Astra 2G Launch: December 2014

[skomedal]

Do not think it will the true testing location of this bird will be released until the X band trial has been completed.

"" The Astra-2G is a dual-capable satellite for both civilian and military use. It’s expected to transmit signals to European countries, West Africa and the Near and Middle East. The satellite also contains a military Ka- and X-band payload to provide bandwidth to the NATO alliance. ""

http://rt.com/news/218171-proton-astra-2g-satellite/

From another forum:-

Cancelling the Luxembourg squatting would see Luxembourg lose X-band rights to whichever slot would otherwise expire this month, and in this specific case the Luxembourg government and SES has a joint venture between them to lease this (and ka band) capacity out from 2019 (i.e. GovSat will be operated by SES and both them and the Luxembourg government will be selling capacity to NATO and Luxembourg's Allies) so it's in SES's interests to ensure this allocation is kept available as military contracts are likely to bring in more Euro's than a DTH operation for the UK....

Regards

Edit from the SES site :-

Payload:

• 62 Ku-band transponders
• 4 Ka-band transponders
• X-band transponder for Luxembourg government

Astra 2G features also a military Ka/X-band payload to preserve Luxembourg governments orbital slot rights, which expire in January 2015.

 

[hvdh]

I found these references to an X-band transponder on Gunter's page and on orbiter-forum, but can't find it on any SES site, can you point me to it?
The big question indeed still is: where is that Govsat slot?

 

[Analoguesat]

The big question indeed still is: where is that Govsat slot?

It must be listed on the ITU site somewhere if anyone knows their way around it.

 

[skomedal]

ASTRA 2G hosts 62 Ku-band transponders and four Ka-band transponders. It also carries a Ka-band and X-band communications package for the government of Luxembourg, which intends to use capacity on ASTRA 2G to meet regulatory requirements allowing the country to keep a soon-to-expire frequency allocation needed for a future military communications satellite.

Luxembourg plans to develop a dedicated satellite named GovSat to provide its military and allies with extra communications capacity.

Officials said ASTRA 2G would occupy an undisclosed slot in geostationary orbit to meet Luxembourg’s frequency commitment to international regulators before drifting to a final location near 28.2-28.5 degrees east longitude to enter commercial service for SES by June 2015.

http://spaceflightnow.com/2014/12/2...h-puts-astra-2g-broadcast-satellite-in-orbit/

Sorry was mislead by the orbiter forum site displaying the SES logo amongst others

Regards

 

[Marcus_21]

Tracking of http://www.n2yo.com/?s=40364, seems correct....
Intercepted a weak signal telemetry to about 10°W, Frequency 11710,50 and 12492,00 Circular polarized.

 

[hvdh]

Marcus_21, so that was the equatorial crossing near perigee (27120 km)!
That means about 2° lower elevation compared to Clarke-belt altitude.

Next apogee would be 9:30 CET at about 18° East. Maybe then, the boost to circular orbit?

 

[Marcus_21]

Telemetry signal, in little stronger at 17°E ....

 

[Marcus_21]

Marcus_21, so that was the equatorial crossing near perigee (27120 km)!
That means about 2° lower elevation compared to Clarke-belt altitude.

Next apogee would be 9:30 CET at about 18° East. Maybe then, the boost to circular orbit?

Probable thrust directly at 43,5°E

 

[hvdh]

That crossing near 43.5°E is at perigee again, not the time to thrust into circular orbit.
So if 43.5°E (or anywhere before that) is the destination, thrust has been given already this morning.
Good luck tracing Astra 2G now!

 

[Marcus_21]

Carried out maneuver, the tracking http://www.n2yo.com/?s=40364 is no longer correct.. is about 18°E, tracking shows about 37,6°E.
In circular polarizations are 11710,50 RHCP and 12492,00 LHCP. No trace of the telemetry 11452,50.

For those who want to follow the telemetry...
Hardware: USB DVB-T dongle provided with RTL2832U chipset (E4000 tuner or R820T).
Software for RTL-SDR: driver for rtl-sdr, plus software sdr-radio V2 or SDRSharp.
Connection diagram:

 

[Marcus_21]

In the last hours the telemetry signal became stronger.

 

[Pietclock]

I'll try again with an Icom radio scanner...

 

[skomedal]

http://www.satellite-calculations.com/Satellite/last30days.php

Are these Astra 2G TLEs epoch times valid?

Regards

Edited inserted epoch times

 

[hvdh]

There's no such thing as "valid" with TLE's.
All that is known is the position and motion at Epoch time.
Afterwards is only prediction, that becomes wrong after thrust is used (which is the case with Astra 2G).

 

[skomedal]

Sorry meant is the latest epoch time valid on the site?

Regards

Have edited #253 accordingly

 

[hvdh]

Yes, TLE #8 of 1 Jan 02:54 UTC still is the latest.
Satellite-calculations.com retrieves its TLE's from Celestrak.com, which updates less often than N2yo.com.

Example: see http://n2yo.com/satellite/?s=40364
1 40364U 14089A 15001.16250948 -.00000144 00000-0 00000+0 0 81
2 40364 002.0468 067.7031 1137306 002.0380 030.0771 01.18090287 67
Line 1:
The 15001 means year 2015, day 1.
At the right (81), ignore the last numeral (1), then 8 is the TLE number.

 

[Marcus_21]

Arrived at about 19°E, moving to east...

 

[skomedal]

So according to n2yo hovering over Manado Indonesia, Same position as satellite calculations site if you click on the "" current sat. longitude "" button far left.

Regards

 

[hvdh]

Thanks Marcus_21, just 1° per day is quite slow already at this stage.
Either we must stay very patient for arrival at 43.5°E, or 2G is already close to another destination...

 

[Llew]

Thanks for the frequencies Marcus. Tried yesterday around this position, but only saw the existing 19E beacons.

At this time, the 2G beacons are very weak for me -