Astra 23.5°E is a group of

Astra Astra (Latin for "stars") may refer to: People * Astra (name) Places * Astra, Chubut, a village in Argentina * Astra (Isauria), a town of ancient Isauria, now in Turkey * Astra, one suggested name for a hypothetical fifth planet that became t ...

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 co-located at the 23.5° east position in the Clarke Belt owned and operated by SES based in

Betzdorf, Luxembourg Betzdorf (; ) is a commune and town in the canton of Grevenmacher, in eastern Luxembourg. , the town of Betzdorf, which lies in the north-east of the commune, has a population of 288 inhabitants. Other settlements within the commune include the ...

. 23.5° east is one of the major TV satellite positions serving

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

(the others being at 19.2° East, 13° East, 28.2° East, and 5° East). The satellite currently occupying this position is the

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 satellit ...

craft, which provide 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-12.70 GHz range of the K_u band and 21.40-22.00 GHz range of the K_a band across most of Central,

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

and

West Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...

. A major reason for the usage of Astra 23.5°E as a source 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.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...

(DTH) broadcasting is its proximity to Europe's primary DTH position, Astra 19.2°E, allowing the use in target countries of a single small dish fitted with a

monoblock Monoblock can refer to: *A type of air conditioner *A monoblock LNB *Monoblock PC, a computer workstation *A mono (one channel) audio power amplifier *In photography, another name for a monolight, a type of electronic flash with the electronics ...

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 ...

to receive channels from both positions.

Satellite craft in use

Current

(launched in 2010) * Astra 3C (launched in 2014, formerly Astra 5B)

Astra 3A Astra 3A is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES, launched in March 2002 to the Astra 23.5°E orbital position to provide digital television and radio for direct to home (DTH) and cable, multimedia and interact ...

(launched 2002, retired) *

Astra 1D Astra 1D is a geostationary communications satellite launched in 1994 by the Société Européenne des Satellites ( SES). , the craft remains in service for occasional use. Astra 1D was the fourth, and under original plans, last Astra communic ...

(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 was one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES. History SES ordered its Hughes 601HP satellite, in 1994 for Astra 1G. Astra 1G was retired to a graveyard orbit in 2023.Thor 2 ''Thor: The Dark World'' is a 2013 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Thor (Marvel Comics), Thor, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to ''Thor (film), ...

(launched 1997, retired) * DFS-Kopernikus 1 operated by Deutsche Telekom (launched 1989, retired) * DFS-Kopernikus 3 operated by Deutsche Telekom (launched 1994, retired)

Market

Astra 23.5°E is a major source of TV and radio channels and multimedia services for parts of Europe. While the satellite Astra 3B can reach most parts of the continent, this position is primarily used for channels broadcast to the countries of Northwestern, Central and Eastern Europe, in particular:

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

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

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, and

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, 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 west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

. A service of local, regional and ethnic channels for Italy is expected from this orbital position following an agreement in November 2009 between SES and Milano Teleport to offer capacity to Italian broadcasters. TV channels for (DTH) networks,

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 ...

(

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

(

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

CS Link CS Link was a satellite service that offers Czech and Slovak TV and radio stations to residents of Czech Republic and Slovakia. Previously owned by J&T, CS Link was acquired by the Luxembourg media group M7 Group (Canal+ Luxembourg S.a.r.l.) i ...

(

and

), Skylink (

and

) and Satellite BG (

), broadcast from this position. In all, over 390 TV and radio channels are broadcast from Astra 23.5°E to almost 2.5 million homes in Europe. In January 2011 Astra announced that Bulgarian DTH operator Satellite BG would use three transponders on Astra 3B at 23.5°E for broadcasting a package of more than 60 standard definition channels and 12 high definition channels, including sports, film, factual and children's TV, and all major Bulgarian public and commercial services to TV homes across Bulgaria. Astra 23.5°E was the home of

Euro1080 Euro1080 was the first commercial broadcaster in Europe to broadcast full-time high-definition television (HDTV) content. It was founded by Gabriel Fehervari in 2004 and is owned by Alfacam, of which declared bankrupt in 2013. The name orig ...

, Europe's first full-time commercial

HDTV High-definition television (HDTV) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since at least 1933; in more recent times, it ref ...

broadcaster since January 1, 2004, until they moved their channels to Eutelsat W3A (7° east) in late 2008. The Astra 23.5°E position is also home to Astra Connect (was

ASTRA2Connect SES Broadband (previously ASTRA2Connect) is a two-way Satellite internet, satellite broadband Internet service available across Europe, which launched in March 2007, and uses the Astra (satellite), Astra series of geostationary orbit, geostation ...

), a two-way satellite broadband service that delivers high-speed Internet access and triple-play capabilities to consumers in Europe.

