Editing Spacebus (section)

== History ==
Aérospatiale had produced a number of satellites, including [[Symphonie]], with the German company [[Messerschmitt]]. On 9 December 1983,<ref>Pierre Madon, « Satellites de télécommunications : demain les Spacebus - signature accord franco-allemand », dans ''[[Revue aerospatiale]],'' N° 6, février 1984</ref> 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 [[Arab Satellite Communications Organization|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.<ref>For example, Spacebus 2000 means about 2,000&nbsp;kg</ref> Spacebus designations were not retroactively applied to previously launched satellites.