SATCAT № 27400 Power 1,550 watts Launch site Kourou ELA-2 Inclination 2.9° Launch mass 1,495 kg Bus HS-376 | Mission duration 10 years Rocket Ariane 44L V139 Inclination 2.9° Period 24 hours Launch date 29 March 2002 | |
Manufacturer Boeing Satellite Systems Similar Astra 3B, Astra 1E, Astra 2A, Eutelsat W3A, Astra 1KR | ||
Blind scan of astra 3a 3b 23 5 e thursday 30th june 2011
Astra 3A is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES, launched in 2002 to the Astra 23.5°E orbital slot to provide digital television and radio for DTH and cable, multimedia and interactive services, corporate networks, and occasional and other business services to central Europe.
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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.
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, TV 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 TV channels, Astra 3A carried pay-TV networks including Kabel Deutschland (Germany), CanalDigitaal (Netherlands), TV Vlaanderen (Belgium), CS Link (Slovakia and Czech Republic) and Skylink (Slovakia and Czech Republic). On February 1, 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°E with all services carried by the adjacent Astra 3B craft.
In November 2013, Astra 3A was moved to 176.9°W 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°W. In November 2016 it started moving east at approx 0.5°/day, reaching 55°W at the end of January 2017.