Spacebus is a

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are less customized than specially-produced satelli ...

produced at the

Cannes Mandelieu Space Center The Cannes Mandelieu Space Center is an industrial plant dedicated to spacecraft manufacturing, located in both the towns of Cannes and Mandelieu in France. After a long history in aircraft manufacturing, starting in 1929, the center became incr ...

in France by

Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (company), Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France. It provides space-based ...

. Spacebuses are typically used for

geostationary A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a Transponder (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

s, and seventy-four have been launched since development started in the 1980s. Spacebus was originally produced by

Aérospatiale Aérospatiale () was a major French state-owned aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and arms industry, defence corporation. It was founded in 1970 as () through the merger of three established state-owned companies: Sud Aviation, Nord Aviation ...

and later passed to

Alcatel Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France. It provides space-based systems, including ...

. In 2006, it was sold to

Thales Group Thales S.A., Trade name, trading as Thales Group (), is a French multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence industry, defence corporation specializing in electronics. It designs, develops and manufactures a wide variety of aer ...

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.Christian Lardier, « Ariane-5 : un tir de l'industrie européenne – le 50e Spacebus », dans ''Air & Cosmos'', N° 2100, du 16 novembre 2007 It was a Spacebus 3000B3, launched by an

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a retired European heavy-lift space launch vehicle operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was launched from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in French Guiana. It was used to deliver payloads into geostationar ...

rocket flying from the

Guiana Space Centre The Guiana Space Centre (; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas region of France in South America. Kourou is located approxim ...

Kourou Kourou (; ) is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France in South America. Kourou is famous for being the location of the Guiana Space Centre, the main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency (ESA). It ...

, French Guiana. Several variants have been built: the early Spacebus 100 and

Spacebus 300 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 ...

; followed by the Spacebus 2000, optimised for launch on the

Ariane 4 The Ariane 4 was a European expendable rocket, expendable launch vehicle in the Ariane (rocket family), Ariane family, developed by the (CNES), the Government of France, French space agency, for the European Space Agency (ESA). The manufacturi ...

carrier rocket; and the subsequent modular

Spacebus 3000 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 ...

and 4000 series, designed for use with the Ariane 5 rocket.

History

Aérospatiale had produced a number of satellites, including

Symphonie The Symphonie satellites (2 satellites orbited) were the first communications satellites built by France and Germany (and the first to use three-axis stabilization in geostationary orbit with a bipropellant propulsion system) to provide geos ...

, with the German company

Messerschmitt Messerschmitt AG () was a German share-ownership limited, aircraft manufacturing corporation named after its chief designer Willy Messerschmitt from mid-July 1938 onwards, and known primarily for its World War II fighter aircraft, in parti ...

. 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 The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (often abbreviated as Arabsat) is a communications satellite operator in the Arab World, headquartered in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Arabsat was created to deliver satellite-based, public and ...

, which became the Spacebus 100 series, and five further satellites: two for

Deutsche Bundespost The (, ) was a German state-run postal service and telecommunications business founded in 1947. It was initially the second largest federal employer during its time. After staff reductions in the 1980s, the staff was reduced to roughly 543,20 ...

, two for

TéléDiffusion de France TDF (which stands for ''Télédiffusion de France'' officially renamed ''TDF'' in 2004) is a French company which provides radio and television transmission services, services for telecommunications operators, and other multimedia services � ...

, and the

Swedish Space Corporation The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), also registered as Svenska rymdaktiebolaget, is a Swedish space services company. SSC operations consist of launches of sounding rockets and stratospheric balloons, tests of future generation rocket engines a ...

Tele-X Tele-X was the first communications satellite serving the Nordic countries. It was launched with an Ariane 2 launch vehicle from Kourou, French Guiana, on 2 April 1989. On 16 January 1998, its fuel was exhausted and it was moved into graveyard ...

, which became the

series. Later series' names were followed by a number indicating the approximate mass of the bus in kilograms. Spacebus designations were not retroactively applied to previously launched satellites.

