Astra 2D
| Operator | SES |
|---|---|
| Major contractors | Hughes |
| Bus | HS-376 |
| Launch date | 19 December 2000 |
| Carrier rocket | Ariane 5 s/n V138 |
| Mission duration | 12 years[1] |
| Mass | 1420 kg (launch) 824 kg (operational) |
| Power | 1,600 watts |
| Orbital elements | |
| Regime | Geostationary |
| Longitude | 24°E 28.2°E (current) |
| Transponders | |
| Capacity | 16 Ku band |
| EIRP | 53 |
| Bandwidth | 16 x 26 MHz |
Astra 2D is one of a group of Astra communications satellites operated by SES, located at 28.2° east in the Clarke Belt. It is a Hughes HS-376 craft, and was launched from the Guiana Space Centre in December 2000.
Most of the transponders are used to provide television channels available on the Sky Digital satellite service to the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland and the non-subscription service, Freesat. Although the satellite's beam is tightly focused on the United Kingdom and Ireland, surrounding countries have the ability to pick the signal up (dependent on suitably sized satellite dishes). However some channels on 2D are encrypted with Videoguard (a proprietary encryption method by the NDS Group) and only Sky Digiboxes with valid cards, or standard hardware with non-approved (with respect to the Sky/NDS end-user contract) "Dragon", or "T-Rex" Conditional Access Modules can decode these channels.
The BBC broadcasts all of its domestic television channels (including BBC HD and the regional variations) from the Astra 2D satellite, except the BBC News Channel and BBC Parliament which broadcast from Astra 2A. All domestic BBC channels have been Free to air since 29 July 2003.
ITV also broadcasts all its television channels (including regional variations of ITV1, as well as STV and UTV) from the Astra 2D satellite. All ITV channels have been free to air from 1 November 2005, although some regions reverted to Free-To-View encryption in 2008 when their lease on one 2D transponder could not be renewed. The ITV HD channel is broadcast from Eurobird 1.[1]
Channel 4 also broadcasts most of its channels free-to-air from this satellite. These are Channel 4, Channel 4+1, E4, More4 and Film4 along with their timeshift variants from this satellite, all unencrypted apart from the feeds of Channel 4, Channel 4+1, E4 and E4+1 intended for viewers in Ireland, which remain encrypted.
From November 2008, Five began to transmit free-to-air for the first time on Astra 2D. They use borrowed space on one of the BBC transponders, allowing them to join Freesat, although occasionally some programmes on this feed are blacked out for rights reasons.[2] From December 2011 spin-off channels Fiver (now 5*) and Five US became available on Freesat via the Astra 1N satellite.
Although primarily a television broadcast satellite, other services such as satellite internet can be carried.
[edit] See also
- Astra 2A co-located satellite
- Astra 2B co-located satellite
- Astra 1N co-located satellite
- Astra 28.2°E orbital position
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- OnAstra - Official consumers/viewers' site
- Astra 2D Ku-band UK/Ireland Beam footprint(s) at SatBeams
- SES guide to receiving Astra satellites
- SES guide to channels broadcasting on Astra satellites
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