Optus fleet of satellites

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This is a list of the satellites operated by Optus, an Australian telecommunications company.

Contents

[edit] A-Class

  • Satellite Type: Hughes HS-376
  • Design Life: 7 Years for A1 & A2 - 10 Years for A3
  • Equipment: 15 Ku band transponders (including four 30W transponders and eleven 12W transponders)[1]
  • Diameter: 2.2m[1]
  • Height: 2.9m (stowed), 6.3m (deployed)[1]

The Aussat A-Class satellites were funded by the Government for Aussat Pty Ltd. When Optus was granted a telecommunications carrier licence in 1991, it was bundled with the purchase of Aussat Pty Limited as part of the carrier licence deal.

[edit] Aussat (Optus) A1

AUSSAT-1 (now Optus A1) on deployment from Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51-I
AUSSAT-1 (now Optus A1) on deployment from Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51-I
  • Operational Location: 160° East (1985-1993)[2]
  • Launch Date: 27 August 1985 (Out of service; not deorbited)

AUSSAT-1 was deployed by Space Shuttle Discovery during the first day of the STS-51-I mission.

[edit] Aussat (Optus) A2

  • Operational Locations: 156° East (1985-1993), 164° East (1993-1999)[2]
  • Launch Date: 27 November 1985 (Out of service; not deorbited)

AUSSAT-2 was deployed by Space Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-61-B mission.

[edit] Aussat (Optus) A3

  • Operational Locations: 164° East (1987-1993), 156° East (1993-1995), 152° East (1995-1999)[2]
  • Launch Date: 16 September 1987
  • Moved to graveyard orbit: April 2008[citation needed]
  • Optus A3 was transferred to orbital position 31.5'E which belongs to SES Astra.
  • Was the oldest HS-376 still in active operation

AUSSAT-3 was launched from Guiana Space Centre by an Ariane 3.[3]

[edit] B-Class

  • Satellite Type: Hughes HS-601
  • Design Life: 10 Years
  • Equipment: 15 Ku band transponders, 1 L band transponder, Ka band beacon, laser retroreflector

The B-Class satellites were launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center by Long March rockets.

[edit] Optus B1

  • Primary mission location: 160° East
  • Current location: 164° East (inclined orbit)[4]
  • Launch date: 13 August 1992
  • Beacon frequencies: 12.748.000 H / 12.749.000 H

Optus B1 was retired from its primary mission in early 2007, following transfer of services to Optus D1 after over 14 years of operation. Optus B1 was moved to 164° East where it remains in an inclined orbit and still carries mobile-sat L band phone services.[citation needed]

[edit] Failures

Satellite Control Processor

On 21 May 2005 services were temporarily lost when the Primary Satellite Control Processor failed. The satellite was switched to use the Backup SCP in order to restore services. Thereafter the satellite continued to operate from the Backup SCP.[5][6]

March 2006 Positioning Failure

At 06:52 GMT on 30 March 2006, a routine repositioning manoeuvre failed, resulting in loss of pointing control of the satellite. Although communication with the satellite was not lost, transmission services provided by the satellite failed due to its incorrect positioning. Services were progressively restored between 18:00 and 20:00 GMT.[7][8][9][10][11]

Local time at the time of the start of the outage ranged from 14:52 AWST to 18:52 NZST, a peak time for listeners and viewers of the radio and television broadcast and subscription services provided directly or indirectly by the satellite.

See also: SKY Network Television#2006 SKY Digital outage

[edit] Optus B2

The launchcraft containing Optus B2 exploded on launch and was subsequently destroyed, for reasons that the designer Hughes and the Chinese (Launch Location) authorities were unable to determine.

However, according to one source, shortcomings in the launch vehicle guidance system meant that it failed to compensate for wind-shear effects within the first minute after launch.[12]

[edit] Optus B3

  • Primary mission locations: 156° East (from initial launch until establishment of Optus C1), 152° East (until establishment of Optus D2)
  • Current location: 164° East (as at 2008-02-17)[13]
  • Launch Date: 27 August 1994

Optus B3 was launched as a replacement for the failed Optus B2.

