[3] In 1982 the governments of Sweden and Norway formed NSAB as part of a wide-ranging partnership for the purpose of "telecommunication satellite cooperation".
[4] On April 2, 1989 NSAB's first satellite, the Aérospatiale built Tele-X, was launched on an Ariane 2 rocket from French Guiana.
[4] In late 1993 NSAB acquired Marco Polo 1, a Hughes 376 geostationary communications satellite, from British Sky Broadcasting.
In this "merger" Sky was the dominant force and their system of transponder lease from SES' Astra satellites was maintained.
[4] In October 2000 SES acquired the shares of Tele Danmark and Teracom to become 50-50 joint owner with SSC.