Hispasat 1C and 1D are powerful telecommunications satellite based on a Spacebus-3000B2 platform with 28 Ku-band channels built by Alcatel Space for the Spanish company HISPASAT S.A. They offer pan-European and pan-American multi-area coverage. This coverage can extend to certain areas of North Africa. The flexibility offered by the satellite’s design will allow users to benefit from intercontinental links between Europe and the Americas.
Atlas II was a member of the Atlas family of launch vehicles, which evolved from the successful Atlas missile program of the 1950s. It was designed to launch payloads into low earth orbit, geosynchronous transfer orbit or geosynchronous orbit. Sixty-three launches of the Atlas II, IIA and IIAS models were carried out between 1991 and 2004; all sixty-three launches were successes, making the Atlas II the most reliable launch system in history.