Astra 4A
| Major contractors | Lockheed Martin |
|---|---|
| Bus | A2100AX[1] |
| Launch date | November 18, 2007 |
| Carrier rocket | Proton |
| Mission duration | 15 years |
| Mass | 4,600 kilograms (10,000 lb)[1] |
| Power | 8,100 W |
| Longitude | 5° East |
| Transponders | |
| Capacity | 52 Ku band, 2 Ka band |
| EIRP | 50 dBW |
| Bandwidth | 33, 36, 72 MHz (Ku band), 125, 250 MHz (Ka band) |
Astra 4A is one of the Astra communications satellite owned and operated by SES at the Astra 5°E orbital slot providing digital television and radio broadcasts, data, and interactive services to Nordic countries, eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa in the 11.70 GHz-12.75 GHz range of the Ku band and 18.8 GHz-21.75 GHz range of the Ka band.
The satellite was launched in November 2007 as Sirius 4 by SES Sirius. At that time, SES owned a 75% shareholding in SES Sirius, which was increased to 90% in 2008 and to 100% in March 2010. In June 2010, the affiliate company was renamed SES Astra (then a subsidiary company of SES) and the Sirius 4 satellite renamed Astra 4A.[2]
Astra 4A provides three Ku band broadcast beams - the Nordic beam to Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, the European beam to Eastern European and Baltic countries including Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine, and the African beam to sub-Saharan Africa.
Reception is possible on dishes as small as 60 cm from all three beams, with reception from the European beam across Europe and from the African beam across sub-Saharan across Africa with dishes of 90 cm-120 cm.[3].
The satellite also carries a dedicated payload of two transponders for Ka band services, for applications such as interactive and contribution services. Both uplink and downlink within the African footprint is available, and also inter-connectivity between Africa and Europe so broadcasting out of Europe is available without the need for expensive fibre ground links.
The Astra 4A designation was originally given in June 2005 to 33 transponders of the NSS-10 craft (formerly AMC-12) owned by another subsidiary of SES, SES New Skies, and positioned at 37.5° west for broadcast, data, and telecommunications into Africa[4]. On this spacecraft, the Astra 4A designation originally applied only to the FSS Africa beam that provides six 36 MHz transponders for sub-Saharan Africa.[1]
Five of these African beam transponders are contracted with ETV and Globecast having signed one transponder each and three transponders signed by On Digital Media for the South African TopTV network.[5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Sirius 4 Factsheet SES SIRIUS August 2008
- ^ "SES SIRIUS BECOMES SES ASTRA" (Press release). SES. June 22, 2010. http://www.ses.com/4233325/news/2010/4489346.
- ^ "Astra 4A Footprints". SES. http://www.ses.com/4628572/astra-4a. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
- ^ "SES Global Africa completes first successful year in African business" (Press release). SES ASTRA. February 17, 2006. http://www.ses.com/4233325/news/2006/4445997. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
- ^ "ON DIGITAL MEDIA CONTRACTS THREE TRANSPONDERS ON ASTRA" (Press release). SES ASTRA. April 19, 2010. http://www.ses.com/4233325/news/2010/4487850. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
[edit] External links
- SES guide to receiving Astra satellites
- SES guide to channels broadcasting on Astra satellites
- OnAstra - Official consumers/viewers' site
- SES - Official trade/industry site
- Astra 4A Nordic beam footprint on SatBeams
- Astra 4A European beam footprint on SatBeams
- Astra 4A Africa beam footprint on SatBeams
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
