Heres a piece of history....! Not only are both TV Sat birds long gone, but the country that operated them no longer exists!
TV Sat 1 & 2 were high power DBS birds from the dawn of the Direct To Home satellite age. They were operated by West Germany.
TV Sat 1 was launched in November 1987, but was put out of service early in February 1988, as one of the solar sails didnt unfurl. Rumour says that two securing bolts that held the sail in place during transport were forgotten and left in place!
TV Sat 2 was much more successful and was launched in August 1989. She operated at 19.2W until early 1995 before being sent to 0.6W until late 1998. Eutelsat then leased the ageing craft and moved her to 12.5W until she was put out of service in September 1999
The picture isnt very good quality, but you can clearly see that the boundaries of the Soviet Bloc countries were very different in those days - this was long before the fall of communism! The map shows operations from the 19.2W days.
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