Home > SES Astra

1 Introduction

SES-Astra (Société Européenne des Satellites-Astra) is a Luxembourg-based corporation which owns and operates the Astra series of geostationary satellites, which transmit some 1100 analogue and digital television and radio channels via 176 transponders to 91 million households across Europe. Formed in 1985 as SES, it was Europe's first private satellite operator.

Its slogan in 1997 was "Astra: The Satellite System". Nowadays it is "Your Satellite Connection to the World".

2 Orbital Positions

There are currently 13 Astra satellites in orbit, not all currently in service, located at the following positions in geosynchronous orbitA geosynchronous orbit is a geocentric orbit that has the same orbital period as the sidereal rotation period of the Earth. Synchronous orbits exist around all moons, planets, and stars —unless they rotate so slowly that the orbit would be outside their H:

• 5.2 °EIn astronomy, a celestial coordinate system is a coordinate system for mapping positions in the sky. There are different celestial coordinate systems each using a coordinate grid projected on the celestial sphere, in analogy to the geographic coordinate s: Astra 1A. Originally sited at 19.2°E and used to broadcast the first European analogue direct-to-home TV services, this satellite is well past its expected lifetime and now in inclined orbitA geostationary orbit occurs when an object ( satellite) is placed 37,000 km (22,300 miles) above the Earth's equator with the characteristic that, from a fixed observation point on the Earth's surface, it appears motionless. When a satellite is placed in. It will probably be junked soon.
• 19.2°E degrees east: Astra 1B, 1C, 1E, 1F, 1G, 1H, 2C. This is the most common orbital position for direct-to-home satellite TV and radio transmission in GermanyThe Federal Republic of Germany ( German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland is one of the world's leading industrialized countries, located in the middle of the European Union. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark and the Baltic Sea, to the east and Central Europe. 1G is also used for home satellite internet (with DVBDVB short for Digital Video Broadcasting is a suite of internationally accepted, open standards for digital television maintained by the DVB Project an industry consortium with more than 300 members, and published by an Joined Technical Committee (JTC) of modems) and the free-to-airFree-to-air is a phrase used to describe television and radio broadcasts which are available without subscription and without decryption ( pay-TV). By contrast, free-to view broadcasts are available without subscription, but do require decryption. Example TV and radio channels (Astra-Mosaic).
• 23.5°E and 24.2 degrees east: Astra 1D, 3A.
• 28.2°E degrees east: Astra 2A, 2B, 2D. BSkyB broadcast their Sky Digital direct-to-home television service to the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland from this satellite constellation. Eutelsat's Eurobird satellite also operates close to this position.