Astra 31.5°E is the name for the group of Astra

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth ...

s co-located at the 31.5° east position in the Clarke Belt owned and operated by

SES SES, S.E.S., Ses and similar variants can refere to: Business and economics * Socioeconomic status * Scottish Economic Society, a learned society in Scotland * SES, callsign of the TV station SES/RTS (Mount Gambier, South Australia) * SES S.A., ...

based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. 31.5° east is SES' newest orbital location serving Europe (the others being at 19.2° east, 28.2° east, 23.5° east, and 5° east). The first satellites to commercially exploit this position were the

Astra 5A Astra 5A was one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES at the Astra 31.5°E. Launched in 1997 to the 5° East position by NSAB (Nordiska Satelit AB) (later SES Sirius, and now a non-autonomous part of SES) as Sir ...

and Astra 1D craft, which provided for services

downlink In a telecommunications network, a link is a communication channel that connects two or more devices for the purpose of data transmission. The link may be a dedicated physical link or a virtual circuit that uses one or more physical links or shar ...

ing in the 10.70 GHz-12.50 GHz range of the K_u band across Europe, Western Russia and the Middle East.

Satellite craft in use

Current

Astra 5B Astra 5B is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES. It was launched as SES' 56th satellite in March 2014, to the newest of the Astra orbital positions for direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television, at 31.5° Eas ...

(launched 2014)

* Optus A3 (launched 1987, retired) * Astra 1D (launched 1994, retired) *

Astra 1E Astra 1E is one of the Astra communications satellites in geostationary orbit owned and operated by SES. It was launched in October 1995 to the Astra 19.2°E orbital slot initially to provide digital television and radio for direct-to-home ...

(launched 1995, retired) *

Astra 1G Astra 1G is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES. History SES ordered its Hughes 601HP satellite, in 1994 for Astra 1G. Launch Astra-1G was launched on 2 December 1997 at 23:10:37 UTC, by a Proton-K / DM ...

(launched 1997) *

(launched 1997, failed in orbit) *

Astra 2B Astra 2B is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by Société Européenne des Satellites. Launched in September 2000 to join Astra 2A at the Astra 28.2°E orbital position providing digital television and radio broad ...

(launched 2000, retired) *

Astra 2C Astra 2C is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by Société Eurpéenne des Satellites. Designed to join Astra 2A and Astra 2B at the Astra 28.2°E orbital position providing digital television and radio broadcast s ...

(launched 2001)

Market

Astra 31.5°E is SES' newest satellite position, intended to develop the markets for

direct-to-home Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna commo ...

(DTH) standard definition and high definition TV and radio broadcasting, interactive TV, cable contribution, and DTT and other terrestrial feeds in Eastern Europe and the Middle East – the latter not served by Astra satellites before. Countries included within the intended market for this position, include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Iran, Jordan, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Tunisia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The pan-European beam of Astra 5A provided capacity for cable distribution, DTT and other terrestrial feeds, while 5A's CEE beam provided a high-power footprint for the DTH market. Following the failure of Astra 5A, its replacement first by

and then by

has provided similar coverage and, as of July 2010, there are eight transponders leased on this satellite, including one to provide IP backbone services to small and medium-sized

ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

s in the Middle East and

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

region where terrestrial telecommunications infrastructures are underdeveloped. In December 2010, SES announced two agreements for the lease of capacity on Astra 1G. The first was with the Ukrainian state-owned company, Ukrkosmos, to provide capacity at 31.5°E for broadcasting direct to Ukrainian homes and to cable head ends and terrestrial networks. The Ukrkosmos platform includes the channels UTR, Kultura, KDRTRK, Sport 1, Sport 2, Malyatko TV and Menu TV. The second agreement was with

Central European Media Enterprises Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. (CME) is a media and entertainment company that operates television channels in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Until its acquisition by PPF Group N.V. in October 2020, ...

(CME) which contracted a transponder on Astra 1G for distribution of services to cable head ends in Romania and Bulgaria, starting in January 2011. CME provides TV channels including Pro TV,

Pro TV International Pro is an abbreviation meaning "professional". Pro, PRO or variants thereof may also refer to: People * Miguel Pro (1891–1927), Mexican priest * Pro Hart (1928–2006), Australian painter * Mlungisi Mdluli (born 1980), South African retired ...

