Antennas for Meteosat satellites

The paper describes antenna activities for Meteosat program developed under ESA´s technical management. The program started in the 70´s and the first satellite was launched in 1977 with VLF, UHF, L- and S-band antennas. The operational Meteosat satellites carried UHF, L- and S-band antennas. Antennas for the Second Generation Meteosat have been discussed in. This paper contributes in complement with early antenna configurations as used for the pre-operational and operational Meteosat program. Together with it provides a description of > 35 year of antenna activities for spinning spacecrafts for the Meteosat program.