Insat-2A and Insat-2B of the Insat-2 series of satellites built by ISRO are multi-purpose satellites for telecommunication, television broadcasting, and meteorological services.

They carry seventeen transponders - 12 operating in the normal C-band frequency and 6 in the lower extended C-band. Seven of the normal C-band transponders have wide beam coverage and the remaining have zonal coverages.

For meteorology, they feature a Very High-Resolution Radiometer (VHRR) with a 2 km resolution in the visible band and an 8 km resolution in the water vapour band. Charge Coupled Device (CCD) camera operating in visible, near-infrared, and shortwave infrared bands with 1 km resolution.

In 1990 Eutelsat began the deployment of the second generation Eutelsat spacecraft procured directly from Aerospatiale and based on the Spacebus-2000 design. Each Eutelsat 2 spacecraft supports 16 transponders (with eight spares) operating at 14/11 GHz and 50 W output power. In orbit, the spacecraft spans 22.4 m across the two rectangular solar arrays which generate up to 3.5 kW. Eutelsat 2 employs two, 1.6 m diameter multifeed reflectors, one on each side of the spacecraft bus.

Throughout 1993-1994, the Eutelsat 2 constellation consisted of four spacecraft: Eutelsat-2 F1 at 13 degrees E, Eutelsat-2 F2 at 10 degrees E, Eutelsat-2 F3 at 16 degrees E, and Eutelsat-2 F4 at 7 degrees E. Eutelsat-2 F5 was scheduled to join the network in 1994 but was lost in an Ariane-44LP H10+ launch failure on 24 January 1994. The last of the series, the Eutelsat-2 F6 spacecraft was modified and scheduled for launch in 1995 under the name Hot Bird 1. The vehicle will be essentially the same as its predecessors, but the transponder output power will be increased from 50 W to 70 W.