Architecture

Spacebus satellites consist of a satellite bus, which provides power, propulsion, and other subsystems necessary for the satellite's operation, and a payload which is customisable according to the customer's requirements. The bus was designed to be adaptable to perform various missions; however, as of 2009, only communications satellites have been ordered. It was also designed to be adaptable when the capacity of launch systems increased. The bus is made of

carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers ( Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon comp ...

with a composite honeycomb structure. It contains fuel tanks, equipment to interface with a carrier rocket, and other critical systems. External panels contain equipment such as solar panels, payload, and engine. The payload, developed separately from the bus, takes up three panels. Once it has been outfitted with

transponders In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

or other equipment, it is transported to Cannes-Mandelieu, where it is integrated onto the bus. The satellites are powered by rigid

solar panels A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

. Several configurations are used depending on the amount of power the satellite requires. Batteries to store this power are produced by the Belgian company ETCA. Early satellites used nickel-hydrogen batteries, while later spacecraft use

lithium-ion batteries A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are characterized by higher specific energy, energy ...

. Spacebus satellites use bipropellant, liquid-fuelled chemical engines to achieve orbit and subsequently perform station-keeping.

Electric propulsion Spacecraft electric propulsion (or just electric propulsion) is a type of spacecraft propulsion technique that uses electrostatic or electromagnetic fields to accelerate mass to high speed and thus generating thrust to modify the velocity of a ...

was used on the Stentor and

Astra 1K Astra 1K was a communications satellite manufactured by Alcatel Space for SES (company), SES. When it was launched on 25 November 2002, it was the largest civilian communications satellite ever launched, with a mass of . Intended to replace the ...

satellites, both of which were subsequently involved in launch failures. Spacebus Neo will be an electric propulsion satellite. A

three-axis stabilisation Spacecraft attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of a spacecraft (vehicle or satellite) with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, ...

system is used for attitude control.

Models

Spacebus satellites are compatible with a large number of carrier rockets, particularly the Ariane family. As the Ariane's performance has increased, the satellites' capacities have increased accordingly. Guy Lebègue, (trad. Robert J. Amral), « Spacebus 3000: A Platform for 'Satellite Alliance' », in Revue aerospatiale, n°99, June 1993

Spacebus 100

Three Spacebus 100 satellites were produced for

to serve the 22 members of the

Arab League The Arab League (, ' ), officially the League of Arab States (, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world. The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945, initially with seven members: Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt, Kingdom of Iraq, ...

. One of the solar panels on the first satellite, Arabsat-1A, failed to deploy, resulting in reduced power. This, combined with gyroscope issues, caused it to spend most of its operational lifespan as a reserve satellite.

Spacebus 300

Five direct-to-home television satellites were built using the Spacebus 300 bus, which provided of power.

Spacebus 2000

The Spacebus 2000 series was developed to use additional capacity provided by the Ariane 4. Its solar panels generated .

Spacebus 3000

The Spacebus 3000 was introduced around the time the

entered service. Spacebus 3000 satellites have masses from and produce between 5 and 16 kW. Increasingly larger

payload fairing A payload fairing or nose fairing is a nose cone used to protect a launch vehicle, spacecraft payload (air and space craft), payload against the impact of dynamic pressure and aerodynamic heating during launch through an atmosphere. An additiona ...

s allowed larger spacecraft to be produced. In 1991,

, Alenia and Space Systems/Loral joined to form the Satellite Alliance. The first version of the Spacebus 3000 was the Spacebus 3000A, originally developed for Arabsat. They were also ordered by

Shin Satellite Thaicom Public Company Limited is a Thai satellite operator and provider of satellite and telecommunication services since 1991. The company operates a fleet of four satellites covering Asia, Oceania, and Africa. Thaicom is a subsidiary of Int ...

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

and China's Sino Satellite Communications Company.Spacebus 3000 chronology
Twelve 3000B2 satellites were ordered, five of them by

Eutelsat Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it has been the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues. Its subsidiary E ...

for their W Series, one of which later became

Eutelsat 28A Eutelsat 133 West A (formerly Eurobird 1, Eutelsat 28A, and Eutelsat 33C) is a Eutelsat operated Eurobird satellite, used primarily for digital television. It was launched in March 2001, and after a short period testing at 33°E, joined Eutelsat ...

. A sixth order from Eutelsat was for Eutelsat 8 West A. Nordic Satellite AB, a

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

n company that later became SES Sirius, ordered Sirius 2, a replacement for the Spacebus 300-based TeleX satellite. Spanish satellite operator Hispasat ordered two satellites, and Arabsat ordered one satellite, Arabsat-3A. The final two were ordered by the German

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

and were launched on 1 October 2009, and in May 2010, respectively. Nine B3 satellites were ordered, three for Eutelsat, two for

Star One Star One was an Indian pay television channel based in Mumbai and owned by Star TV, with worldwide distribution handled by Fox International Channels. Launched on 1 November 2004, Star One was launched in the UK on Sky in November 2006. Sta ...

of Brazil, GE-12 for GE Americom, Turksat 2A for Turksat, and the Stentor experimental communications satellite for

CNES CNES () is the French national space agency. Headquartered in central Paris, the agency is overseen by the ministries of the Armed Forces, Economy and Finance and Higher Education, Research and Innovation. It operates from the Toulouse Spac ...

