Astra 5°E

Astra 5°E is the name for the communications satellites co-located at the 5° East position in the Clarke Belt which are owned and operated by SES Astra, a subsidiary of SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. 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 23.5° East).

The Astra satellites at 5° East provide for services downlinking to Africa in the 12.50GHz-12.70GHz range of the Ku-band, and at present only Astra 4A is in position to fulfil this task

Astra 4A is the designation for the FSS transponders aimed at sub-Saharan Africa on Sirius 4 owned by SES Sirius, a company which is itself co-owned by SES Astra (90%) and Swedish Space Corporation (10%).

atellite craft in use

Current

*Astra 4A
*Astra 1C
*Sirius 4 (operated by SES Sirius)
*Sirius 3 (operated by SES Sirius)

Previous

*Sirius 1 (operated by NSAB)
*Sirius 2 (operated by NSAB)

Market

Astra 5°E is SES Astra’s position for direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting to sub-Saharan Africa. Astra 4A provides DTH coverage to multiple African markets with a dedicated Ku-band beam from a single orbital position, which eliminates the need for dual-illumination from separate beams. This position also provides uplink and downlink within the African footprint, and inter-connectivity between Africa and Europe, so that DTH broadcasting out of Europe is available without the need for expensive fibre links. [SES ASTRA “5° East” (August, 2007). Company factsheet] .

History

The Astra 5°E orbital position is shared with the Sirius satellites from Nordic Satellite AB (NSAB, later SES Sirius). A previous Sirius satellite, Sirius 1, was the first TV satellite at this position, bought by NSAB from BSkyB in 1993 after Sky Television's merger with British Satellite Broadcasting, and previously operating at 30°West as Marcopolo 1.

Sirius 1 was later joined at 5°East by Sirius 2 and then Sirius 3, with the most recent addition, Sirius 4, launched in November 2007. It is the FSS African beam of this last satellite that is designated as Astra 4A, and the first satellite of Astra 5°E.

The Astra 4A designation was originally given in June 2005 to 33 transponders of the NSS-10 craft (formerly AMC-12) owned by another subsidiary of SES, SES New Skies, and positioned at 37.5°West for broadcast, data, and telecommunications into Africa. [cite press release |publisher=SES ASTRA|date=February 17, 2006|url= http://www.ses-astra.com/business/en/news-events/press-archive/2006/06-02-17/index.php |title= SES Global Africa completes first successful year in African business ]

Sirius 3 remains at 5°East to provide backup for Sirius 4 but has not got African beam provision. From March 2007, Astra 1C (originally at the Astra 19.2° E position) has been positioned at 5° East in an inclined orbit to provide occasional services.

References

ee Also

*SES Astra satellite owner
*Astra 19.2°E
*Astra 28.2°E
*Astra 23.5°E
*Astra 31.5°E
*Sirius 4

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/business/en/hdtv/index.php SES Astra HDTV website]
* [http://www.ses-astra.com SES Astra website]
* [http://www.ses-sirius.com SES Sirius website]
* [http://www.ssc.se.com Swedish Space Corporation website]
* [http://www.ses-newskies.com SES New Skies website]

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