Optus' B1 goes bananas, briefly

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 02 April 2006 10:42

Business IT - Networking

Optus B1 satellite service failed for about 24 hours on the night of 30 March after a routine station-keeping manoeuvre went wrong.

Optus says the outage was the result of a loss of pointing control of the satellite which it believes was most likely caused by a "fuel feed anomaly" to one of the thrusters on the satellite.

Optus did not indicate if the failure was linked to a known problem which has bedevilled B1 and other satellites of the same type, a Hughes 601.

Optus reported in May 2005 that a major component of B1, the primary satellite control processor, had faile, but said it had restored services using the back up satellite control processor. Optus said there "no current effect on customers" (however a similar failure in the backup processor could, presumably prove terminal).

That failure was not unexpected. "Similar failures have been experienced in the past by other satellites of the same design [a Hughes 601]," Optus said at the time.

In fact, in the 1998 prospectus for its IPO, it said: "there have been equipment problems on three HS 601 satellites owned by other operators with one satellite becoming completely inoperable... Optus has been advised that these failures may occur on the B series satellites as they have similar characteristics to those satellites."

The first of Optus fourth generation of satellites, its D series, is due for launch in early 2006.