SES has announced that its new Astra 1N satellite has entered commercial service at the orbital position of 28.2 degrees East.
Astra 1N will initially provide interim replacement capacity at 28.2 degrees East. For the time being, the satellite greatly enhances the flexibility of the SES satellite fleet at the orbital slot 28.2 degrees East over Europe. Astra 1N is notably being used by Channel 4 and ITV.
However, it will subsequently be moved to 19.2 degrees East, where it will mainly serve the German, French and Spanish markets.
The new satellite will also allow SES to offer its satellite-based broadband service Astra2Connect via 28.2 degrees East and thus complement its service offer from the 23.5 degrees East position. Astra2Connect is a satellite broadband network with more than 80,000 end users.
Astra 1N was built by Astrium on the Eurostar E3000 platform and is equipped with 52 transponders in the Ku frequency band.
The satellite was successfully launched on board an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, on August 6, 2011.
It had a launch mass of 5,325 kg and is the fourth Eurostar satellite in the 49 satellite-strong SES fleet.