. Stentor was lost in a launch failure on the maiden flight of the Ariane 5ECA. Galaxy 17 was successfully launched in 2007 for Intelsat.

Spacebus 4000

The Spacebus 4000 series was derived from the 3000 seriesSpacebus 4000
/ref> but featured upgraded

avionics Avionics (a portmanteau of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the Electronics, electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, Air navigation, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the ...

. The

voltage Voltage, also known as (electrical) potential difference, electric pressure, or electric tension, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a Electrostatics, static electric field, it corresponds to the Work (electrical), ...

of the electrical system was increased from 50 volts to 100 volts, and an integrated onboard computer, designed to be more flexible than previous versions, was added. It was also the first satellite bus to be equipped with an attitude and orbit control system with

star tracker A star tracker is an optical device that measures the positions of stars using photocells or a camera. As the positions of many stars have been measured by astronomers to a high degree of accuracy, a star tracker on a satellite or spacecraft may ...

s designed for use in geostationary orbit. The B series used the same basic structure as the 3000 series. The C version had a base measuring . Eight Spacebus 4000B2 satellites have been ordered:

Bangabandhu-1 The Bangladesh Satellite-1 (BS-1) formerly known as Bangabandhu Satellite-1 (BS-1) is the first Bangladeshi Geostationary orbit, geostationary communications Broadcasting-satellite service, and broadcasting satellite. It was manufactured by Thal ...

for Bangabandhu-1 of

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

, Turksat 3A for Turksat, Thor 6 for

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwi ...

of Norway, Nilesat 201 for Nilesat of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, Athena-Fidus for the French and Italian space agencies CNES and ASI, and Sicral-2 for the Italian Ministry of Defence and the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA), a contract worth about €295m in total, Koreasat-5A and Koreasat-7 for KTSAT and Telkom-3S for PT Telkom Indonesia. Spacebus 4000B3 satellites are in height and generate 8.5 kilowatts of power. So far, five have been ordered, including two for the French Délégation Générale pour l'Armement and two for RascomStar-QAF. The fifth, Palapa D1 for

Indosat PT Indosat Tbk, trade name, trading as Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, abbreviated as IOH, is an Indonesian telecommunications provider which is owned by Ooredoo Hutchison Asia, a joint venture between Ooredoo and Hutchison Asia Telecom Group (a part ...

, uses the ITAR-free configuration, and was launched by a Long March 3B in September 2009, but was initially placed in a low orbit.

made corrections allowing the satellite to reach the planned

geostationary transfer orbit In space mission design, a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) or geosynchronous transfer orbit is a highly elliptical type of geocentric orbit, usually with a perigee as low as low Earth orbit (LEO) and an apogee as high as geostationary orbit ...

on 3 September. It finally reached

geostationary orbit A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular orbit, circular geosynchronous or ...

on 9 September. It is now undergoing on-orbit testing upon its arrival at 113° East about mid-September, where it will be used to provide communications to Asia and Australia. It has enough fuel for 10 years of service, according to Reynald Seznec, President of Thales Alenia Space, instead of the planned 15 years due to the orbit-raising maneuvers. The first Rascom satellite, Rascom-QAF1, suffered a propulsion system failure during its first apogee manoeuvre on 21 December 2007. It was confirmed to have reached its final geostationary orbit at a longitude of 2.85° east on 4 February 2008, but with only two years of expected operational life, compared to the fifteen expected prior to launch. On 9 September 2008, the Rascom-QAF1R satellite was ordered to replace it, also based on the 4000B3 bus.Thales Alenia Space to supply RASCOMSTAR-QAF with a new telecommunication satellite, Cannes, 9 September 2008
www.thalesgroup.com
The Spacebus 4000C1 has a height of , and is capable of generating 8.5 kilowatts of electricity. The only C1 to have been ordered so far is Koreasat 5 for Korea Telecom of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. It was launched by a

Sea Launch Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999 to 2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial l ...

