Eurostar E3000

The Eurostar E3000 is a generic satellite platform, a bus, that Airbus Defence and Space (formerly Astrium) builds for commercial and military communications satellites, and it belongs to the company's wider Eurostar family. Its propulsion is chemical and bi-propellant for orbit raising and station keeping, with an optional plasma system that uses Hall effect thrusters on xenon gas. It was the first commercial satellite family to use lithium-ion batteries for power during eclipses. Most E3000 satellites launch at between 4,500 and 6,000 kilograms, carry solar arrays of 35 to 45 metres producing nine to sixteen kilowatts at end of life, and tend to have 50 to 90 transponders, mostly in the Ku and C bands. Fifty-two satellites have been built on it, among them Amazonas 1 and 2, the Astra 2E, 2F and 2G satellites, KA-SAT, Skynet 5A to 5C and the Inmarsat 4 series. An electric orbit raising variant and the later Eurostar Neo grew out of it.