Capacity and reach

the Astra satellites at 23.5° east broadcast on 64 transponders (4 Ka-band and 60 Ku-band) to 37.5 million households (10.3 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 ...

, 24.4 million via

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV), also called TV over broadband, is the service delivery of television over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Usually sold and run by a Telephone company, telecom provider, it consists of broadcast live telev ...

and 29 million direct to home

satellite dish A satellite dish is a dish-shaped type of parabolic antenna designed to receive or transmit information by radio waves to or from a communication satellite. The term most commonly means a dish which receives direct-broadcast satellite televisio ...

es).

History

The 23.5° east orbital position was first occupied by the DFS-Kopernikus 1 and DFS-Kopernikus 3 satellites, launched in June 1989 and October 1992, respectively, to provide channel feeds to German cable headends for

Deutsche Bundespost The (, ) was a German state-run postal service and telecommunications business founded in 1947. It was initially the second largest federal employer during its time. After staff reductions in the 1980s, the staff was reduced to roughly 543,20 ...

(later,

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

). DFS-Kopernikus 1 was first positioned at 23.5° east and then moved to 33.5° east with the launch of DFS-Kopernikus 3. As DFS-Kopernikus 3 neared the end of its life, an agreement was reached with Deutsche Telekom for SES to use the German position and frequencies, and in August 2001,

was moved to 23.5° east to provide follow-on capacity for DFS-Kopernikus F3 pending the launch of Astra 3A. Astra 3A was launched in March 2002 to open the Astra 23.5°E position, and Deutsche Telekom contracted for 10 transponders, with all traffic on the old DFS-Kopernikus craft switched to Astra 3A. With the establishment of

Astra 1L Astra 1L, is one of the Astra geostationary satellites owned and operated by SES. It was purchased in June 2003, launched in May 2007 and stationed at SES's primary European TV orbital position at 19.2° East. Starting in February 2025, fo ...

at the Astra 19.2°E position in July 2007,

was released from 19.2° east and moved to Astra 23.5°E to replace Astra 1D, which was approaching the end of its design life. Following the launch of

Astra 1M Astra 1M is a geostationary communications satellite which is operated by SES. It is positioned in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 19.2° East, from where it is used to provide direct to home (DTH) broadcasting to Europe, Africa, and the ...

to the Astra 19.2°E position in November 2008,

Astra 1G Astra 1G was one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES. History SES ordered its Hughes 601HP satellite, in 1994 for Astra 1G. Astra 1G was retired to a graveyard orbit in 2023.Astra 31.5°E. Astra 1E remained at this position a little longer with no transponders in use, but in August 2010 it was moved westwards to

Astra 5°E Astra 5°E is the name for the Astra communications satellites co-located at the 5° east position in the Clarke Belt which are owned and operated by SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. 5° east is one of the major TV satellite positions serving E ...

to provide backup for Astra 4A pending the launch of Astra 4B to that position in 2011. In April 2011 the

Thor 2 ''Thor: The Dark World'' is a 2013 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Thor (Marvel Comics), Thor, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to ''Thor (film), ...

satellite moved to 23.5°E 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 a ...

. Thor 2 was originally launched to 0.8°W on May 21, 1997, and retired from DTH service in 2008. It was leased from owners,

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwi ...

by SES-Astra in 2008 and initially moved to the 5°E orbital position. In 2011 Thor 2 had only two active transponders, both carrying the channel, RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg. In January 2013 the Thor 2 de-orbited to the graveyard orbit. On February 1, 2012

Kabel Deutschland Vodafone Deutschland GmbH is the largest cable television operator in Germany. Kabel Deutschland was subject to a hostile takeover bid by the British Vodafone Group in September 2013; the deal was approved in December 2013 and finalised on 29 J ...

ceased to use the Astra 23.5°E position for distribution, switching to its terrestrial fibre network. In June 2013 Astra 1D left 23.5°E moving east (although it remained listed in the SES website as at this position) reaching 52.2°E as of June 30, 2013. In November 2013, Astra 3A moved to 177°W to provide backup to SES' NSS-9 satellite. In the summer of 2023, Astra 5B was moved from Astra 31.5°E to 23.5°E, co-locating with Astra 3B. Subsequently, Astra 5B was renamed Astra 3C and broadcast channels on Astra 3B began to be transferred, prompting speculation that Astra 3B was reaching the end of its commercial life some two years short of the planned mission duration.''Astra 5B as Astra 3C broadcasts the first programmes for Skylink'' (Czech)
Parabola.cz 1 December 2023. Accessed 25 December 2023

References

External links

official SES websiteSES fleet information and map
{{DEFAULTSORT:023.5 E Communications satellite orbital positions SES (company)