This satellite is owned by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and leased back to Singtel Optus. It was replaced by Optus D2.[4]

[edit] Optus (and Defence) C1

Artist impression of Optus C1
Artist impression of Optus C1

Partially funded by the Australian Government (Defence Department) - Optus C1's use is shared between Defence and Telecommunications, in particular the supply of Television services to Australia.

[edit] Television Services

The Ku band Transponders are exclusively used for Television Services, mainly:

  • Foxtel rent a considerable amount of satellite capacity for the transmission of their Foxtel Digital service (and onsold to Austar for their Austar Digital service).
  • Optus operate the RABS Service Aurora, allowing Free to Air television to be accessed via satellite in areas that may not be able to access FTA services via terrestrial means. The service is also used in a commercial capacity by a number of organisations for satellite linkups.
  • ABC - via the Aurora service allowing access to state tailored feeds of ABC TV in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory, Radio National in all Australian states except Northern Territory, Local Regional ABC radio, Classic FM in all states except Tasmania, Triple J in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, and News Radio.

[edit] Defence Services

The remaining transponders (being Ka band, X band and UHF) are exclusive for Defence/Military use.

[edit] D-Class

Artist impression of Optus D1
Artist impression of Optus D1

The D1 and D2 satellites replace and expand the services provided by the B1 and B3 satellites respectively, which had both been operating beyond their design lifetimes. The D3 satellite is to be co-located with C1 to expand capacity.

[edit] Optus D1

  • Location: 160° East
  • Launch Date: 2006-10-13
  • Equipment: 24 Ku band transponders
  • Launch mass: 2350 kg

D1 was successfully launched by an Ariane 5 ECA on 13 October 2006 at 20:56 GMT.[15]

Customers on D1 include the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), the Seven Network, the Nine Network, Sky Television New Zealand and New Zealand's Kordia (formerly known as BCL). D1 also supports VSAT users.[16]

Kordia is leasing a full transponder for sublease to TVNZ (TV1 & TV2) and CanWest (TV3 & C4) for the Freeview service. The Kordia transponder will be on 12.4697GHz. [1]

[edit] Incorrect configuration of New Zealand spot beam

During in-orbit testing of the satellite, it was discovered that the New Zealand spot beam had been configured with horizontal polarisation instead of the expected vertical polarisation - as had been used on its predecessor Optus B1.[17][18]

As many existing receivers did not have the ability to receive horizontally aligned signals, Sky Television was unable to transfer services from Optus B1 to this beam as expected. Sky was instead assigned capacity on the more general Australia/NZ beam. Due to restrictions on broadcast rights (in terms of both broadcast licensing and copyright), the unencrypted Freeview service could not make a similar allocation switch and was set up as a horizontally-aligned service on the New Zealand spot beam. [2]

On 2007-07-31, Sky successfully performed an over the air software upgrade to all of its customer set-top boxes, enabling them to receive the horizontally-aligned signals from the New Zealand spot beam. Accordingly, Sky was able to return to their original capacity allocation.[19]

[edit] Optus D2

  • Location: 152° East
  • Launch date: 2007-10-05
  • Equipment: 24 active Ku band transponders (including sixteen 150W transponders and eight 44W transponders).[20]

D2 was successfully launched from the Guiana Space Centre by an Ariane 5 GS on 2007-10-05 at 22:02 GMT. [21]

Optus D2 replaced Optus B3, which had been in operation for 13 years at the time of D2's launch.[22]

[edit] Optus D3 (planned)

  • Location: 156° East [23]
  • Expected Launch Date: 2009 [24]
  • Equipment: 32 Ku band transponders (consisting of twenty four 125 watt primary and eight 44 watt backup transponders)[25][26]