, Acasa, Pro Cinema, Sport.ro and

MTV Romania MTV România was a Romanian pay television channel that was launched on 15 June 2002 as the 10th regional channel of MTV in Europe (and second eastern European after MTV Poland) with a big concert ceremony performed by Enrique Iglesias on Lia Ma ...

to Romania and bTV, bTV Cinema, bTV Comedy, PRO.BG and RING.BG in Bulgaria, and is the "anchor customer" for Astra's 31.5°E slot.

Capacity and reach

the Astra satellites at 31.5° east broadcast on 46 transponders (6 Ka-band and 40 Ku-band) to 15.4 million households (11.8 million via

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

, 1.9 million via

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded med ...

and 1.6 million direct to home satellite dishes).

History

The first hint of SES' plan to develop the 31.5° east position as a new 'hot spot' for satellite TV came with the positioning of the ancient Australian satellite, Optus A3 (launched 1987) at 31.5° East (albeit in a 9°

inclined orbit A satellite is said to occupy an inclined orbit around Earth if the orbit exhibits an angle other than 0° to the equatorial plane. This angle is called the orbit's inclination. A planet is said to have an inclined orbit around the Sun if it has an ...

), carrying SES test transmissions in July 2006, to occupy the slot until Astra craft could be moved there. In November 2007, Astra 1D (originally launched to the Astra 19.2°E position but in July 2007 moved to help establish the Astra 23.5°E position) was approaching the end of its design life and was replaced at 23.5° east by

. Astra 1D was moved to 31.5° east, where it operated in inclined orbit, to replace Optus A3. In April 2008, Optus A3 was moved from the 31.5° east position and operation of the

Sirius 2 Astra 5A was one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES at the Astra 31.5°E. Launched in 1997 to the 5° East position by NSAB (Nordiska Satelit AB) (later SES Sirius, and now a non-autonomous part of SES) as Sir ...

satellite (owned by NSAB - later, SES Sirius - and launched in 1997 to the 5°E position) was transferred to SES and the craft was renamed Astra 5A and moved to 31.5° east to officially open up the new Astra 31.5°E position, although control of the craft in orbit was kept with the Swedish Space Corporation. On January 16, 2009 Astra 5A "experienced a technical anomaly leading to the end of the spacecraft’s mission". All traffic ceased, with much of it (especially channels for German cable service, Kabel Deutschland) transferred to Astra 23.5°E. Astra 1D is not suitable for the transmission of these services because it is in an

. In March 2009, SES announced that in April, the

satellite was to be moved from the 28.2° east position to Astra 31.5°E to temporarily take over Astra 5A's mission until Astra 3B is launched to Astra 23.5°E, when another craft currently there can be released to Astra 31.5°E. The satellite move was started in May and completed on May 11 with the first transponders coming into use at the new position in the subsequent two weeks. In June 2010,

Astra 3B Astra 3B is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES, launched in 2010 to the Astra 23.5°E orbital position providing digital television and radio for direct-to-home (DTH), and the AstraConnect two-way satellite ...

(launched May 2010) came into operation at Astra 23.5°E and

was moved from that position to Astra 31.5°E, where it could release Astra 1D for use elsewhere and take over all broadcasting activity from Astra 2C. Astra 2C remained at the Astra 31.5°E position until September 2010, when it was moved to Astra 19.2°E while Astra 1N, which was intended for positioning at 19.2°E, was used at Astra 28.2°E. Late in 2009 SES announced that a new satellite had been ordered for this position.

was built by

Astrium Astrium was an aerospace manufacturer subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) that provided civil and military space systems and services from 2006 to 2013. In 2012, Astrium had a turnover of €5.8 billion and 1 ...

on the Eurostar E3000 platform for DTH, DTT and cable use in Eastern Europe, and was due to be launched in the second quarter of 2013. In October 2013, it was announced that Astra 5B would be launched on December 6, 2013. but in November 2013 SES announced postponement until January 2014 because of delays with the Amazonas 4A craft that was to accompany Astra 5B in the launch rocket. In February 2014 it was announced that the satellite would be launched on March 21, 2014 and the Astra 2B satellite was moved to 31.5°E to provide backup capacity pending the arrival of the new satellite (where it remained until December 2016). Astra 5B was successfully launched to the Astra 31.5°E position on March 22, 2014 and entered commercial service on June 2, 2014.

References

External links

Astra websiteSES network map
{{DEFAULTSORT:031.5 E Communications satellite orbital positions SES S.A.