The EUTELSAT II series satellites was launched in a geostationary orbit over Europe. Four EUTELSAT II satellites were successfully launched between 1990 and 1992 (1990, 1991, 1991, and 1992). They served both public and private traffic, including telephone services, fax, data, land mobile service, and television and radio programming. Each had a design life of 10 years and a bandwidth of 14/11 GHz.[1] EUTELSAT II F-5 was lost in an Ariane 4 launch failure in 1994.
Satellite description
The EUTELSAT II F-1 spacecraft, had a mass at launch of 1,875 kg (4,134 lb).[2] Constructed by Aérospatiale, it was designed to be operated for ten years and carried 16 Ku-bandtransponders, with eight spares.[5] The satellite contained a S400solid rocket motor to perform orbit circularisation at apogee. Eutelsat II employs two, 1.6 m diameter reflectors, one on each side of the satellite bus.[5]
Following commissioning operations, the EUTELSAT II F-1 satellite was moved to its operational orbital position at 13° East, entering service on 24 September 1990. The satellite was decommissioned in October 2003. It is in a graveyard orbit.[2]
Payloads are separated by bullets ( · ), launches by pipes ( | ). Crewed flights are indicated in underline. Uncatalogued launch failures are listed in italics. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are denoted in (brackets).