Feb. 9, 01 (18days – Astra 2D) Apr 15, 02 (8 days – Astra 3A); Apr. 23, 02 (9 days – Gran Canaria)
In February 2001 I was fortunate to get a consulting assignment with SES Astra in Luxembourg. It was winter but not a lot of snow around. The working time was at the SES satellite control center at a small village, Betsdorf, outside of Luxembourg City in connection with the recent launch of a Hughes satellite[i], Astra 2D on Dec. 20, 2000. I spent all my weekend idle hours driving to every castle in Luxembourg, essentially all of which were disappointments as they were ruins. On one weekend I even got a couple hours across the border into Bastogne, Belgium. Another weekend I flew to London to meet with principals of the IRC investigating a 1995 Chinese Rocket launch failure, and to tour around central London.
Again in April 2002, shortly after the Astra 3A launch of late Feb, I had another short stay in support of Betsdorf operations. This time I spent a long weekend driving northeast along the Moselle River past Trier as far as Koblenz where the Moselle and the Rhine join. A beautiful springtime drive along the vineyard covered steep river banks - the kind of scenery that invites you on bicycle or riverboat tours. I detoured for an hour or so to visit the pub and house of a friend of my sister-in-law at Bitburg, Germany.
At the end of this consulting assignment, as I was by now gaining a little windsurfing skill, I wanted to set foot on one of the famous European windsurf sites that include Greece, Southern Spain and the Canary Islands. Unfortunately the season was a little early for warm water and best wind but I chose Gran Canaria and booked a flight and a week’s stay and equipment rental at the Mistral center. The wind conditions were terrible at Mistral with either no wind or sometimes the wind in one direction at the shore and reversing direction a quarter mile out. So bad the center began to load us in a van with the equipment and drive to other places on the island for better conditions or just seeing the sights. We did get to see the world famous freestyle and wave windsurfing location Pozo Izquierdo (left waterhole) and as I recall we sailed a couple times at Arinaga. The wind was fierce 4.0 m2 sail and the beach was smooth “river pebbles” in which you sink to the ankles when walking. Also the southern shore of the island was covered by extensive improvised and fenced in plastic greenhouses full of tomatoes – perhaps the main commercial activity. This was an adventurous trip, but maybe one of the least pleasant I have ever been part of.
[i] It might seem unlikely that a tiny country as Luxembourg would have satellites, however the World Radio Conference had awarded a geostationary orbit slot to this country. With Luxembourg’s relatively central position over Europe satellites in the equatorial plane at Luxembourg’s longitude could reach all of Europe and surrounding geography. As result the first private satellite broadcast company in Europe, SES https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SES_Astra was formed. They began operation with launch of their first satellite a GE Aerospace GE-4000 in December 1088 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astra_(satellite) . SES was founded by Clay Whitehead who had previously, in 1987, founded Hughes Communications, now Hughes Network Systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_Network_Systems and bringing to Hughes Space the ethos that operating satellites as a business was more profitable that designing and building them for other operators.