Recent communications satellite movement & relocation

Intelsat 709 @ 55E (moving 0.2°W/day)
Eutelsat 48B @ 37 east (moving 1.1°W/day)
NSS 5 @ 30 east (moving 1.3°E/day) NSS 5 = (INTELSAT 803)
AMC 2 @ 13 east (moving 0.5°E/day)
SES 3 @ 3 east (moving 2.6°W/day)
SES-5 (testing) @ 5.2°E

Possible new feeds & satellite service's from Eutelsat W2M now called Eutelsat 48B is moving to a new location currently unknown,

W2M was to operate typically 26 transponders in Ku-band and up to 32 depending on operational modes, for a designed operational lifetime of 15 years. The new satellite is designed to provide additional security for customers and can be deployed at a number of orbital positions of the W satellite fleet, and in particular at the 10 degrees East position.

Eutelsat W2M suffered a major anomaly affecting the satellite's power subsystem. This anomaly occurred during the satellite's transfer from the location used for in-orbit tests to its operating position at 16 degrees East where its mission was to replace well in advance Eutelsat's W2 satellite.
In late January 2010, W2M was integrated in the Eutelsat fleet providing limited back-up services for the failed W2 satellite.
In December 2011 Eutelsat announced, that their satellite assets will be renamed under a unified brand name effective from March 2012. W2M will become Eutelsat 48B.
Eutelsat W2M will probably be renamed again after it arrives at the new location.

SES-3 is expected to replace AMC-1 @ 103 west to continue hosting national television networks broadcasting to over 4000 cable head ends. Its high performance Ku-band beam is ideal for supporting customer's delivery of VSAT and broadband services in North America.

Regards..............William-1

UPCOMING LAUNCHES an update Eutelsat 7B will now be called W3D & now goes to 3.1 east instead of 7 east as previously planned,

EUTELSAT 21B (ex. W6A)
Eutelsat Communications has selected Thales Alenia Space to build EUTELSAT 21B, a 40-transponder Ku-band satellite. EUTELSAT 21B will enable a 50% increase in capacity operated at 21.5° East, where it will be located in geostationary orbit. Scheduled for launch in third quarter 2012, the satellite will replace Eutelsat‘s EUTELSAT 21A craft at a core neighbourhood anchored for data, professional video and government services across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

EUTELSAT 70B (ex. W5A)
Astrium has been selected by Eutelsat Communications to build a 48-transponder Ku-band satellite that will be located at its 70.5° East location in geostationary orbit. Scheduled for launch in fourth quarter 2012, the satellite will replace the EUTELSAT 70A craft and more than double Eutelsat’s resources at 70.5° East. It will be used for a range of professional applications that include government services, broadband access, GSM backhauling and professional video exchanges in Europe, Africa and Central and South-East Asia.

Weighing in at five tonnes, EUTELSAT 70B will be based on the Astrium Eurostar E3000 platform with a designed in-orbit lifetime exceeding 15 years. Each of the satellite’s four high-performance fixed beams will be focused over a distinct zone: Europe, Africa, Central Asia and South-East Asia reaching as far as Australia. Through a high degree of on-board connectivity, clients will be able to use the beams either for regional coverage or to interconnect continents. This will support high-growth services that include secure government communications in Central Asia through hubs located in the region or in Europe, business networks between South-East Asia and Africa, and direct connectivity between Europe and Australia.

EUTELSAT 3D (ex. W3D) Eutelsat 7B,
Thales Alenia Space has been commissioned to build the EUTELSAT 3D satellite. The delivery schedule of the new 56-transponder satellite has been fixed to 24 months, enabling Eutelsat to plan for commercial availability from early 2013.

Based on the Spacebus 4000 platform of Thales Alenia Space, EUTELSAT 3D will be initially deployed at 3° East, to reinforce capacity for the development of business in Europe and Africa prior to the arrival of EUTELSAT 3B, and to enable EUTELSAT 3C to fulfil another mission.

EUTELSAT 25B (ex. EUROBIRD™ 2A)
Space Systems/Loral has been selected by Eutelsat Communications and ictQATAR (representing the State of Qatar) to build the high-performance satellite they will jointly own and operate at the 25.5° East location in geostationary orbit. The two organisations selected Space Systems/Loral to deliver a spacecraft with a more than 15-year design life based on the Space Systems/Loral 1300 satellite bus, which is a decades-proven, modular platform with high power capability and flexibility for a broad range of applications.

To enter into service in early 2013, this powerful satellite will provide a significantly expanded mission and superior coverage across the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia to follow on from the EUTELSAT 25A satellite, which is currently operated at 25.5° East. In addition to securing Ku-band continuity for Eutelsat and additional Ku-band resources for ictQATAR, it will initiate a Ka-band capability to open business opportunities for both parties. The spacecraft’s multi-mission architecture will enable ictQATAR and Eutelsat to respond to demand for the fastest-growing applications in the Middle East and North Africa, including video broadcasting, enterprise communications and government services. The television market will in particular benefit from the installed base of more than 13 million satellite homes already equipped for Direct-to-Home reception from this neighbourhood.

EUTELSAT 3B
Eutelsat has selected Astrium to build a tri-band satellite, which will increase and diversify its resources for markets in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and South America. Called EUTELSAT 3B, and with up to 51 transponders, the satellite will operate in C, Ku and Ka-bands. It will be launched in early 2014.

