Eurobird 1
| Names | Eurobird 1 (2001-12) Eutelsat 28A (2012-2015) Eutelsat 33C (2015-) |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Communications |
| Operator | Eutelsat |
| COSPAR ID | 2001-011A |
| SATCAT no. | 26719 |
| Mission duration | 12 years |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Bus | Spacebus 3000 |
| Manufacturer | Alcatel Space |
| Launch mass | 2,950 kilograms (6,500 lb) |
| BOL mass | 1,810 kilograms (3,990 lb) |
| Power | 5,900 watts |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 8 March 2001, 22:51 UTC |
| Rocket | Ariane 5G V140 |
| Launch site | Kourou ELA-3 |
| Contractor | Arianespace |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Geostationary |
| Longitude | 33° East (2001, 2015-) 28.5° East (2001-2015) |
| Transponders | |
| Bandwidth | 12*33 12*72 |
| TWTA power | 90 watts |
Eutelsat 33C (formerly Eurobird 1 and Eutelsat 28A) is a Eutelsat operated Eurobird satellite, used primarily for digital television. It was launched in March 2001, and after a short period testing at 33°E, joined Eutelsat 2F4 at 28.5°E in the Clarke Belt, just within the range of satellite dishes pointed at SES' Astra 2 satellites at 28.2° east. It moved to 33° east and joined Eutelsat 33B in July 2015.
The satellite has three beams. A fixed beam covers almost all of Europe as well as north-western Africa. There are also two steerable beams - the first, "S1", co-focused with the fixed beam but with a Europe-only footprint, and a second, "S2", aimed to central Europe. This beam features many transponders with low symbol rates, used for satellite news gathering.
It features 24 active transponders and 12 backup transponders, all Ku band. 12 of its transponders are significantly wider (72 MHz bandwidth) than traditional broadcast satellites, and are reconfigurable into multiple "virtual" transponders. Each transponder is fixed only in its polarity, and many are carrying at least two, and up to 6 virtual transponders.
Once stationed at 28.5°E, the satellite was promoted as providing satellite coverage for all of Europe, and featured both analogue and digital television and radio services serving Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and other countries. Many of the services it carried had previously been on Kopernikus 2 which had operated at 28.5°E since 1990. These stations slowly started to leave, mostly due to viewers/listeners in those target audiences moving to more traditional orbital positions - 19.2°E for Austria, and the relatively new 23.5°E for the Czech and Slovak Republics.
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