The orbital station keeping manoeuvres of the satellites were conducted by the Flight Dynamics Group of the German Aerospace Center (German Space Operations Center) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Bavaria.
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When DFS-Kopernikus 3 was nearing the end of its life, SES reached agreement with Deutsche Telekom to use the 23.5° east position and frequencies, and in August 2001, Astra 1D was moved there.
The 23.5° east orbital position was first occupied by the DFS-Kopernikus 1 and DFS-Kopernikus 3 satellites, launched in June 1989 and October 1992, respectively, to provide channel feeds to German cable headends for Deutsche Bundespost (later, Deutsche Telekom).
Astra 3A was launched to provide follow-on capacity to replace the DFS-Kopernikus 3 satellite and deliver additional capacity for the Benelux countries and central Europe, to create SES-Astra’s third major European satellite hotspot after Astra 19.2°E and Astra 28.2°E with access to channels at both positions using a single dish fitted with a monoblock Duo LNB.