Astra 3A was launched to provide follow-on capacity to replace the
DFS Kopernikus-3 satellite and deliver additional capacity for the
Benelux countries and central Europe, to create SES-Astra's third major European satellite hotspot after
Astra 19.2°E and
Astra 28.2°E with access to channels at both positions using a single dish fitted with a
monoblock Duo LNB. In that role, television signals could be received with a 50 cm dish across Germany,
Austria,
Switzerland,
Belgium, the Netherlands,
Luxembourg, the
Czech Republic, most of
Denmark, and in parts of France, Italy, Poland,
Slovenia, and
Slovakia. Reception was even possible as far afield as Scotland,
Sweden and
Serbia when a larger dish (around 110 cm) was used. In addition to contribution feeds and individual television channels, Astra 3A carried
pay television networks including
Kabel Deutschland (Germany),
Canal Digitaal (Netherlands),
TV Vlaanderen (Belgium),
CS Link (Slovakia and Czech Republic) and
Skylink (Slovakia and Czech Republic). On 1 February 2012 Kabel Deutschland left Astra 3A and during 2012 other services were transferred off the satellite. As of October 2012, Astra 3A was in an
inclined orbit at 23.7° East with all services carried by the adjacent
Astra 3B satellite. In November 2013, Astra 3A was moved to 176.9° West where it remained, in inclined orbit, to provide backup to SES'
NSS-9 satellite. In June 2016, Astra 3A was moving east at approximately 1.5°/day and was subsequently positioned at 86.5° West. In November 2016 it started moving east at approx 0.5°/day until positioned at 47° West in mid-February 2017 alongside SES'
NSS-806 satellite (replaced by
SES-14 in January 2018). Towards the end of October 2019, Astra 3A started moving west at approx 0.8°/day until returned to 86.5° West in December 2019. The satellite was retired to a
graveyard orbit in January 2023 == See also ==