Astra 1N Satellite

The Astra 1N satellite was launched on 6th August 2011. Astra 1N was deployed at was located at 28.2° east, the main orbital position for direct-to-home satellite TV services in the UK and Ireland, mainly the broadcast of Sky TV and the other UK TV satellite channels.

Astra 1N satellite was designed with 55 Ku band transponders.

Astra 1N satellite was designed with an operational life of 15 years.

Astra 1N satellite was designed for operations at 19 east. However, it was temporarily deployed to 28.2° east to assist during the transfer of channesl from Astra 2A, Astra 2B and Astra 2D to the new Astra 2 satellites Astra 2E, Astra 2F, and Astra 2G.

From December 2011, some UK TV channels started to operate from Astra 1N.

In February 2012, a large number of channels from the Astra 2D satellite also migrated over to Astra 1N. This included ITV1, 2, 3, 4, Channel 4, E4, More4, Film4.

The Astra 1N satellite provides three broadcast beams, each with horizontal and vertical polarisation. One beam was dubbed the “uk beam”, as it was though to be sharply focussed on the UK, to prevent signal overspill into Europe. However, channels on this UK Beam could be received in Spain using a satellite dish of around 80x85cm.

During February 2014, Astra 1N was cleared of UK TV channels, with them moving to Astra 2E, Astra 2F, and Astra 2G. This cleared the way for Astra 1N to be moved to its design position of 19.2 east.
Astra 1N Launch Video