Astra 1K was a

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth ...

manufactured by

Alcatel Space Thales Alenia Space () is a Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer. A joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%), the company is the largest satellite manufactur ...

for SES. When it was launched on 25 November 2002, it was the largest civilian communications satellite ever launched, with a mass of . Intended to replace the Astra 1B satellite and provide backup for 1A, 1C and 1D at the

Astra 19.2°E Astra 19.2°E is the name for the group of Astra communications satellites co-located at the 19.2°East orbital position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. Astra 19.2°E used to be commonly ...

orbital position, the Blok DM3 upper stage of the

Proton-K The Proton-K, also designated Proton 8K82K after its GRAU index or SL-12 after its model number, 8K82K, was a Russian, previously Soviet, carrier rocket derived from the earlier Proton. It was built by Khrunichev, and launched from sites 81 an ...

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload ( spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and sys ...

failed to function properly, leaving the satellite in an unusable parking orbit.

Launch

Astra 1K was to be a European (Luxembourg-based) geostationary communications satellite that was launched by a

launch vehicle from

Baikonur Cosmodrome ''Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy'' rus, Космодром Байконур''Kosmodrom Baykonur'' , image = Baikonur Cosmodrome Soyuz launch pad.jpg , caption = The Baikonur Cosmodrome's "Gagarin's Start" Soyuz ...

at 23:04:23 UTC on 25 November 2002. However, the Blok DM3 upper stage attached to the , 13 kW satellite (reported to be the most massive of civilian communications satellite, with its 52 Ku-band and two Ka-band transponders to cover 1,100 channels) was miscommanded to separate after the first burn, resulting in the satellite orbiting at a very low orbit. In an effort to prevent imminent re-entry, the satellite was raised to a circular orbit at an altitude of 288 km. Three options are now under consideration: a) to force its re-entry over the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

, b) to retrieve it by a U.S. shuttle, and c) to use up all the fuel on board the satellite to move it to a geostationary orbit at 19.2° East longitude. The relative security provided by the orbit provides adequate time for selecting the best option. Although some attempts were made to "rescue" the satellite. The decision was taken in December 2002 to deorbit the satellite, resulting in a huge insurance loss and bringing into question both continued use of the Blok D series of upper stages and the "bigger is better" communications satellite philosophy. Astra 1K was intentionally de-orbited on 10 December 2002.

Overview

The satellite featured frequency re-use for some of its transponders, using dual patterns coverage, one covering

eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whi ...

, the other covering Spain. This design was meant to cover specific markets only, in order to expand the capacity of the fleet, as frequency re-use enables more channels to be transmitted simultaneously at the same frequency, with the drawback that channels broadcast on the Spain beam wouldn't be receivable by any means (no matter how large the receiving dish would be) in the east beam and vice versa. This would have left for example the Netherlands and parts of neighbouring countries without reception of either of the beams, as the beams overlap over those countries, efficiently jamming each other. Astra 1K also featured multiple Ka-Band capabilities, originally intended to provide an upload path for

satellite Internet access Satellite Internet access is Internet access provided through communication satellites. Modern consumer grade satellite Internet service is typically provided to individual users through geostationary satellites that can offer relatively high d ...

services. SES later developed such a 2-way commercial satellite internet service with

ASTRA2Connect SES Broadband (previously ASTRA2Connect) is a two-way satellite broadband Internet service available across Europe, which launched in March 2007, and uses the Astra series of geostationary satellites. SES Broadband is owned and operated by SES ...

(now Astra Connect), using Ku-band for upload and download paths.

Replacement satellite

A replacement satellite,

Astra 1KR Astra 1KR is one of the Astra geostationary satellites owned and operated by SES, was purchased in June 2003. It was launched on 20 April 2006, 20:27:00 UTC as a replacement for Astra 1K, which failed to reach orbit on launch in November 20 ...

was successfully launched in 2006.

References

External links

''Astra 1K, Günter's Space page''

''Astra Connect website''
{{Orbital launches in 2002 Astra satellites Spacecraft launched in 2002 Satellite launch failures 2002 in Luxembourg Satellites of Luxembourg Satellites using the Spacebus bus 2002 in Kazakhstan Space accidents and incidents in Kazakhstan

Launch

Overview

Replacement satellite

See also

References

External links