Spacebus

Spacebus

Eutelsat 28A, a Spacebus 3000
Manufacturer	Thales Alenia Space
Country of origin	France
Applications	Communications
Specifications
Design life	15 years
Power	16 kW
Regime	Geostationary
Production
Status	In production
Built	74
On order	7
Launched	74
Failed	1
Lost	4
First launch	1985
Last launch	2015-08-20

Spacebus is a satellite bus produced at the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center in France by Thales Alenia Space. Spacebuses are typically used for geostationary communications satellites, and seventy-four have been launched since development started in the 1980s. Spacebus was originally produced by Aérospatiale and later passed to Alcatel Alenia Space. In 2006, it was sold to Thales Group as Thales Alenia Space.

The first Spacebus satellite, Arabsat-1A, was launched in 1985. Since then, seventy-four have been launched, with one more completed, and six outstanding orders. The launch of the 50th Spacebus satellite, Star One C1, occurred in November 2007. It was a Spacebus 3000B3, launched by an Ariane 5 rocket flying from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana.

Several variants have been built: the early Spacebus 100 and Spacebus 300; followed by the Spacebus 2000, optimised for launch on the Ariane 4 carrier rocket; and the subsequent modular Spacebus 3000 and 4000 series, designed for use with the Ariane 5 rocket.

Aérospatiale had produced a number of satellites, including Symphonie, with the German company Messerschmitt. On 9 December 1983, the two companies signed the Franco-German Spacebus Agreement. The Spacebus designation was first applied to satellites which were under construction by Aérospatiale when the programme started. These included three satellites for Arabsat, which became the Spacebus 100 series, and five further satellites: two for Deutsche Bundespost, two for TéléDiffusion de France, and the Swedish Space Corporation's Tele-X, which became the Spacebus 300 series. Later series' names were followed by a number indicating the approximate mass of the bus in kilograms. Spacebus designations were not applied retrospectively to satellites which had already been launched.