The three Arabsat 1 spacecraft are based on the Aerospatiale and MBB Spacebus-100 platform. Ranging from nearly 600 kg to almost 800 kg at the start of life in GEO, the spacecraft measure 1.5 m by 1.6 m by 2.3 m with a solar array span of about 21 m for 1.4 kW of electrical power. The primary communications payload consists of two S-band transponders and 25 C-band transponders. The nominal design life was seven years.