01-24. But especially, the Spacebuses become the number one customers of Arianespace.
• A new launcher is used: Atlas (missile).

The Spacebus 2000’s listed in chronological order of launching

N°	Contract Date	Satellite	Customer	Mass (kg)	Payload	Launcher	Launch	End of mission	Comment
1	May 6, 1986	Eutelsat II-F1	Eutelsat	1878	16 Ku	Ariane 44LP V38	August 30, 1990	1998	48°E
2	May 6, 1986	Eutelsat II-F2	Eutelsat	1878	16 Ku	Ariane 44L V41	January 15, 1991	2001	12,5°W
3	May 6, 1986	Eutelsat II-F3	Eutelsat	1674	16 Ku	Atlas	December 7, 1991	1998	21,5°E
4	June 13, 1986	Eutelsat II-F4	Eutelsat	1877	16 Ku	Ariane 44L V51	July 9, 1992	1999	28,5°E
5	1989	Eutelsat II-F5	Eutelsat	1880	16 Ku	Ariane 44L V63	January 24, 1994	-	Launch Failure
6	1990	Turksat 1A	Türk Telekom	1783	16 Ku	Ariane 44LP V63	January 24, 1994	-	Launch Failure
7	1990	Turksat 1B	Türksat AS	1418	16 Ku	Ariane 44LP V66	August 10, 1994	2006	31.3°E
8	1990	Hotbird-1	Eutelsat	1800	16 Ku	Ariane 44LP V71	March 28, 1995	1999	Ex Eutelsat II-F6
9	-	Turksat 1C	Türksat AS	1743	22Ku + 12C	Ariane 44L V89	July 9, 1996	2008	42°E launched with Arabsat-2A
10	-	Nahuel-1A	Nahuelsat	1700	18 Ku	Ariane 44L V93	January 31, 1997	-	72°W
11	-	GE5	GE Americom	1721	16 Ku	Ariane 44L V113	October 28, 1998	-	79°W > ex Nahuel-1B > then AMC5

[edit] Spacebus 3000

In the advent of Ariane 5 launches the Spacebus 3000 appears with masses between 2 and 6 metric tons and electrical power supply of 5 to 16 KW. It is declined into several versions profiting from the ever larger payload fairings.

In 1991 the cooperation was further extended with the creation of "Satellite Alliance" which brought in three partners: Alcatel Espace, Alenia and Space Systems/Loral.

[edit] Spacebus 3000A

First version developed for the second generation for Arabsat. It was adopted by two new customers:

• Shinawatra private customer from Thailand and its Thaicom satellites, the first Spacebus to cover Asia, becoming Thailand's Shin Satellite Ltd for the Thaicom 5
• Sinosat for China and the satellite Sinosat-1. The customer is EuraSpace, a common 50/50 subsidiary between DASA and China Aerospace Corporation (CASC).

Launchers

• Always Ariane 4
• A first launch with Ariane 5: Thaïcom 5.
• A new launcher is used for Sinosat: the Chinese Long March Rocket.

The Spacebus 3000A’s listed in chronological order of launching

N°	Contract Date	Satellite	Customer	Mass (kg)	Payload	Launcher	Launch	End of mission	Comment
1	April 17, 1993	Arabsat-2A	Arabsat	2500	22C + 12Ku	Ariane 44L V89	July 9, 1996	-	26°E Launched with Turksat-1C
2	April 17, 1993	Arabsat-2B	Arabsat	2500	22C + 12Ku	Ariane 44L V92	November 13, 1996	-	30,5°E
3	January 16, 1995	Thaicom 3	Shinawatra	2650	25 C + 14 Ku	Ariane 44LP V95	April 16 1997	October 2, 2006	78°E
4	0ctober, 1995	Sinosat-1	EuraSpace	2820	24C + 14Ku	LM-3B	July 18, 1998	-	110.5°W name changed to Xinnuo-1
5	-	Thaicom 5	Shin Satellite Ltd	2766	25 C + 14 Ku	Ariane 5 ECA	May 27, 2006	-	ex Thaicom 4, Agrani 2

[edit] Spacebus 3000B2

For the B version, the dimensions of the satellite base are 2.3 x 1.8 meters. For the version B2, the height of the platform is 2.8 meters enabling a radiating surface and electrical power supply accommodating up to 6.5 kW.

New customers:

• Nordic Satellite AB (NSAB), a Scandinavian operator which became SES Sirius on December 1st 2005.
• Hispasat, Spanish operator for civil and governmental telecommunications
• Bundeswehr, the German army.

