The 23.5° east orbital position was first occupied by the DFS-Kopernikus 1 and DFS-Kopernikus 3 satellites, launched in June 1989 and October 1992, respectively, to provide channel feeds to German cable headends for
Deutsche Bundespost (later,
Deutsche Telekom). DFS-Kopernikus 1 was first positioned at 23.5° east and then moved to 33.5° east with the launch of DFS-Kopernikus 3. As DFS-Kopernikus 3 neared the end of its life, an agreement was reached with Deutsche Telekom for SES to use the German position and frequencies, and in August 2001,
Astra 1D was moved to 23.5° east to provide follow-on capacity for DFS-Kopernikus F3 pending the launch of Astra 3A. Astra 3A was launched in March 2002 to open the Astra 23.5°E position, and Deutsche Telekom contracted for 10 transponders, with all traffic on the old DFS-Kopernikus craft switched to Astra 3A. With the establishment of
Astra 1L at the Astra 19.2°E position in July 2007,
Astra 1E was released from 19.2° east and moved to Astra 23.5°E to replace Astra 1D, which was approaching the end of its design life. Following the launch of
Astra 1M to the Astra 19.2°E position in November 2008,
Astra 1G was moved from 19.2° east to Astra 23.5°E in February 2009 to provide additional capacity. A new satellite, Astra 3B, was originally scheduled to be launched to Astra 23.5°E in the first quarter of 2010, to replace all the capacity currently at this orbital position, but was beset by launcher delays, postponed on the launch pad on March 24, 2010, and April 9, 2010, for a faulty pressure regulator in the Ariane 5 rocket's main stage. Astra 3B was finally successfully launched on May 21, 2010. and came into commercial service in June, after in-orbit testing, when Astra 1E and Astra 1G were released from service. In July 2010, Astra 1G was moved from Astra 23.5°E to
Astra 31.5°E. Astra 1E remained at this position a little longer with no transponders in use, but in August 2010 it was moved westwards to
Astra 5°E to provide backup for Astra 4A pending the launch of Astra 4B to that position in 2011. In April 2011 the
Thor 2 satellite moved to 23.5°E in an
inclined orbit. Thor 2 was originally launched to 0.8°W on May 21, 1997, and retired from
DTH service in 2008. It was leased from owners,
Telenor by SES-Astra in 2008 and initially moved to the 5°E orbital position. In 2011 Thor 2 had only two active transponders, both carrying the channel, RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg. In January 2013 the Thor 2 de-orbited to the graveyard orbit. On February 1, 2012
Kabel Deutschland ceased to use the Astra 23.5°E position for distribution, switching to its terrestrial fibre network. In June 2013 Astra 1D left 23.5°E moving east (although it remained listed in the SES website as at this position) reaching 52.2°E as of June 30, 2013. In November 2013, Astra 3A moved to 177°W to provide backup to SES' NSS-9 satellite. In the summer of 2023,
Astra 5B was moved from
Astra 31.5°E to 23.5°E, co-locating with Astra 3B. Subsequently, Astra 5B was renamed Astra 3C and broadcast channels on Astra 3B began to be transferred, prompting speculation that Astra 3B was reaching the end of its commercial life some two years short of the planned mission duration. ==See also==