DFS Kopernikus (meaning ''Deutscher Fernmeldesatellit Kopernikus'') was the name of three

geostationary satellite 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 geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...

s of

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 ...

and later

Deutsche Telekom AG 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 ...

. They are no longer in use.

DFS Kopernicus-3

When DFS Kopernikus-3 was nearing the end of its life, SES sealed an agreement with Deutsche Telekom to use the 23.5° East position and frequencies, and in August 2001, Astra 1D was moved there."New position for ASTRA 1D"
''Advanced Television'' (21 August 2001) Retrieved on 17 April 2021 The Astra 23.5°E position was officially opened in March 2002 with the launch and positioning of

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 ...

. Deutsche Telekom contracted for 10 transponders on that craft and shortly switched over all traffic from DFS Kopernikus-3.

Station keeping

The orbital station-keeping manoeuvres of the satellites were conducted by the Flight Dynamics Group of the

German Aerospace Center The German Aerospace Center (, abbreviated DLR, literally ''German Center for Air- and Space-flight'') is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany, founded in 1969. It is headquartered in Cologne with 3 ...

(DLR), German Space Operations Center, in Oberpfaffenhofen,

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

until April 1994. The flight dynamics operations (including re-location and proximity operations) for the DFS and TV-SAT satellites were taken over by the Deutsche Telekom Flight Dynamics Team at the Usingen Ground Station location. A twin Flight Dynamics System was located at the Deutsche Telekom offices in Darmstadt. The latter was used for advanced planning and emergency/backup purposes; it was operated by a dedicated team of specialists. The two Telekom Flight Dynamics Systems were connected and could be remotely operated if needed. The Flight Dynamics System used by Deutsche Telekom was designed and implemented by

Telesat Canada Telesat, formerly Telesat Canada, is a Canadian satellite communications company founded on May 2, 1969. The company is headquartered in Ottawa. History Founding and privatization (1969-2005) Telesat began in 1969 as Telesat Canada, a Canad ...

. It used real-time

Kalman Filter In statistics and control theory, Kalman filtering (also known as linear quadratic estimation) is an algorithm that uses a series of measurements observed over time, including statistical noise and other inaccuracies, to produce estimates of unk ...

algorithms for orbit and attitude determination. The satellites were located at the following positions: * DFS Kopernikus-1: 23.5° East (1989-1994), later 33.5° East (1994-2002), replaced by

* DFS Kopernikus-2: 28.5° East (1994–2000?) * DFS Kopernikus-3: 23.5° East (1994–2003)

German satellite television market share in 1990

* SES: ca. 80% * DFS Kopernikus: ca. 20% * TV-SAT 2: under 1%

References

External links

DFS Kopernikus in GSOC

SES fleet information and map

SES Astra website

Official SES trade/industry site
Kopernikus Deutsche Telekom {{Germany-stub

DFS Kopernicus-3

Station keeping

German satellite television market share in 1990

See also

References

External links