On February 3, 2005, the first satellite based on a Spacebus 4000 platform by Thales Alenia Space, the AMC-12, now renamed SES 10, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan by a Proton rocket.

Fitted with 49 C-band channels and positioned at 37.5°W, its coverage zone includes North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Atlantic Ocean

Forty Spacebus-based satellites are now in orbit, including 23 Spacebus 4000 models, which have logged a cumulated 128 years of operation. The first Spacebus 100-based satellite was launched in February 1985, giving this family 30 years of in-orbit experience that naturally paves the way for the new Spacebus NEO product line.