The ASTRA 1L broadcasting satellite, designed and built by Lockheed Martin for SES ASTRA is ready for launch Thursday aboard an Ariane 5-ECA launch vehicle provided by Arianespace. ASTRA 1L, which is scheduled to launch at 6:29 p.m. EST, will be located at orbital location 19.2 degrees East.
ASTRA-1L will carry 29 active Ku band transponders used to provide distribution of direct-to-home broadcast services across Europe as well as a 2-transponder Ka band payload for interactive applications. ASTRA 1L is expected to provide 15 years of design life and will ensure further fleet optimization by allowing the release of ASTRA 2C from its current location of 19.2 degrees East. Furthermore, it will reinforce SES ASTRA's inter satellite back-up concept.
ASTRA 1L is the 15th A2100 series spacecraft designed, built and launched for SES companies by Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin is currently building AMC-14 for SES AMERICOM, which is scheduled to be launched in December 2007. ASTRA 1L also marks the first of five A2100 launches this year.
The Lockheed Martin A2100 geosynchronous spacecraft series is designed to meet a wide variety of telecommunications needs including Ka-band broadband and broadcast services, fixed satellite services in C-band and Ku-band, high-power direct broadcast services using the Ku-band frequency spectrum and mobile satellite services using UHF, L-band, and S-band payloads.
The A2100's modular design features a reduction in parts, simplified construction, increased on-orbit reliability and reduced weight and cost.
The A2100 spacecraft's design accommodates a large range of communication payloads as demonstrated by the 30 spacecraft successfully flown to date. This design modularity also enables the A2100 spacecraft to be configured for missions other than communication. The A2100 design is currently being adapted for geostationary earth orbit (GEO)-based earth observing missions and is currently the baselined platform for Lockheed Martin's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite Series-R (GOES-R) proposal.
