Manufactured by Thales Alenia Space in its Cannes Mandelieu Space Center, based on a Spacebus 4000C4 platform, it features up to 74 Ku band transponders (12 kW), a weight of about 5.5 tons, and has a lifetime of about 15 years (up to 2024).
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.