Optus D1 satellite launched by Ariane

By Stuart Corner
Saturday, 14 October 2006 09:41

Networking

The first of Optus fourth generation satellites, D1, has been successfully launched and placed into a geostationary transfer orbit by an Arianespace rocket launched from French Guiana.

The Ariane 5 rocket also launched Directv 9S for the US operator Directv and the LDREX-2 experimental reflector for the Japanese space agency Jaxa

Optus D1, built by US manufacturer Orbital Sciences Corporation will be positioned at 160 degrees East and will provide direct TV broadcasts, Internet links, voice and data services for Australia and New Zealand. Its design life is 15 years.

Optus announced plans for the D series satellites in January 2005 saying that there had been higher than anticipated demand for access to its recently launched C1 satellite. Optus claimed to have already pre-sold a significant percentage of capacity on the D-series satellites, having signed a 15-year deal with Sky TV to provide subscription TV services to its NZ customers.

The satellites are based on Orbital's Star platform and will each carry 24 Ku band transponders, with eight back-up channels. D-1 was originally to be a Star -1 model, a 4.0 kilowatt system, and was originally scheduled for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2005. D-2 was to be a Star-2 with 4.7 kilowatts of power and was scheduled for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2006. Optus subsequently announced that both satellites would be Star 2 models. D2 is now due to be launched in 2007.

D2 will be co-located with the Optus C1 satellite at 156 degrees East. This will mean that Optus will be able to transition satellite broadcasters to the new satellites without any need for their end users to re-align their antennas, or make any other changes to their CPE.

Warren Hardy, Optus' director, strategy & business development, said at the signing of the contract with Orbital Sciences in February 2004: "This will make it very difficult for any other satellite operator to get into the market, because they would have to use a different orbital location and all the users would have to re-point their antennas."