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 [1]. This paper contributes in complement with early antenna configurations as used for the pre-operational and operational Meteosat program. Together with [1] it provides a description of > 35 year of antenna activities for spinning spacecrafts for the Meteosat program.