Astra 2A & 2C

[hvdh]

Sorry, have no idea yet what Astra 2C will be used for.

What I do know, it will become pretty crowded near 60°E!
Galaxy 11, now still at 55.6°W, soon will start the journey there.
So it will end up like this:
59.84°E : Astra 1G (inclined 1°)
60.0°E : Intelsat 904
60.1°E : Galaxy 11
60.2°E : WGS-2
60.3°E : Astra 2C (arriving right now)

 

[hvdh]

Astra 2A, the last in-orbit spare, has left 28.0°E as well.
Now 32°E, heading for 113.5°E according CoB. Arrival: end of June.
Also becoming inclined.

 

[Captain Jack]

It's been up there 18 years... I am surprised it wasn't inclined already.

Nice to see old names in action still, though.

 

[hvdh]

Astra 2A stayed at 113.5°E for over 2 years, and still NOT inclined like thought back then.
Has left that position yesterday according SES ephemeris, drifting 0.6°W per day. No TLE yet.

 

[Captain Jack]

Still not inclined after 20 years?! Wow...

 

[hvdh]

Astra 2A hardly has a history of moving location (after 28°E came only 113.5°E), that may have helped!
Ephemeris now shows next location to be 100.0°E, to be reached in the beginning of August.

ITU Space Network List only has USA entries, until recently the US Navy's FleetSatCom 7 was at 100°E.
A few months ago I read a message somewhere this very old satellite (launched in 1986 !) was retired finally, but I'm still looking for confirmation of that.

 

[hvdh]

Astra 2A started to incline since being moved to 100.0°E (mid-2018).
Left 100.0°E a month ago, now near 76°E with 1.6° inclination, and still drifting 0.8°W/day.

 

[Captain Jack]

Wonder if any more satellites will be refuelled? Maybe even start fetching old satellites out of graveyard orbit to put back into service.

 

[Analoguesat]

Wonder if any more satellites will be refuelled? Maybe even start fetching old satellites out of graveyard orbit to put back into service.

Most of the tv birds are probably unsuitable for rescue once they have reached graveyard altitude. As part of the passivating process any pressurised systems including coolants & fuels are depleted and the batteries are supposed to be shorted out as part of the electrical deactivation. All this to avoid accidental on orbit explosions but it does rather spoil the chances of them being reactivated.

I dare say there are a few up there that didnt passivate correctly and may be candidates, but something thats been in orbit 25 or 30 years probably isnt going to be in great shape anyway - and low powered too

ECS 4 & 5 are known to be still electrically powered - they are occasionally reported to have some telemetry signals transmitting

To be honest the best thing that could be done for the really ancient old tv birds still up there is to attach a space tug to them to give them a tow down low enough the orbit will degrade & they will burn up in a reasonable length of time. Get them out the way!

 

[Captain Jack]

Ah yes, I forgot about the decommissioning process. How are their locations tracked without any electronics onboard?

 

[hvdh]

Astra 2A is back home!
Standby at 28.0°E with 1.7° inclination.

 

[danny10]

and what reason?

 

[Lazarus]

Standby duty.

 

[danny10]

:-tleskat

 

[Lazarus]

:-tleskat

nemáš zač

 

[jeallen01]

:-tleskat

nemáš zač

As normally "requested" by the Staff in situations like this - for the rest of us "linguistically challenged" folks, please share the joke in English!

 

[Analoguesat]

2E 2F & 2G should be able to cover for each other, no need for a semi derelict to arrive for standby.