To complement Eutelsat’s capacity portfolio and geographic reach, the EUTELSAT 3B satellite will add resources in three frequency bands connected to fixed and steerable antennas for maximum flexibility. With a single platform assembling Ku, C and Ka transponders, users will be able to select the most relevant frequency band for different types of service. Ku and C-band capacity will further consolidate Eutelsat’s response to broadcast and data markets. High throughput beams in the Ka-band, that will be individually steerable to regional and national markets and operated with scalable allocation of power and spectrum, will in addition support innovative applications in bandwidth-demanding markets.

The EUTELSAT 3B satellite will be based on the Astrium Eurostar 3000 platform. Weighing 6 tonnes at launch, the satellite will be designed with 15 year life expectancy.

EUTELSAT 9B
Eutelsat has initiated a new satellite programme that will significantly expand and diversify resources at its 9° East location which addresses high-growth video markets across Europe. A high-capacity Ku-band satellite called EUTELSAT 9B, ordered from Astrium, will be launched to 9° East at the end of 2014. EUTELSAT 9B will be based on the Eurostar E3000 platform.

The deployment of the 66-transponder satellite will take 9° East to a new level of performance, increasing resources by over 70%. Capacity will be spread across five footprints, with frequency reuse significantly increasing overall bandwidth.

One pan-European footprint will deliver wide coverage for channels seeking maximum reach into satellite homes and to terrestrial headends (cable, ADSL, DTT …). Four focused footprints will individually address high-growth digital TV markets in Italy, Germany, Greece and the Nordic/Baltic regions. This regional footprint model will enable pay-TV platforms and national DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) programmes to efficiently address linguistic markets and in parallel leverage reception from the HOT BIRD™ neighbourhood. The regional mission for Italy has been designed in partnership with ASI (the Italian Space Agency). Its usage will be shared between ASI, for Italian institutional requirements, and Eutelsat, for video broadcasting in one of Europe’s most dynamic TV markets.

EUTELSAT 9B has also been selected by Astrium Services to host the first data relay payload for the European Data Relay Satellite System (EDRS) being implemented through a Public-Private Partnership between Astrium and ESA. The EDRS system of telecommunications satellites in geostationary orbit will allow very high data rate, bi-directional data relay communications between Low Earth Orbit Earth Observation satellites and an associated ground segment.

Eutelsat Press update August 2012

New Launch date for Astra 2F

Astra 2F Satellite Launch - Launch date is scheduled for September 21, 2012
Photos will be posted here after the launch
Satellite Name: Astra 2F
Status: planned
Position: 28° E (28.2° E)
Norad:
Cospar number:
Operator: SES Astra (part of SES Global)
Launch date: September 21, 2012
Launch site: TBD
Launch vehicle:
Launch mass (kg):
Dry mass (kg):
Manufacturer: EADS Astrium
Model (bus): Eurostar-E3000
Orbit: GEO
Expected lifetime: 15 yrs.

The Astra 2F satellite is SES scheduled to launch on September 21, 2012, from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite will be positioned at the 28.2 degrees East position, the main orbital slot for DTH broadcasting to the UK.
Ariane-5 flight VA209 will carry the Astra 2F satellite and India’s GSAT 10 communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit.
SES has moved the Astra 2F launch from Proton-M to Ariane-5 rocket. The satellite services company announced the move in a small note accompanying the press release about the successful launch of SES-5 on a Proton-M. By moving to an Ariane 5 launch, SES can bring the service activation date of the Astra 2F forward to an earlier date.
Astra 2F will serve to deliver next generation broadcast, VSAT and broadband services in Europe and Africa, and will carry Ku-and Ka-band payloads at 28.2° East.
The Ku-band capacity will allow SES ASTRA to enhance and secure its existing offering to major Direct-to-Home (DTH) markets in the UK and Ireland.
With a Ku-band payload specifically designed to meet the requirements of some of Europe’s largest DTH broadcasters, the satellites will have spot beam and pan-European beam switching capabilities to accommodate both pay-TV and free-to-air broadcasters, and to provide these customers with increased functionality.
SES ASTRA customers in this region include BSkyB, BBC, ITV, Freesat, Channel Four, Channel 5, UK TV, Virgin Media, MTV and Discovery.
The Ka-band payload will allow SES ASTRA to develop next generation broadband services in Europe, including its growing ASTRA2Connect product.

Astra 2F has 3 beams see maps below:

Satellite Movements & approximate current position
Intelsat 10 is @ 51.5 east (moving 0.4°W/day)
Eutelsat 70B is @ 51 east (moving 1.3°E/day)
Eutelsat 21B is @ 29 east (moving 0.4°W/day)
Intelsat 9 is @ 51 west (moving 0.3°E/day)

Old Hotbird 5 is now called Eutelsat 4B is being redeployed @ 4.0° East,


Downlink Frequencies: 10.95-11.2 (10 tps), 11.55-11.7 (7 tps) & 12.5-12.6 (5 tps) GHz

When Blind Scanning you will get spill over from Astra 4A @ 4.8 east & Eutelsat 3C @ 3.1 east most

likely place for active transponders will be

10.95 to 11200 V + 11550 to 11700 H & V + 12.500 to 12.600 H & V



History: Launched 9th Oct 1998

The solar arrays of Hot Bird 5 have suffered from abnormal degradation which is believed to have caused a loss in
output power.

Hot Bird 5 was renamed as Eurobird 2 then Arabsat 2D then Eutelsat 25A now called Eutelsat 4B