Optus (satellite)

• 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) • Diameter: 2.2m • Launch Date: 27 August 1985 (Out of service; not deorbited) Aussat 1 was deployed by during the first day of the STS-51-I mission. Aussat (Optus) A2 • Operational Locations: 156° east (1985–1993), 164° east (1993–1999) ==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 manufactured by Hughes and launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center by Long March rockets. The two satellites were the first U.S.-built satellites to be approved by the Reagan administration for launch on Chinese rockets. To break into the commercial launch market, the Chinese offered to launch for less than half of what a U.S. launch company would charge. Optus B1 • Primary mission location: 160° east • Current location: Sent to Junk orbit • Launch date: 14 August 1992 • Beacon frequencies: 12.748.000 H / 12.749.000 H Optus B1 was moved to Junk orbit in May 2008. 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. March 2006 Positioning Failure At 06:52 UTC 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 UTC. 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. Optus B2 • Launch Date: 21 December 1992 The Long March 2E rocket carrying Optus B2 experienced a collapse of the payload fairing, destroying the satellite. The rocket continued functioning and delivered the debris into low Earth orbit. The cause of the failure could not be determined at the time. However, the Long March 2E experienced the same payload fairing collapse when launching Apstar 2 in 1995. Based on instrumentation added to the satellite, Hughes determined that the failure was caused by aerodynamic forces and wind shear. 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 inclined(as at 2008-02-17) • Launch Date: 27 August 1994 Optus B3 was launched as a replacement for Optus B2. After the fairing failure that destroyed Optus B2, Hughes recommended reinforcement of the fairing. The Chinese chose not to follow the recommendations and instead added more rivets. The launch of Optus B3 was successful, but the next launch of the Long March 2E experienced another fairing failure and destroyed the Apstar 2 satellite. This satellite is owned by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and leased back to Singtel Optus. It was replaced by Optus D2. ==Optus (and Defence) C1==

• Satellite Type: Space Systems/Loral (SS/L): LS-1300 • Launch Date: 11 June 2003 • Location: 156° east • Design Life: 15 Years • Equipment: 24 Ku band transponders, 4 (+1) Ka band transponders, 4 X band transponders, 6 UHF transponders 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. Mitsubishi Electric was the prime contractor responsible for manufacturing all the Optus C1 communications systems. ==D-Class==

• Manufacturer: Orbital Sciences Corporation • Satellite type: Orbital STAR 2 platform • Design life: 15+ years 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 co-located with C1 to expand capacity. Optus D1 • Location: 160° east • Launch Date: 13 October 2006 • 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 UTC. It was the first satellite to sign contract for Launch Services Alliance mission assurance. 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. Kordia is leasing a full transponder for sublease to TVNZ (TVNZ 1 & TVNZ 2) and Discovery New Zealand (Three & Bravo) for the Freeview service. The Kordia transponder will be on 12.4697 GHz. 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. 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. On 31 July 2007, 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. Optus D2 • Location: 152° east • Launch date: 5 October 2007 • Equipment: 24 active Ku band transponders (including sixteen 150W transponders and eight 44W transponders). • Launch mass: 2375 kg Optus D2 replaced Optus B3, which had been in operation for 13 years at the time of D2's launch. D2 also carries a large number of Free To Air channels, many in languages other than English Optus D3 • Location: 156° east • Launch Date: 21 August 2009 • Equipment: 32 Ku band transponders (consisting of twenty four 125 watt primary and eight 44 watt backup transponders) • Launch mass: 2500 kg Optus 10 • Location: 156° east • Launch Date: 11 September 2014 • Launch Site: Guiana Space Center The Ariane 64 configuration for this mission will provide enhanced launch energy performance to directly insert the Optus-11 satellite into a high-energy geostationary transfer orbit, enabling it to be commissioned more quickly. ==References==