Astra 2D was one of the Astra

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a Transponder (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

s owned and operated by SES and located at 28.2° East in the

geostationary orbit A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular orbit, circular geosynchronous or ...

until June 2015. It was a Hughes Space and Communications HS-376HP

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are less customized than specially-produced satelli ...

and was launched from the

Centre Spatial Guyanais The Guiana Space Centre (; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas region of France in South America. Kourou is located approxim ...

in December 2000 to join Astra 2A and Astra 2B at 28.2° East, where it remained for its active life.

In service

While active, most of Astra 2D's

transponders In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

were used to provide television channels available on the Sky Digital

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

service to both Ireland and the United Kingdom, as well as the non-subscription service,

freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Everyone TV (itself owned by all of the four UK Public broadcasting, public service broadcasters, BBC, ...

. Provision of rights-sensitive broadcasts

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

was made possible by the satellite's beam that was tightly focused on Ireland and the United Kingdom. However, surrounding countries had the ability to pick up the signal (dependent on suitably sized satellite dishes) and so could still access Freesat from outside the United Kingdom. Some channels on Astra 2D were encrypted with VideoGuard (a proprietary encryption method by the

NDS Group NDS may stand for: Places * Lower Saxony (), a federal state of Germany * Norra Djurgårdsstaden, a neighborhood in Stockholm Groups, organizations * National Directorate of Security, the primary foreign and domestic intelligence agency of Afghan ...

) and only Sky Digiboxes with valid cards, or standard hardware with non-approved (with respect to the Sky/NDS end-user contract) "Dragon", or "T-Rex"

conditional-access module A conditional access module (CAM) is an electronic device, usually incorporating a slot for a smart card, which equips an integrated digital television or set-top box with the appropriate hardware facility to view conditional access content t ...

can decode these channels. The

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

broadcast all of its domestic television channels (including

BBC HD BBC HD was a high-definition television channel owned by the BBC. The channel was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007 before its discontinuation on 25 March 2013. It broadcast only during ...

and the

regional variation A regional variation generally refers to times when a radio station or television station simultaneously broadcasts different programs, continuity or advertisements to different parts of its coverage area. This may be so as to provide programmi ...

s) from the Astra 2D satellite, except the

BBC News Channel The BBC News channel is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel owned and operated by the BBC. The channel is based at and broadcasts from Broadcasting House in the West End of London from which it is anchored during ...

and

BBC Parliament BBC Parliament is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel from the BBC that showcases parliamentary content from across the United Kingdom. It broadcasts live and recorded coverage of the British Parliament (House of Commons o ...

which broadcast from Astra 2A. All domestic BBC channels have been free-to-air since 29 July 2003. ITV also broadcast all its television channels (including regional variations of

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 ...

, and STV and UTV) from the Astra 2D satellite. All ITV channels have been free-to-air from 1 November 2005, although some regions reverted to free-to-view encryption in 2008 when their lease on one Astra 2D transponder could not be renewed.

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

broadcast most of its channels free-to-air from this satellite, including Channel 4, Channel 4+1, E4,

More4 More4 is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel launched on 10 October 2005. Its programming mainly focuses on lifestyle and documentaries, as well as foreign dramas. Content The i ...

and Film4 along with their timeshift variants. All were unencrypted apart from the feeds of Channel 4, Channel 4+1, E4 and E4+1 intended for viewers in Ireland, which remain encrypted. From November 2008, Five began to transmit free-to-air for the first time on Astra 2D, using borrowed space on a BBC transponder, allowing the channel to join freesat.

End of service

With a projected lifetime of 12 years, Astra 2D was expected to leave regular operational service towards the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013 and so the

Astra 1N Astra 1N is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES and is positioned at the Astra 19.2°E orbital position. It was launched in 2011 and is the fourth satellite to be built for Astra by Astrium (now Airbus Defen ...

satellite, designed for operation at Astra 19.2°E and launched in August 2011, was initially positioned at 28.2° East to temporarily replace Astra 2D until the start of service of its long-term replacement,

Astra 2F Astra 2F is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES S.A., launched in September 2012 to the Astra 28.2°E orbital position. The satellite provides free-to-air and encrypted direct-to-home (DTH) digital televisio ...

, which was launched in September 2012. Astra 1N started commercial service at 28.2° East in October 2011 with transponder testing in August and September 2011. Channels on Astra 2D started to transfer to Astra 1N in December 2011 with Channel 5 (plus 5* and

5USA 5USA is a British free-to-air television channel owned by Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global, which is grouped under Paramount Networks UK & Australia division. It was launched on 16 October 2006 as ...

), the Channel 4 family and ITV channels all moving to the new satellite over the next two months. On 24 February 2012, the last remaining channels on Astra 2D (the BBC channels) switched off and started transmission from Astra 1N. Until June 2015, Astra 2D remained in position at 28.2° East, with no transponder activity. It was then moved and positioned at Astra 5°E in July 2015. In October 2015, Astra 2D was moved to 57° East alongside NSS-12. In December 2017, it was moved to 60° East. From May 2018 to July 2018, Astra 2D was moved west at 0.65°/day to Astra 5°E. From January 2020 to March 2020, Astra 2D was moved east at 0.9°/day back to 57.2° East, alongside NSS-12. In November 2021, Astra 2D was repositioned at 23.5°E.

Decommissioning

Astra 2D was decommissioned on 27 January 2023, after operating for 22 years 1 month and 7 days, and moved to a

graveyard orbit A graveyard orbit, also called a junk orbit or disposal orbit, is an Orbit (physics), orbit that lies away from common operational orbits. One significant graveyard orbit is a supersynchronous orbit well beyond geosynchronous orbit. Some satellit ...

.''The end of an era: Commercial spinning spacecraft retires''
Boeing. 26 January 2023. Accessed 26 February 2023''Real Time Satellite Tracking And Predictions''
Accessed 26 February 2023 Astra 2D was the last commercial spin stabilised spacecraft built by

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

and the only one still operating at the time of its retirement.

References

External links

SES fleet information and map

Official SES site
* {{Orbital launches in 2000 Astra satellites Communications satellites in geostationary orbit 2000 in Luxembourg Satellites of Luxembourg Spacecraft launched in 2000 Satellites using the HS-376 bus

In service

End of service

Decommissioning

See also

References

External links