Re-deployment of Eutelsat 33D

[william-1]

Maybe going to 116.8° West to make a head start for
Eutelsat 117 West B 116.8° West 3 May 2016 Launch.

 

[pikmaxx]

Maybe going to 116.8° West to make a head start for
Eutelsat 117 West B 116.8° West 3 May 2016 Launch.

I don't think so ; the footprint of Eutelsat 33D is quite different from these of 117 west satellites .

 

[william-1]

It will also take too long to get there going in this direction so maybe 70.5 east is the new destination Eutelsat have already moved Eutelsat 36A here & Eutelsat 70B is nearing end of life for geostationary orbit,
a lot more commercial DTH traffic here as well than 48 east.

 

[pikmaxx]

That was my guess for the next slot for Eutelsat 33D;
Again ; if true ; will be very strange move by Eutelsat; They moved Eutelsat 70A to 33 East and renamed it to Eutelsat 33B ; and now moving Eutelsat 33D to 70 East !!!!!
Correction : Eutelsat 70B is relatively new satellite , It was launched at 2012 .

 

[william-1]

That was my guess for the next slot for Eutelsat 33D;
Again ; if true ; will be very strange move by Eutelsat; They moved Eutelsat 70A to 33 East and renamed it to Eutelsat 33B ; and now moving Eutelsat 33D to 70 East !!!!!
Correction : Eutelsat 70B is relatively new satellite , It was launched at 2012 .

FlySat Eutelsat 70B @ 70.5° East

Looks like we have some conflicting info from flysat

FlySat Satellite Launches 2012

The fleet - EUTELSAT 70B satellite - Eutelsat

So it makes even less sense to move 33D here all will be revealed very soon.

 

[hvdh]

Just another Flysat error. Eutelsat 70B launch date is 03.12.2012, not 03.12.2002.

 

[william-1]

It will also take too long to get there going in this direction so maybe 70.5 east is the new destination Eutelsat have already moved Eutelsat 36A here & Eutelsat 70B is nearing end of life for geostationary orbit,
a lot more commercial DTH traffic here as well than 48 east.

Incorrect info it was Eutelsat 70A that launched in 2002
Eutelsat 70A 20.11.2002

 

[pikmaxx]

May be Eutelsat is planning to start business in a new orbital slot rather than 70 east or 117 west .

 

[hvdh]

Eutelsat 33D seems to have stopped near 70.3°E according TLE of 20 May 01:25 UTC.
Waiting for more TLE's for confirmation and more accurate location.

 

[pikmaxx]

Eutelsat 33D seems to have stopped near 70.3°E according TLE of 20 May 01:25 UTC.
Waiting for more TLE's for confirmation and more accurate location.

It is confirmed now ; N2yo is showing the bird stopped at 70.31° East.

 

[hvdh]

That is no confirmation whatsoever, n2yo uses the same TLE of 20 May 01:25 UTC !
What I mean is, more (newer) TLE's, for more accuracy.

Regretfully, n2yo fails to mention the date (epoch) of the TLE that their satellite position data is based upon.

 

[pikmaxx]

Do you think newer TLEs may reveal that the satellite is moving again?
I don't think so.

 

[hvdh]

Probably not moving further.
But the first TLE after a manoeuver is often not so accurate, because of TLE's being based on interpolation between observations made many hours (or even days) apart.

 

[pikmaxx]

Now ; if Eutelsat 33D has really stopped at 70.3 East; then we have 3 sats there : Eutelsat 70B ; Eutelsat 36A and Eutelsat 33D , but what for?
Eutelsat 70B alone is able to withstand all the traffic there, Eutelsat 36A has passed its operational age and Eutelsat 33D is about to .

 

[Marcus_21]

Perhaps E36A renews the concession F-SAT-E-BSS-70.5E expiring in June 2016 (for Ku-band DBS) and the E33D the concession F-SAT-N-E-70.5E expiring in July 2016 (for Ka-band).

 

[hvdh]

Eutelsat 33D has left 70.3°E a few days ago, drifting West 1.6° per day.
Should be near 66°E now.

 

[william-1]

Eutelsat Satellite estimated life copied from Eutelsat files 2009-2010

HOT BIRD™ 6 13° East Ku/Ka 28/4 Aug. 2002 Q1 2018

So can be used at a geostationary position for a couple of years,

Re-named some time ago as Eutelsat-70D @ 70.3 east

Eutelsat 70D at 70.3°E - LyngSat SatTracker

Hot Bird 13A 21.08.2002

Eutelsat 70D was launched with Atlas 5 - AV-001 2002-08-21.
Beacon frequencies: 11.700.400 / 11.701.600 / 19.701.000

 

[hvdh]

These renamings, of 33D to 70D (and also 36A to 70C) were never published by Eutelsat afaik, and now they both left the 70.5°E position.
Maybe they were just assumptions by others?
Soon, Eutelsat will issue a new Reference Document, hopefully giving some fresh insights!

Edit: by the way, Eutelsat 33D lifetime according Reference Document 2014/2015 is until Q4 2017.
And inclination is starting to build up since recently (but still only 0.13° now).

 

[Analoguesat]

Blimey it seems only yesterday since I was watching Hotbird 6 as it was back then being launched. That was still one of the best launches Ive ever seen - plenty of fab onboard footage of the climb-out & separation phases.

 

[shawl_who]

where its going ?