Zenit-3SL The Zenit-3SL was an expendable carrier rocket operated by Sea Launch. First flown in 1999, it was launched 36 times, with three failures and one partial failure. It was a member of the Zenit family of rockets, and is built by the Yuzhnoye Des ...

from the

Ocean Odyssey LP ''Odyssey'' is a self-propelled semi-submersible mobile spacecraft launch platform converted from a mobile Oil platform, drilling rig in 1997. The vessel was used by Sea Launch for equatorial Pacific Ocean launches. She works in concert with ...

platform on the equator, at 03:27 GMT on 22 August 2006. The Spacebus 4000C2, which has a height of , generates 10.5 kilowatts of power. Five have been ordered, all using the ITAR-free option, by companies in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Chinasat ChinaSat () is the brand name of communications satellites operated by China Satellite Communications. History In 2007, a joint venture China Direct Broadcast Satellite was formed to run the brand ChinaSat. It was a joint venture of state ...

, a state-owned company ordered two satellites, whilst the APT Satellite ordered three. All were launched by Long March 3B rockets from Launch Area 2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre. Eight Spacebus 4000C3 satellites, each of which has a height of and generates 13 kilowatts of power, have been ordered. SES Americom and Eutelsat ordered two spacecraft each.Eutelsat W3C ordered, Paris, 12 March 2009
on line on www.satellites.co.uk
/ref> The Eutelsat spacecraft are being built using ITAR-free parts, and one of the satellites,

Eutelsat W3B Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it has been the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues. Its subsidiary E ...

launched on an Ariane 5 on 2010-10-28 and was declared lost on 2010-10-30 due to a fuel leak. Eutelsat 21B was ordered by 9 June 2010.; and launched 10 November 2012;Eutelsat 21B launched with success
/ref> Eutelsat W3D ordered on 3 December 2010;, launched 2013-05-14; Russian satellite operator

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐsˈprom) is a Russian State-owned enterprise, majority state-owned multinational Energy industry, energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. The Gazprom name is a contract ...

also ordered two satellites for its

Yamal (satellite constellation) Yamal () is a Communication satellite, communication and Satellite broadcasting, broadcasting system developed and operated by Gazprom Space Systems. Born out of the connectivity needs of the natural gas extraction giant Gazprom, the system was ...

programmeGazprom & Thales Alenia Space signed the contract for manufacturing 2 Yamal-400 comm. satellites, Cannes, 05 February 2009, Thales Alenia Space Press release
on line www.thalesgroup.com
—the first time it had procured Yamal spacecraft that were not manufactured in Russia. Only one will be a Spacebus, the second one is based on an Express-2000 platform. The Spacebus 4000C4 bus is high and can generate 16 kilowatts of power with its solar panels. Four have been ordered so far: Ciel 2 for Ciel Satellite of Canada, which was launched on 10 December 2008,Successful launch for Ciel II satellite built by Thales Alenia Space, Thales Alenia Space Press release, 10 December 2008
on line www.thalesonline.com
and three spacecraft for Eutelsat, W2A,Eutelsat-W2
On line space.skyrocket.de
/ref> W7, launched by

Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , Hydron (chemistry), H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately times the mass of an e ...

on 23 November 2009. and Eutelsat-8 West B, ordered on 11 October 2012.

Ekspress-4000

On 6 December 2007, Thales Alenia Space signed an agreement with NPO PM of Russia to jointly develop the Ekspress-4000 bus, based on the Spacebus 4000. The Ekspress-4000 is designed for direct injection into geostationary orbit by a

Proton-M The Proton-M, (Протон-М) GRAU index 8K82M or , is an Expendable launch system, expendable Russian heavy-lift launch vehicle derived from the Soviet Union, Soviet-developed Proton (rocket family), Proton. It is built by Khrunichev State R ...

rocket.

Spacebus NEO

In 2014,

started the development of a new family - Spacebus NEO. These new platforms will be available in various propulsion versions, including an all-electric one. The all-electric Spacebus NEO, capable of carrying payloads weighing over 1,400 kg, and with power exceeding 16 kW, will be available starting in mid-2015.''Thales Alenia Space This Spacebus Has Terrific Options...Variety of Versions'', in Satnews Daily, 9 September 2014
Thales Alenia Space This Spacebus Has Terrific Options...Variety Of Versions
/ref>

References

External links

Encyclopedia Astronautica
particularly the permanent following of satellite orbital positions
Gunter’s Space Page
and its exhaustive lists of platforms, satellites and chronologies for all launchers

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
Watch an Ariane 5 launch
{{Use British English, date=January 2014 Satellite buses European space programmes