for station-keeping or moving over the life of the satellite. Arabsat-1A, the first Arabsat satellite, was launched by Ariane on 8 February 1985. Shortly after launch it suffered a solar panel extension malfunction. Coupled with other failures, the satellite was soon relegated to backup status until it was abandoned completely in late 1991. Arabsat-1B, the second flight model, was deployed in June 1985, from the Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-51-G, and placed into service near 26.0° east, and remained in operation until mid-1992. Arabsat-1C, the third satellite of the series, was launched by Ariane on 26 February 1992, as a stop-gap measure to maintain network services until the Arabsat second generation spacecraft became available. Arabsat-1D, was renamed from the Anik-D2 (a Hughes HS-376 bus originally carrying 24 active C-band transponders). Arabsat-2 By the end of 1994, the Arabsat system had been reduced to only one operational satellite. A contract for two Arabsat second-generation satellites was signed with Aérospatiale in April 1993, to build several additional comsats based on the Spacebus 3000A platform. Arabsat-2A, was launched on 9 July 1996. Arabsat-2B, was launched on 13 November 1996. Arabsat-2C was leased from PAS-5 in May 2002 and moved from the Western Hemisphere during November 2002 to a position at 26.0° E. Arabsat-2D was leased from Hot Bird 5 and moved from the position 13.0° E during November 2002 to a position at 26.0° E. Arabsat-3 On 7 November 1996, a contract was signed with Aérospatiale (Alcatel) to provide the first of the third-generation satellites, to be based on a Spacebus 3000B2 platform. Badr-3 (technically: Arabsat-3A), weighed (at launch) and (in orbit), was launched by a launcher Ariane-44L (# 28) (V-116) from ELA-2 at Centre Spatial Guyanais at 26.0° East with a lifespan of 15 years, as the first satellite of the third generation, on 26 February 1999 at 22:44:00 UTC. Half of its 20 transponders Ku were switched off on 7 December 2001 after a solar-panel malfunction. Arabsat-4 Arabsat let a contract on 22 October 2003 for the manufacture and launch of the fourth generation of Arabsat satellites, based on the Astrium's Eurostar E2000+ platform and Alcatel Space payload. The first of these, Arabsat-4A, was lost in space due to a launcher failure. This led to the ordering of Badr-6 (technically: Arabsat-4AR) on 31 May 2006. The second fourth generation satellite, named Badr-4 (technically: Arabsat-4B), was launched on 8 November 2006.