Eurobird 1 Satellite at 25.5° East

Eurobird 1

With twenty-four operational channels, the EUROBIRD™ 1 satellite provides coverage of Western and Central Europe, extending as far west as the Canary Islands.
Designed for the provision of direct-to-home television and multimedia services, the transmit coverage provides high power over several European countries, including Germany and the United Kingdom, permitting the use of very small receive antennae. The receive coverage provides uplink capability over a very wide area.

The satellite has three beams, one fixed, covering almost all of Europe (fixed beam), as well as north-western Africa, although carrying only United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland targeted channels, and two steerable - 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.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° East since 1990.

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The Eurobird 1 Satellite

These stations slowly started to leave, mostly due to viewers/listeners in those target audiences moving to more traditional orbital positions - 19.2° East for Austria, and 23.5° East for the Czech and Slovak Republics. Additional demand for bandwidth at 28° East, to carry HDTV services, is likely to lead to S2 having its frequency plan re-arranged so as to allow Sky receivers to see its transponders.

Satellite Facts

Satellite launch information

Launch date: 08/03/01

Launch details: Ariane V (V140)

Launch Mass: 2950 kg

Orbit Mass: 1810 kg

Model: Spacebus 3000

Lifetime: 12 Years

Satellite orbital information

Satellite manufacturer: Alcatel Space Industries

Orbital location: 28.5° east

Satellite transponder information

Transponder capacity: 24

Twta output power: 90 Watts

EIRP:

Transponder bandwidth:

Eurobird 1 Footprints

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Eurobird 1 - Fixed Beam

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Eurobird 1 - Steerable1

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Eurobird 1 - Steerable2

Frequency plan for Eurobird 1