The Atlantic Bird 1 satellite is being built by an international consortium led by Alenia Aerospazio of Italy as the prime contractor. Alenia Aerospazio is providing various platform subsystems such as the communications repeater, the attitude control subsystem, the communications antennas and the TCR subsystem. Other members of the consortium include the German companies DASA, who will manufacture the propulsion subsystems, Fokker, the solar array, Dornier, the power amplifier within the communications repeater, and Bosch, the payload filters. 

The Atlantic Bird 1 satellite is based on the three-axis stabilized ITALSAT-type platform. Two side-mounted antennas, each 1.8 m in diameter, provide the European receive and transmit coverages. Two, top-mounted, transmit and receive antennas provide the North and South American coverage. These single offset antennas have shaped main reflectors.