Yet more satellite problems

Following hot on the heels of the Arabsat 4A and Express AM11 problems, now Optus B1 has suffered a failure! This satellite serves Australia and New Zealand and is slotted at 160E.Â

Press release from Sky New Zealand:

OUTAGE ON SKY SATELLITE SERVICE

SKY apologises for loss of SKY satellite services resulting from an outage on the Optus B1 Satellite that provides SKY’s signal.

The satellite signal was lost after a routine positioning procedure to the satellite by Optus. This effectively meant that the SKY transmission signal was lost to New Zealand and to Australian customers. Optus immediately acknowledged the problem and set about its correction. The satellite is communicating correctly with Optus ground stations. Optus has commenced a “re-pointing” manoeuvre to correct the signal.

SKY satellite customers can continue to access SKY Sport 1 on UHF service. Other satellite programming will be restored as soon as Optus has realigned the signal. UHF services are unaffected.
From National Business Review New Zealand:

satellite may be missing without hope of recovery.

Subscribers around the country lost their signals Thursday evening from about 7pm in an outage that was intitially described as being due to weather conditions.

That automated announcement included an invitation to click through and check the satellite feed strength — but that screen revealed there was no feed at all.

Innundated with telephone calls, the operator eventually put up a new front page on its website advising that the problem was based in an outage on Sky’s Singtel-owned Optus B1 satellite.

That web page said Sky Sport 1 was free-to-air on UHF for fans trying to tune into the Live Cricket Awards, but gave no indication of when the problem might be resolved.

According to Newswire, the outage affected all customers in both New Zealand and Australia. Sky TV has about 550,000 subscribers in New Zealand alone.

Newswire reported that the outage followed a routine repositioning manouevre and that the company expected to resume normal operations within hours.

In a later report, it quoted a Sky spokesman* who said the satellite was communicating but out of position and that Optus was undertaking a “re-pointing” manoeuvre.

But unconfirmed reports received by The National Business Review suggest that the satellite has gone missing entirely and may not be recovered at all. Those reports did not specify the nature of the problem or whether it was limited to loss of telemetry.

On Geekzone, technology writer Juha Saarinen suggested late this evening that the satellite is spinning and unable to establish telemetry links with control stations.

“Unless Optus manages to regain telemetry to the satellite, fears are that it may be lost forever,” wrote Mr Saarinen.

That report says that, in addition to Sky Television, a number of other satellite-based services — including the New Zealand Fire Service in-fill paging, some air traffic control functions and certain interbank transmissions — have been cut off.Â

NewstalkZB — part of The Radio Network — reported that Radio Network listeners from Otago to Auckland have also lost signal.

NZ City reports that subscribers have discovered that the company’s “My Sky” service — which allows users to collect programmes for play on demand — is also out since it apparently depends on a live satellite link to operate.

Two replacement satellites are in construction but are not likely to be launched for months.

The Optus B1 satellite is about 14 years old and, according to industry sources, has been in urgent need of a replacement for almost a year after losing its primary satellite control processor.Â

The satellite has been operating on backup SCP since then.

Story link: Yet more satellite problems