Astra 23.5°E

Astra 23.5°E is the name for the group of communications satellites co-located at the 23.5° East position in the Clarke Belt owned and operated by SES Astra, a subsidiary of SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. 23.5° East is one of the major TV satellite positions serving Europe (the others being at 19.2° East, 28.2° East, 13° East, and 5° East).

The satellites currently occupying this position are the Astra 3A and Astra 1E craft, which provide for services downlinking in the 10.70GHz-12.70GHz range of the Ku-band across most of central, Western and Eastern Europe.

A major reason for the success of Astra 23.5°E as a source for direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting is it’s 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 Duo LNB to receive channels from both positions.

atellite craft in use

Current

*Astra 3A
*Astra 1E

Previous

*Astra 1D
*DFS-Kopernikus 1 (operated by Deutsche Telekom)
*DFS-Kopernikus 3 (operated by Deutsche Telekom)

Market

Astra 23.5°E is a major source of TV and radio channels and multimedia services for much of Europe. While the satellites can reach most parts of the continent, this position is primarily used for channels broadcast to the countries central and Eastern Europe, in particular: Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Holland, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

TV channels for Kabel Deutschland are broadcast from this position to millions of German cable home, as are channels for (DTH) networks, Canal Digitaal Satelliet (Netherlands), CS Link (Czech Republic) and Skylink (Slovakia). In all, over 390 TV and radio channels are broadcast from Astra 23.5°E to almost 2.5 million homes in Europe [SES ASTRA “23.5° East” (August, 2008). Company factsheet] .

Astra 23.5°E is the home of Euro1080, Europe’s first full-time commercial HDTV broadcaster since January 1, 2004.

The Astra 23.5°E position is also home to ASTRA2Connect, the two-way satellite broadband service that delivers high-speed Internet access and triple-play capabilities to consumers across Europe regardless of where they live.

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 (later, Deutsche Telekom). 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 Astra to use the German position and frequencies, and in August 2001, Astra 1D was moved to 23.5°East to provide follow-on capacity for DFS-Kopernikus F3 pending the launch of Astra 3A. [ [http://www.advanced-television.com/2001/2001_newsarchive/24%20Aug-2%20Sept.html "New position for ASTRA 1D"] "Advanced-Television.com" (August 21, 2001). Retrieved on August 29, 2008]

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. [cite press release |publisher=SES ASTRA |date=May 30, 2002 |url= http://www.ses-astra.com/business/en/news-events/press-archive/2007/07-10-23/index.php |title= ASTRA 3A fully operational at 23.5° East ] .

With the establishment of Astra 1L at the Astra 19.2°E position in July 2007, Astra 1E 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. [cite press release |publisher=SES ASTRA |date=October 23, 2007 |url= http://www.ses-astra.com/business/en/news-events/press-archive/2002/30-05-03/index.php |title= 23.5° East is a new orbital slot for Direct to Home and ASTRA2Connect / ASTRA 1E replaces ASTRA 1D] .

A new satellite, Astra 3B, is scheduled to be launched to Astra 23.5°E by the end of 2009, adding 19 transponders to the 37 transponders available on Astra 3A and Astra 1E at this orbital position today.

References

ee Also

*Astra 5°E
*Astra 19.2°E
*Astra 28.2°E
*Astra 31.5°E
*SES Astra satellite owner
*ASTRA2Connect
*Duo LNB
*DFS-Kopernikus

External Links

* [http://www.ses-astra.com/consumer/en/how-to-receive-astra/index.php SES Astra guide to receiving Astra satellites]
* [http://www.ses-astra.com/consumer/en/channel-guide/index.php SES Astra guide to channels broadcasting on Astra satellites]
* [http://www.ses-astra.com/business/uk/satellite-fleet/interactive-fleet-map/index.php SES Astra interactive fleet map]
* [http://www.ses-astra.com SES Astra website]
* [http://www.ses-astra.com/business/en/hdtv/index.php SES Astra HDTV website]
* [http://www.ses-astra.com/consumer/en/astra-broadband/astra2connect/index.php ASTRA2Connect website]

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