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Astra 3A

FieldValue
nameAstra 3A
image_size300px
mission_typeCommunications
operatorSES
COSPAR_ID2002-015B
SATCAT27400
websitehttps://www.ses.com/
mission_duration12 years (planned)
20 years, 10 months (achieved)
spacecraft_busHS-376HP
manufacturerBoeing Satellite Systems
launch_mass1514 kg
power1.6 kW
launch_date29 March 2002, 01:29 UTC
launch_rocketAriane 44L H10-3 (V139)
launch_siteCentre Spatial Guyanais, ELA-2
launch_contractorArianespace
entered_serviceMay 2002
disposal_typeGraveyard orbit
deactivatedJanuary 2023
orbit_referenceGeocentric orbit
orbit_regimeGeostationary orbit
orbit_longitude23.5° East (2002–2013)
177° West (2013–2016)
86.5° East (2016)
47° West (2017–2019)
86.5° West (2019–2020)
apsisgee
trans_band20 Ku-band
trans_bandwidth36 MHz
trans_coverageEurope
programmeAstra constellation
previous_missionAstra 2C
next_missionAstra 1K

20 years, 10 months (achieved) 177° West (2013–2016) 86.5° East (2016) 47° West (2017–2019) 86.5° West (2019–2020) 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 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 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 satellite and deliver additional capacity for the Benelux countries and central Europe, to create SES-Astra's third major European satellite hotspot after Astra 19.2°E and Astra 28.2°E with access to channels at both positions using a single dish fitted with a monoblock Duo LNB. In that role, television signals could be received with a 50 cm dish across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, most of Denmark, and in parts of France, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia. Reception was even possible as far afield as Scotland, Sweden and Serbia when a larger dish (around 110 cm) was used.

In addition to contribution feeds and individual television channels, Astra 3A carried pay television networks including Kabel Deutschland (Germany), Canal Digitaal (Netherlands), TV Vlaanderen (Belgium), CS Link (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 at 23.7° East with all services carried by the adjacent Astra 3B 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 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 satellite (replaced by SES-14 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. The satellite was retired to a graveyard orbit in January 2023

References

References

  1. "ASTRA 3A". N2YO.com.
  2. "Astra 3A". SES.
  3. "Astra 3A at 23.5°E". LyngSat.
  4. (2 February 2012). "Kabel Deutschland schaltet Satellitenzuführung endgültig ab". Digital fernsehen.
  5. "Astra 3A Key Data". SES.
  6. "Astra 3A". LyngSat.com.
  7. [http://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=34&srt=1&dir=1 Real Time Satellite Tracking And Predictions] Accessed March 31, 2014
  8. [http://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=34&srt=1&dir=1 Real Time Satellite Tracking And Predictions] Accessed July 4, 2016
  9. [http://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=34&srt=1&dir=1 Real Time Satellite Tracking And Predictions] Accessed November 1, 2016
  10. [http://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=34&srt=1&dir=1 Real Time Satellite Tracking And Predictions] Accessed February 28, 2017
  11. [http://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=34&srt=1&dir=1 Real Time Satellite Tracking And Predictions] Accessed 31 December 2019
  12. [https://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=10&srt=1&dir=1 ''Real Time Satellite Tracking And Predictions''] Accessed 25 February 2023
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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