The third in the D series of Optus satellites is planned for launch in late 2009 by Arianespace using an Ariane or a Soyuz launch vehicle from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.[27] The satellite will be co-located with Optus C1 at 156° East. So far, Optus has sold 25% of the transponder capacity (6 out of 24) to Foxtel to provide High Definition programming as well as "new channels, expanded digital services and enhanced picture and sound quality".[28][29]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Boeing 376 Fleet - Aussat. Boeing. Retrieved on 2007-10-08.
  2. ^ a b c Aussat. Encyclopedia Astronautica. Mark Wade. Retrieved on 2007-10-08.
  3. ^ Ariane 2/3. Encyclopedia Astronautica. Mark Wade. Retrieved on 2007-10-08.
  4. ^ a b c About Optus - Satellite Network. Optus. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
  5. ^ "Optus satellite outage problem fixed", AAP via The Age, 2005-05-27. Retrieved on 2007-10-11. 
  6. ^ Failures - Boeing 601 (f.k.a. Hughes HS 601). Satellite News Digest. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
  7. ^ Optus (2006-03-31). "Optus B1 satellite service restored following overnight outage". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
  8. ^ SKY Network Television Limited (2006). "Outage On SKY Satellite Service". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
  9. ^ SKY Network Television Limited (2006). "Solar Eclipse Interferes With Satellite Restoration". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
  10. ^ SKY Network Television Limited (2006). "SKY Satellite Service Restored". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
  11. ^ SKY Network Television Limited (2006). "SKY Satellite Service Restored". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
  12. ^ HS 601. Encyclopedia Astronautica. Mark Wade. Retrieved on 2008-01-24.
  13. ^ Real Time Satellite Tracking (Optus B3). www.n2yo.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-24.
  14. ^ Senator the Hon Robert Hill, Minister for Defence (2003-06-12). "New era of defence communications launched into space". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-01-24.
  15. ^ Arianespace (2006-10-13). "Ariane 5 ECA launch a success: DIRECTV 9S and OPTUS D1 in orbit". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
  16. ^ Optus (2006-10-14). "Optus D1 satellite successfully launched". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
  17. ^ "TV satellite taxing technicians", onenews, TVNZ, 2006-11-14. Retrieved on 2007-10-06. 
  18. ^ Optus D1 problems?. Free to Air Satellite Forums (Asia Pacific) (2006-11-11). Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
  19. ^ "Sky software update inconveniences few", The Dominion Post via stuff.co.nz, Fairfax New Zealand, 2007-08-06. Retrieved on 2007-10-06. 
  20. ^ Fact Sheet: Optus D1 and D2 (PDF). Orbital Sciences Corporation (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
  21. ^ Arianespace (2007-10-05). "Arianespace boosts Intelsat 11 and Optus D2 into orbit". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
  22. ^ D2 Launch Information. Optus. Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
  23. ^ "Arianespace To Launch Australian Satellite Optus D3", Space Daily, 2007-04-09. Retrieved on 2007-10-06. 
  24. ^ "Arianespace to launch Optus D3", spacetoday.net, 2007-04-05. Retrieved on 2007-10-06. 
  25. ^ Fact Sheet: Optus D3 (PDF). Orbital Sciences Corporation (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
  26. ^ Orbital Sciences Corporation (2007-03-29). "Orbital Awarded Contract For A Third Communications Satellite By Optus Of Australia". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
  27. ^ Arianespace (2007-04-04). "Arianespace to launch Australian satellite Optus D3". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
  28. ^ FOXTEL and Optus Agree to a Satellite Deal. Kagan Global Research Team. JupiterResearch Analyst Weblogs (2007-04-11). Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
  29. ^ FOXTEL (2007-03-29). "FOXTEL acquires additional satellite capacity for new television services". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-10-06.

[edit] External links

[edit] Satellite information and orbital data

[edit] Manufacturer satellite information pages

[edit] Satellite operators