Astra 5B begins operation

SES’s Astra 5B satellite has gone live at the 31.5° East position over central and eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS countries.

The satellite will provide DTH and cable feed services as well as contribution feeds to digital-terrestrial transmitters across its target markets.

The satellite was launched on board an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou in French Guyana on March 22. It is equipped with 40 Ku-band transponders – 36 MHz equivalent – and six Ka-band transponders, as well as with L-band capacity for the EU satellite navigation service EGNOS.

The satellite will replace Astra 1G at 31.5° East, increasing the capacity available from 19 Ku-band transponders to Astra 5B’s 40.

“In line with our well-defined strategy, Astra 5B greatly increases SES’s satellite capacities over CEE, Russia and the CIS. With the Operational Service Date (OSD) of Astra 5B, SES has as of today 1,536 active satellite transponders on its global satellite fleet, comprising 55 active spacecraft at 37 orbital slots around the world,” said Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer at SES.

“We would like to thank our European partners at Airbus Defence and Space Systems and Arianespace for the successful Astra 5B mission.”