It was launched in 2011 and is the fourth satellite to be built for Astra by Astrium (now Airbus Defence and Space) and the 46th SES satellite in orbit, and entered commercial service at 28.2° East on 24 October 2011.

[4] The Astra 1N satellite provides three broadcast beams, each with horizontal and vertical polarisation, across three footprints.

The United Kingdom spot beam covers the United Kingdom and Ireland with reception on dishes of 45 cm diameter across the whole of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Channel Islands with the exception of the extreme north east of Scotland, where a 60 cm dish is required.

The Pan-European Beam 1 provides reception on a 60 cm dish across Western and Central Europe including Sardinia in the south but excluding Finland in the North.

Pan-European Beam 2 provides 60 cm dish reception over substantially the same area reaching further north into Scandinavia and east as far as the Baltic states, Russia and the Black Sea but excluding more of the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and the Mediterranean.