On 4 June 1991, Astra 1B suffered an attitude control failure, causing minor drift in north–south direction, meaning that it became difficult to obtain a steady lock on the satellite.

This was most notable on analogue transmissions where the picture would move from clear to carrying sparklies and back again.

The failure was likely caused by recent solar winds which impacted the electronics on both the primary and the backup momentum wheels.

In September 1991, SES dealt with the failure by permanently deactivating the automatic control mode for the attitude subsystem.

[4] It was officially end-of-lifed on 14 July 2006; close to four years after it had ceased carrying signals, ending SES's claims that the craft was operational.