Astra 3B ordered for 23E

Analoguesat

SES Astra has announced today that it has awarded the contract for the construction of its new satellite, Astra 3B, to the European satellite manufacturer Astrium. Astra 3B will be a state-of-the-art Ku and Ka-band spacecraft designed for the distribution of both direct-to-home (DTH) broadcast services and two-way broadband services across Europe.

After Astra 2B and Astra 1M, Astra 3B is the third Astra satellite to be built by Astrium. The satellite will have 52 transponders of which 20 transponders are to replace existing in-orbit capacity and 32 transponders which will create new capacity, thereby strenghtening 23.5E as the third orbital hotspot for European DTH services. Astra 3B is expected to be launched end of 2009.

Astra 3B will be built on a Eurostar E3000 platform, the latest version of the highly successful Eurostar series. Seven Eurostar E3000 are currentlyin operation in orbit, and 10 more are at various stages of production. To date, 45 Eurostar satellites of various series have been ordered from Astrium, 31 of which have been successfully launched and have proven to be highly reliable in commercial service.

“We are very pleased to work with the Astrium team for the third time”, says Ferdinand Kayser, President and CEO of SES Astra. “Astra 3B will significantly strengthen our orbital position 23.5° East which becomes increasingly attractive for DTH broadcasters across Europe. Together with ASTRIUM, we look forward to developing this new generation of satellites, thus increasing our satellite fleet for the benefits of our customers.”

(Source: SES Astra)

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wod

wonder what the foot print will be like, hope not like 3a has

Analoguesat

Well the restricted footprints tend to be on the Boeing spinner sats.
(astra 2d & 3a, sirius 3)

3B is going to be a big b*st*rd if shes being equipped with 50 odd tp's so maybe they will load her up with Astra 1K style non overlapping spotbeams...

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wod

but it mentions

so must be european surely

Analoguesat

I would guess something along the lines of the Hotbird 2 3 & 4 superbeams with strong signals into northern central Europe, tailing off fast outside the main area.

Remember SES are wanting to develop 23E as an overspill area for 19E, with offset lnb's so the signals are going to have to be pretty strong to begin with to cope with offset lnb's on smallish dishes.

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EgyptDUDE

Astra 1Kr had some weak tpz (like the one of D+) and it made it worse for us here to pick the signals than the older one
so by your theory the new 3B might do the same to us (and i am talking about outside Europe reciption)
i hope it would be like 2A,2B south beams , those are fine here

Analoguesat

Ah but Im talking abouut 1K not 1KR. 1K was a nasty wee beastie, she had non overlapping spots with frequency reuse between spots so if you were under one spot there was no chance whatsoever of watching anything on the other beam. Attached are the official footprint maps for the doomed 1K.

Unfortunately for all folks wanting fringe area reception the way forward is inevitably more frequency reuse and reduced footprints.

Attached Images

	1Kbeams.jpg (30.1 KB, 44 views)
	1Kpaneuropean.jpg (22.4 KB, 40 views)

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EgyptDUDE

so they say it will replace 20 tp from older bird , that means 1D most prob.
it might have the same footprint as 1D then
or it might have 2 beams , one replacing 1D , another one super/non overlapin ....
why Astra never do like Eutelsat , one strong beam , more efficent , reduces fuel as well ...

Analoguesat

Reduces fuel???? Nah - the onboard fuel is only for stationkeeping purposes. All the transmitters are powered by the solar panels on the wings (or round the body on the Boeing spinner sats.

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