Launchers

• Always a majority of Ariane 4
• Tree new Atlas
• One Ariane 5
• A new launcher is used: Delta IV rocket

The Spacebus 3000B2’s listed in chronological order of launching

N°	Contract Date	Satellite	Customer	Mass (kg)	Payload	Launcher	Launch	End of mission	Comment
1	July 5, 1995	Sirius 2	NSAB	2930	32 Ku	Ariane 44L V102	November 12, 1997	-	4,8°E
2	July 10, 1995	Eutelsat W2	Eutelsat	2950	34 Ku	Ariane 44L V111	October 5, 1998	-	16°E
3	November 8, 1997	Arabsat-3A	Arabsat	2708	18Ku	Ariane 44L V116	February 2, 1999	-	26°E > Badr 3
4	July 10, 1995	Eutelsat W6	Eutelsat	3183	-	Atlas-2AS	April 12, 1999	-	21,5°E Ex Eutelsat W3
5	1997	HISPASAT-1C	Hispasat	3113	-	Atlas-2AS	February 3, 2000	-	30°W
6	July 10, 1995	Eutelsat W4	Eutelsat	2950	-	Atlas-3A	May 24, 2000	-	36°E
7	-	Eurobird 1	Eutelsat	3050	24 Ku	Ariane 5 V140	March 8, 2001	-	28°E - Ex W1
8	-	Atlantic Bird 2	Eutelsat	3150	26 Ku	Ariane 44P V144	September 9, 2001	-	8°W
9	-	HISPASAT-1D	Hispasat	3288	28 Ku	Atlas-2AS	September 18, 2002	-	30°W
10	-	Eutelsat W5	Eutelsat	3170	24 Ku	Delta IV	November 20, 2002	-	78,5°E
11	September 4, 2006	SatcomBw-2a	Bundeswehr	2500	UHF + SHF	-	-	-
12	September 4, 2006	SatcomBw-2b	Bundeswehr	2500	UHF + SHF	-	-	-

[edit] Spacebus 3000B3

For this category, the height of the satellite body is 3.7 meters, allowing for 8.5 kW of electrical power. Six new customers:

• SES Americom, a private American operator.
• Eurasiasat, Monaco, result of an agreement between Alcatel Space (25%) and Turksat AS (75%) becoming Turksat AS (Turksat Satellite Communication and Cable TV Operation AS).
• Centre National d'Études Spatiales, (CNES), France for its experimental satellite STENTOR
• PanAmSat
• Brasilsat, a Brazilian operator.
• The company Stellat created in 2001 by France Telecom (70%) and by Europe*Star (30%) subsidiary of Alcatel Space and Space Systems/Loral. Headquarters of the company are in France. In September 2002, France Telecom participation became 100%. In August 2002, FT sold the company to Eutelsat. Stellsat 5 took the name Atlantic Bird 3.

Launchers

• A last Ariane 4
• One Atlas 5
• Ariane 5 become the First launcher
• A new launcher: the Russian Proton-K Briz-M

The Spacebus 3000B3’s listed in chronological order of launching

N°	Contract Date	Satellite	Customer	Mass (kg)	Payload	Launcher	Launch	End of mission	Comment
1	-	Turksat 2A	Türksat AS	3525	34 Ku	Ariane 44P V137	January 10, 2001	-	42°E - = Eurasiasat 1
2	-	Atlantic Bird 3	Stellat	4100	35Ku + 10C	Ariane 5 ECA	July 5, 2002	-	5°W ex Stella 5
3	-	Hot Bird 6	Eutelsat	3905	28 Ku + 4 Ka	Atlas 5	August 21, 2002	-	TVD 13°E
4	-	Stentor	CNES	2080	6Ku + 1EHF	Ariane 5	December 11, 2002	-	Launcher failure
5	-	AMC 9	SES Americom	4100	24C + 24Ku	Proton-K Briz-M	June 6, 2003	-	79°W ex GE 12
6	July 2003	Hot Bird 7A	Eutelsat	4100	38 Ku	Ariane 5 ECA	March 11, 2006	-	TVD 13°E
7	-	Galaxy 17	PanAmSat	4100	24Ku + 24C	Ariane 5	May 5, 2007	-	74°W
8	June, 2003	Star One C1	Brazilsat	4100	28C + 16Ku + 1X	Ariane 5	November 14, 2007	-	65°W =Simon Bolivar 1
9	January, 2005	Star One C2	Brazilsat	4100	28C + 16Ku + 1X	Ariane 5	April 18, 2008	-	70°W =Simon Bolivar 2

[edit] Spacebus 3000B3S

A new customer: SES Astra in Luxembourg. A single satellite in this class: Astra 1K. At the time it was this biggest commercial communications satellite ever built with an electric power supply of 13 kW. Unfortunately it was lost at launch due to a failure of the Proton rocket.

