Talk:Optus fleet of satellites

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Timezones: would it not make more sense for the section about New Zealand to have times in the NZ local timezone? (Perhaps in addition to the GMT times). BevanFindlay 22:51, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Contents 1 Suggested cleanup/update: Section on Optus B1 outage in March 2006 2 UHF Transponders on Optus C1 3 Purpose of D-series Satellites 4 A3 Deorbit

[edit] Suggested cleanup/update: Section on Optus B1 outage in March 2006

The section of the article discussing this outage seems to be a collection of theories based on media reports during the first 18 hours or so of the incident. It gives a blow-by-blow account of the initial reporting of the outage and reported reaction to the outage, rather than a simple considered overview of what happened, in encylopedic style.

Some of the claims in this section run at odds with Optus' formal media release [1], which claims that "Optus maintained contact with the satellite throughout the outage."

It seems to me that the writing style and size of this section of the article is out of proportion with the incident. I will tag it with a needs-updating cleanup tag as I see this as being the primary problem (that this section was written on-the-fly and never updated with the benefit of hindsight). Rob.au 15:55, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

I've gone ahead and performed the cleanup. Much of the information I have removed is already covered elsewhere anyway, either in Wikinews or on the Sky Network Television page, both of which I have linked to.

This is also consistant with the result of the merger discussion which suggested that the effects on Sky should be covered in detail on Sky's page (which they are). Rob.au 06:33, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] UHF Transponders on Optus C1

Link to source 5 is no longer valid. [This unsigned comment was left by 210.246.16.136 at 05:45, 22 October 2006 (UTC)]

As the link works, I assume this is a reference to an earlier change, since reverted, to the number of UHF transponders. All content on wikipedia must be verifiable and a number of sites including that of the operators Optus [2] and Defence [3] show there are 6 UHF transponders. Can you provide more information and verification for a different number? Particularly, how would the number change once in orbit? –Rob.au 04:14, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Purpose of D-series Satellites

Although partly timed by higher than expected demand for services on Optus C1, the initial D-series satellites (D1 and D2) have always been intended to replace the aging B-series satellites (B1 and B3). [4] [5] --Rob.au 11:54, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A3 Deorbit

A3 has been in service for over 20 years. It is virtually impossible to de-orbit a fully fuelled satellite from GSO, let alone one which has virtually empty tanks, so the claim that A3 has been deorbited is clearly false. It has probably been moved to a graveyard orbit. I have removed the claim, and I will look to see if it has been moved. --GW_Simulations_{User Page | Talk} 10:43, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Looking around, I suspect a possible problem here is that it looks like "de-orbit procedure" is a frequently used term actually meaning "moved to graveyard orbit", which might be where the confusion came from, depending on where it came from, since I still can't find a reference. There are references saying a new satellite has moved into the orbital slot B3 was technically parked in however, so it does seem that there is a high probability that the end of its life may have come, one way or the other. -- Rob.au (talk) 17:48, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Several satellites can share a slot. I can find no references that suggest A3 has been moved out of GSO. I can find sources that it is not currently in use (ie. is not broadcasting anything at the moment), but that is it. --GW_Simulations_{User Page | Talk} 20:14, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

The tracking sites show it has increased altitude. Heavens Above now has it with a Perigee of 36,136 km and Apogee of 36,209 km [6]. The n2yo.com tracking site and NASA's JTrack 3D also show it is now between 15°W and 16°W, with JTrack plotting a zig-zag ground track instead of the figure-8 you'd expect. -- Rob.au (talk) 09:12, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

The same sources show it continuing to drift westwards in what appears to be a graveyard orbit. It's now about 70°W according to those sources. I've reinstated and clarified the out of service reference for now. I guess if these sources show the ground track completes a lap of the earth we can remove the citation needed notation. -- Rob.au (talk) 11:12, 22 April 2008 (UTC)