ASTRA 2E

Astra 2E is a geostationary communications satellite owned and operated by SES S.A., the Luxembourg-based satellite operator. Catalogued by the United States Space Surveillance Network under NORAD ID 39285 and identified internationally by the COSPAR designator 2013-056A, the spacecraft was launched on 28 September 2013 and reached its operational geostationary position a short time thereafter. It forms part of SES's long-running Astra satellite fleet, which has served as a cornerstone of direct-to-home television broadcasting across Europe for several decades.

Mission and Purpose

Astra 2E was designed to extend and reinforce the broadcast capacity available at the Astra 28.2°E orbital slot — one of the most commercially significant geostationary positions in the world from a European broadcast perspective. Satellites stationed at this longitude are positioned directly above the equator at a point that provides excellent visibility across the British Isles and much of western and central Europe, making the position a natural hub for direct-to-home digital television distribution.

The satellite's service portfolio spans both free-to-air and encrypted digital television, delivered directly to consumer dishes via the DTH (direct-to-home) broadcast model. In addition to conventional television services, Astra 2E supports satellite broadband connectivity, reflecting the broader industry trend toward multi-service geostationary platforms that serve residential and commercial internet users alongside traditional broadcast customers. Its footprint also extends into the Middle East, enabling regional broadcasters and service providers in that area to reach audiences without relying solely on terrestrial infrastructure.

The launch itself was not without difficulty. The spacecraft's departure from Earth was delayed for a period of approximately ten weeks relative to its original schedule, owing to problems associated with the launch vehicle. When the launch ultimately took place on 28 September 2013, it represented a significant operational moment for SES, which had been managing the high-demand 28.2°E position with an aging fleet and was counting on newer spacecraft to provide capacity well into the 2020s. Following launch, the satellite was maneuvered to its designated geostationary position, where it entered operational service.

Orbit and Tracking

Astra 2E occupies a near-perfect geostationary orbit, a regime in which satellites circle Earth at an altitude where their orbital period matches the planet's own rotation, causing them to appear essentially stationary relative to a fixed point on the ground. This characteristic is what makes geostationary satellites so well suited to broadcast and telecommunications applications — a small fixed dish antenna can maintain a constant lock on the satellite without any need for motorized tracking.

According to catalog data, Astra 2E has an apogee of 35,805 km and a perigee of 35,783 km, indicating an orbit of remarkably low eccentricity. The very small difference between these two values — just 22 km — confirms that the spacecraft has achieved an extremely circular path around Earth. Its orbital inclination is recorded at 0.1°, which represents a slight deviation from the ideal equatorial plane. Over time, geostationary satellites tend to drift in inclination due to gravitational perturbations from the Moon and Sun; a reading of 0.1° suggests the satellite is well-maintained and that any such drift is being actively managed through station-keeping maneuvers or has been only minimally accumulated.

The orbital period of 1,436.1 minutes corresponds to very nearly 23 hours and 56 minutes — the length of one sidereal day, which is precisely the rotation period of Earth relative to the fixed stars rather than the Sun. This synchronization is the defining physical property of the geostationary regime, and Astra 2E's period confirms it is operating as intended within that band.

For satellite-tracking purposes, Astra 2E can be located in the sky at a fixed azimuth and elevation that depends on the observer's geographic position. From the United Kingdom and Ireland, for example, a dish pointed toward the south-southeast at a moderate elevation angle will intercept the 28.2°E arc. The satellite does not pass over the sky in the way that low Earth orbit objects do, so conventional visual spotting methods used for ISS or Starlink satellites do not apply here. The spacecraft remains effectively stationary against the background stars, appearing as a faint, slow-moving or essentially fixed point of reflected light only under ideal conditions with optical assistance.

Design and Operator

Astra 2E was built on behalf of SES S.A., whose full corporate name reflects its origins as the Société Européenne des Satellites. Founded in the 1980s and headquartered in Betzdorf, Luxembourg, SES pioneered the direct-to-home satellite broadcasting industry in Europe and has since grown into one of the largest satellite fleet operators in the world, maintaining dozens of spacecraft across the geostationary arc and, more recently, in medium Earth orbit as well.

The spacecraft's manufacturer is not recorded in the public tracking catalog entry, and the precise satellite bus configuration and payload specifications are not detailed in the verified catalog data. The satellite's mass is similarly not publicly recorded in the tracking catalog. What is established is that the satellite was built to serve a high-capacity, commercially sensitive orbital position and that it was intended to provide many years of operational service upon reaching its station.

SES classifies Astra 2E as part of its Astra brand of satellites, a product line that dates to the late 1980s and has gone through numerous generations of spacecraft. The Astra fleet collectively covers a range of orbital positions, but the 28.2°E slot has historically been the most prominent for UK-facing broadcast services, hosting many of the transponders that carry the dominant free-to-air and pay television platforms accessible to British households via compact offset dishes.

Current Status

As of the most recent catalog data reflected on this page, Astra 2E remains in orbit and has not undergone a controlled or uncontrolled reentry. Its orbital parameters — nearly circular, near-equatorial, at geostationary altitude — are consistent with a spacecraft in active or recently active service. The orbital inclination of 0.1° and the stability of the apogee and perigee figures both suggest the satellite is being maintained with some level of ongoing oversight, as a fully decommissioned and drifting geostationary spacecraft would typically begin to accumulate inclination and eccentricity at a more noticeable rate if left entirely unattended.

The mission status of the satellite is not confirmed in the tracking catalog entry, and its current operational role is not formally recorded in the data available to this page. In general industry terms, geostationary communications satellites of this era are designed for operational service lifetimes typically measured in fifteen years or more, though actual end-of-service dates depend on the depletion of onboard propellant used for station-keeping, as well as the commercial demand environment and the health of spacecraft systems. Astra 2E was launched in 2013, meaning it has been in orbit for over a decade as of the time of writing.

When a geostationary satellite reaches the end of its useful life, standard practice under international guidelines calls for the operator to perform a disposal maneuver that moves the spacecraft into a "graveyard orbit" several hundred kilometers above the geostationary belt, freeing the valuable orbital slot for a successor spacecraft. Whether Astra 2E has undergone or is approaching such a transition is not indicated by the currently available tracking data.

Significance

The Astra 28.2°E position that Astra 2E was sent to reinforce has played an outsized role in shaping how television has been consumed in the United Kingdom and Ireland over the past three decades. The clustering of broadcast capacity at this single longitude created a powerful incentive for consumers to invest in fixed receive infrastructure aligned to it, which in turn entrenched the position as the dominant reception point for UK satellite television. New satellites sent to that slot, including Astra 2E, carry a commercial weight that goes beyond their individual technical specifications.

By adding capacity and updated technology to an orbital position that had become deeply embedded in consumer infrastructure, Astra 2E contributed to SES's ability to maintain and expand service offerings at a time when demand for high-definition and ultra-high-definition broadcast channels was growing, and when satellite broadband was emerging as a meaningful alternative to terrestrial internet services in rural and underserved areas. The satellite also extended coverage into the Middle East, reflecting SES's broader ambition to serve multiple regional markets from a single orbital asset — a design philosophy that has become increasingly standard in modern geostationary satellite missions.