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The first satellite used by INTELSAT was the American Early Bird (also called Intelsat 1), launched into orbit on April 6, 1965. In the following years, various series of satellites were built (Intelsat 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6), ever bigger and more powerful; the last one, for example, uses cylindrical satellites, with a diameter of 3.6 m, a height of 11.8 m and an orbit weight of 2230 kg.

The Intelsat 6 satellites are capable of providing up to 120,000 telephone circuits and three television channels and are equipped with various combinations of C-band transponders for television channels and Ku-band for direct broadcasting.

The first satellite of this series was launched into orbit on 27 October 1989 by a European Ariane 4 carrier. Between the 1990s and 2001 the consortium continued to upgrade its satellites, creating new series such as the Intelsat 7, 8, 9 and 10, which use more advanced technologies, sometimes with a greater telephone circuit capacity than the previous ones.

Intelsat 9 and 10 were provided to provide advanced digital data, voice and video services for the Internet and Intranet. At the end of 2000, the 144 member countries of INTELSAT, including Russia (which joined in 1991), approved a privatization plan for the consortium, which was implemented the following year thanks to the participation of numerous US and European partners.