SES Astra has reported that its satellite ASTRA 5A, the former SIRIUS 2 operating at 31.5 degrees East, experienced a technical anomaly leading to the end of the spacecraft's mission.

SES ASTRA has immediately informed affected customers and switched a substantial part of the traffic to another ASTRA satellite at the 23.5 degrees East orbital position.

The service for the German cable operators through their company KDL is among the transferred services. With this transfer, the economic impact of the incident on SES in 2009 will not be material.

The teams of the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), the company that technically operates ASTRA 5A, and the satellite's manufacturer,

Thales Alenia Space, are now working closely on de-orbiting the satellite. Together with SES, they are also investigating the root cause of the incident.

ASTRA 5A was positioned at the orbital position 31.5 degrees East and launched as SIRIUS 2 in November 1997 to the 5 degrees East position. SES ASTRA will shortly take the necessary decisions to maintain and develop the 31.5 degrees East orbital position in the changed fleet deployment scenario.