The Spacebus 3000B3’s

N°	Contract Date	Satellite	Customer	Mass (kg)	Payload	Launcher	Launch	End of mission	Comment
1	1997	Aatra-1K	SES Astra	5250	52Ku + 3Ka	Proton	November 25, 2002	-	Launch failure

[edit] Spacebus 4000

The 4000 family appears with mainly a modification to the avionics (Avionics 4000):

• Electrical architecture of the platform goes from 50 to 100 Volts
• On-board computer is very integrated, flexible and modular
• Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS)with Star-tracker for use in geostationary orbit (a world first).

The family is declined like the B series according to the height of the satellite in 4000B2, 4000B3. And a new C version appears whose basic dimensions are 2.2 x 2.0 meters.

[edit] Spacebus 4000B2

Two new customers:

• Telenor, Norway
• Nilesat, Egypt^[1]

The Spacebus 4000B2’s listed in chronological order of launching

N°	Contract Date	Satellite	Customer	Mass (kg)	Payload	Launcher	Launch	End of mission	Comment
1	February 23, 2006	Türksat-3A	Turksat AS	3060	24 Ku	Ariane 5	Scheduled May 2008 (already in CSG)	-	42°E
2	April 24, 2007	Thor 6	Telenor	3000	36 Ku	Ariane 5	Mid-2009	-	1°W
3	June 3, 2008	Nilesat-201	Nilesat	3200	24 Ku + 4 Ka	Ariane 5	2010	-	7°W

[edit] Spacebus 4000B3

For the B3 version, the height of the satellite is 3.7 meters with a power supply of 8.5 kW. Three new customers:

• The French military procurement agency (Délégation générale pour l'armement) for a series of Syracuse 3’s
• Regional African Satellite Communication Organization, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, with a Rascom-QAF1 satellite. Launched aboard an Ariane 5GS rocket^[2], on 2007-12-21, the satellite encountered a propulsion failure during the first apogee manoeuvre. On 2008-02-04, Thales Alenia Space announced that the satellite has been placed in its final geostationary orbit at 2.85° East, but with a lifetime expected to be slightly over 2 years instead of 15 expected^[3].
• PT Indosat Tbk and one Palapa-D satellite for Indonesia, Australia, Asian contries and Middle-East.

Launchers

• Four among the five satellites are, or will be, launched by Ariane 5
• Palapa will be launched by Long March.

The Spacebus 4000B3’s listed in chronological order of launching

N°	Contract Date	Satellite	Customer	Mass (kg)	Payload	Launcher	Launch	End of mission	Comment
1	-	Syracuse-3A	DGA	3725	SHF + EHF	Ariane 5	October 13, 2005	-	47°E
2	-	Syracuse-3B	DGA	3725	SHF + EHF	Ariane 5	August 10, 2006	-	5.2°W
3	-	Rascom-QAF1	RascomStar-QAF	3200	8C + 12Ku	Ariane 5	December 21, 2007	-	2.85°E
4	June 29, 2007	Palapa-D	PT Indosat Tbk	4100	24+11C + 5Ku	LM-3B	End 2009	-	113°E

[edit] Spacebus 4000C1

For the C1, the height is 4 meters and the electrical power supply is 8.5 kW.

A new customer: Korea Telecom, for South Korea.

A new type of launcher is used: Zenit rocket on the mobile launch base on the equator, Sea Launch.

The Spacebus 4000C1’s listed in chronological order of launching

N°	Contract Date	Satellite	Customer	Mass (kg)	Payload	Launcher	Launch	End of mission	Comment
1	-	Koreasat-5	Korea Telecom	4465	-	Zenit 3SL	August 22, 2006	-

[edit] Spacebus 4000C2

With a height of 4.5 meters, the power installed is 10.5 kW.

Three new Chinese customers ordered this version:

• APT Satellite Company Ltd, Hong Kong, China
• Chinasat, China Satellite Communication Corporation, Beijing, China, operated by China's Ministry of Post and Telecommunications
• China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite Corporation (Chinasat, Zhongxing).

Launchers

For all these satellites dedicated to broadcasting over China, it's the Long March launcher which is used.

The Spacebus 4000C2’s listed in chronological order of launching

N°	Contract Date	Satellite	Customer	Mass (kg)	Payload	Launcher	Launch	End of mission	Comment
1	-	APStar 6	APT Satellite Company Ltd	4680	38C + 12Ku	CZ-3B	April 12, 2005	-	134°E - ex APStar 5B
2	June 11, 2004	Chinasat 9	Chinasat	4500	22 Ku	CZ-3B	Scheduled June, 2008	-	Zhongxing 9, ZX 9
3	December 6, 2005	Chinasat 6B	ChinaSatcom	4600	38 C	CZ-3B	July 5, 2007	-

[edit] Spacebus 4000C3

With a height of 5.1 meters, this family can carry 13 kW of solar arrays.

