Hot Bird 3 was launched by Ariane 44LP in 02 sep 1997 and intended to be moved to 10°E to become Eurobird 10.
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Hot Bird 4 was launched by Ariane 42P in 27 Feb 1998 and redeployed to 7°W in July 2006, becoming Atlantic Bird 4 / Nilesat 103
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.
Ariane 5 | Ariane | Ariane 4 | Ariane Mnouchkine | Princess Ariane of the Netherlands | Ariane Brodier | Ariane Moffatt | Ariane de Rothschild |
Launched by an Ariane 4 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana on 28 April 1998 at 22:53:00 UTC by Arianespace, it was manufactured by the European company Matra Marconi Space (Astrium), and started official broadcasting on 31 May 1998 with an Expected Life Time of 15 years.