History
- Guy Lebègue creates the name the Spacebus family
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 name Spacebus was suggested by Guy Lebègue, a member of Aérospatiale's marketing department, and is based on the name Airbus. 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, to the nearest tonne. Spacebus designations were not applied retrospectively to satellites which had already been launched.
Read more about this topic: Spacebus
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