The European Communications Satellite (ECS) was the first European regional satellite communications system, operated by Eutelsat, with ESA providing the first-generation space segment.
ECS-1 was launched in June 1983 and handed over to Eutelsat in October. It provided services to Europe and north Africa via three spot beams and a single Eurobeam. ECS-2 was launched in August 1984 and added the Satellite Multiservice System for business users. The ECS-1 mission ended in 1996, ECS-2 in 1993. ECS-3 was launched in September 1985 (but destroyed in a launch failure), ECS-4 in September 1987 and ECS-5 in July 1988. Mission end for ECS-4 and ECS-5 was in December 2002 and May 2000 respectively.
Each one of the ECS satellites (with the exception of ECS-3) served well beyond their 7-year design goals and enabled coverage of the whole European continent for cable television, telephone communications, specialised services and Eurovision transmissions. The ECS system altogether accumulated more than 3 million hours of operation.