Two customers already identified:

• SES Americom with two AMC satellites, which were launched using Proton
• Eutelsat with a W3B, ordered^[4] on Fébruary 26, 2008

The Spacebus 4000C3’s listed in chronological order of launching

N°	Contract Date	Satellite	Customer	Mass (kg)	Payload	Launcher	Launch	End of mission	Comment
1	-	AMC 12	SES Americom	4979	72 C	Proton-K Briz-M	February 3, 2005	-	37,5°W ex GE1i, Astra 4A, Star One C1, now Worldsat-2
2	-	AMC 23	SES Americom	4981	18C + 20Ku	Proton-K Briz-M	December 29, 2005	-	ex GE 2i, Worldsat 3, 172,0°E
3	February 26, 2008	Eutelsat W3B	Eutelsat	5400	3Ka + 53Ku		2010		7°E

[edit] Spacebus 4000C4

With a height of 5.5 meters, this family can receive 16 kW of solar arrays.

A new customer : Ciel Satellite, in Canada.

Launchers

• Two will be launched by Zenith from Sea Launch
• Ciel 2 will be launched by Proton managed by International Launch Services.

The Spacebus 4000C4’s listed in chronological order of launching

N°	Contract Date	Satellite	Customer	Mass (kg)	Payload	Launcher	Launch	End of mission	Comment
1	March, 2006	Ciel 2	Ciel Satellite	5575	32 Ku	Proton-K Briz-M	Beginning of 2009	-	129°W
2	September, 2006	Eutelsat-W2A	Eutelsat	5700	46Ku + 10C + S	Zenit 3SL	2009	-	10°E
3	December 21, 2006	Eutelsat-W7	Eutelsat	5600	70 Ku	Zenit 3SL	2009	-	36°E

[edit] Express-4000

On December 6, 2007, Thales Alenia Space and the Russian company NPO PM, in Krasnoyarsk, signed^[5] an industrial agreement for the development of a powerful multimission platform, named Express-4000, based on the Spacebus 4000 architecture.

Express-4000 is a platform for direct injection (GSO) in geostationary orbit, compatible with the Proton rocket launcher, built, integrated in Krasnoïarsk and sale by NPO PM. On-board will be installed a telecommunications payload build by Thales Alenia Space.

[edit] Synthesis as June 3, 2008

The three latest News[6] 2008, June 3: Thales Alenia Space wins Nilesat-201 satellite contract, a Spacebus 4000B2[1]. 2008, April 18: Star One C2 is successfully launched by Ariane 5 in Kourou at 22:43 GMT 2008, February 29: Thales Alenia Space today announced that it has transferred the Turksat 3A and the Star One C2 communications satellite to the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana[7].

• Ordered: 63
• Delivered: 53
• Under construction: 10
• Launched with success: 48
• Lost during launch: 4

Launchers used

• Ariane 4: 21
• Ariane 5: 13
• Atlas: 6
• Ariane 1 à 3: 4
• Proton: 4
• Long March: 3
• Delta: 1
• Zenith: 1
• Shuttle: 1

[edit] Records

• February 2, 1985: launch of Arabsat-1A, First Arab League communication satellite, a Spacebus 100
• October 28, 1988: launch of TDF-1, First European Direct broadcast satellite, a Spacebus 300
• October 28, 1998: launch of GE-5, First European communication satellite saled to United States, a Spacebus 2000.

• November 18, 2007 : launch of the 50th Spacebus^[8] (the Star One C1 satellite , a Spacebus 3000B3) by Ariane 5 flight 179 in Kourou.
• December 21, 2007: launch of Rascom-QAF1, the First panafrican Communication satellite, a Spacebus 4000B3.

[edit] Footnotes and Sources

[edit] External links

• The SPACEBUS Family for Communication Satellites, Paper IAF-85-379, XXXVth International Astronautical Congress, Stockholm, Sweden, October 7–12,1985 - D.E. Koelle, MBB, Ottobrunn, FRG - Jean-Jacques Dechezelles, Aerospatiale, Cannes, France, own archives
• Encyclopedia Astronautica, particularly the permanent following of satellite orbital positions
• Gunter’s Space Page, an its exhaustive lists of platforms, satellites and chronologies for all launchers
• The Spacecraft Encyclopedia and its chronological list of all satellites launched with detailed information
• The Thales Alenia Space website Manufacturer documentation and press releases
• Spacemart, press releases
• Space Newsfeed, press releases