Astra 3A is one of the 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 owned and operated by Société Européenne des Satellites, launched in March 2002 to the

Astra 23.5°E Astra 23.5°E is a group of Astra (satellite), Astra communications satellites co-located at the 23.5° east position in the Clarke Belt owned and operated by SES S.A., SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. 23.5° east is one of the major TV satellite ...

orbital position to provide

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative adva ...

and radio 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 comm ...

(DTH) and cable, multimedia and interactive services, corporate networks, and occasional and other business services to Europe. The satellite provides two broadcast beams, of horizontal and vertical polarisation, across two

footprints Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. The ...

that covered essentially the same areas of Europe – principally the countries of central Europe.

History

Astra 3A was launched to provide follow-on capacity to replace the

DFS Kopernikus-3 DFS Kopernikus-3 (or Deutscher Fernmelde Satellit-3 and Hellas Sat 1) was a communications satellite operated by Deutsche Telekom. Satellite description The DFS Kopernikus series of satellites debuted in 1989 with the third being launched in ...

satellite and deliver additional capacity for the

Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico- economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: ...

countries and central Europe, to create SES-Astra's third major European satellite hotspot after

Astra 19.2°E Astra 19.2°E is the name for the group of Astra communications satellites co-located at the 19.2°East orbital position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. Astra 19.2°E used to be commonly k ...

and

Astra 28.2°E Astra 28.2°E is the name for the group of Astra communications satellites co-located at the 28.2° East position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. It is one of the major TV satellite positions s ...

with access to channels at both positions using a single dish fitted with a monoblock

Duo LNB A Duo LNB is a double low-noise block downconverter (LNB) developed by SES for the simultaneous reception of satellite television signals from both the Astra 23.5°E and Astra 19.2°E satellite positions. It is a monoblock LNB, which comprises ...

. In that role, television signals could be received with a 50 cm dish across Germany,

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, Switzerland,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, the Netherlands,

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, most of

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

, and in parts of France, Italy, Poland,

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

, and

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. Reception was even possible as far afield as Scotland, Sweden and

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

when a larger dish (around 110 cm) was used. In addition to contribution feeds and individual television channels, Astra 3A carried

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...

networks including Kabel Deutschland (Germany),

Canal Digitaal CanalDigitaal is a provider of digital television via satellite for the Netherlands, Dutch market, using the SES Astra, Astra satellites at Astra 23.5°E, 23.5° east. Initially customers were mainly Dutch citizens in the countryside who did ...

(Netherlands),

TV Vlaanderen TV Vlaanderen is a digital satellite television and terrestrial television service provider for the Flanders region in Belgium. TV Vlaanderen's customers are mostly people living in Flanders. However, as TV Vlaanderen is officially available to ...

(Belgium),

CS Link CS Link was a satellite service that offers Czech and Slovak TV and radio stations to residents of Czech Republic and Slovakia. CS Link stopped offering pay TV at the end of November 2012 following the acquisition by the Luxembourg media group M ...

(Slovakia and Czech Republic) and Skylink (Slovakia and Czech Republic). On 1 February 2012 Kabel Deutschland left Astra 3A and during 2012 other services were transferred off the satellite. As of October 2012, Astra 3A was in an

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 ...

at 23.7° East with all services carried by the adjacent

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 ...

satellite. In November 2013, Astra 3A was moved to 176.9° West where it remained, in inclined orbit, to provide backup to SES'

NSS-9 NSS-9 is a communications satellite owned by SES WORLD SKIES. It is an all C-band satellite intended as a replacement for NSS-5, and has three beams with 44 active C-band transponders. NSS-9 was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation and launche ...

satellite. In June 2016, Astra 3A was moving east at approximately 1.5°/day and was subsequently positioned at 86.5° West. In November 2016 it started moving east at approx 0.5°/day until positioned at 47° West in mid-February 2017 alongside SES'

NSS-806 NSS-806 (New Skies Satellite 806), before Intelsat 806, is a communications satellite originally operated by Intelsat. Launched in 1998 it was operated in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 47 degrees west for around 15 years. It is currentl ...

satellite (replaced by

SES-14 SES-14 is a geostationary communications satellite operated by SES S.A. at 47.5° West, replaces NSS-806, and designed and manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space. The satellite launched on 25 January 2018 at 22:20 UTC along with the Global ...

in January 2018). Towards the end of October 2019, Astra 3A started moving west at approx 0.8°/day until returned to 86.5° West in December 2019.Real Time Satellite Tracking And Predictions
Accessed 31 December 2019

References

External links

SES
- Official SES site
SES fleet information
{{Orbital launches in 2002 Astra satellites Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Spacecraft launched in 2002 2002 in Luxembourg Satellites of Luxembourg Satellites using the HS-376 bus

History

See also

References

External links