Australia formally asked the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for a launch time extension to the ITU’s rule for its planned Optus 11 satellite.

The current obligation should have seen Optus 11 delivered in 2023, and launched later that year. Airbus Defence & Space is building the satellite. The ITU rules were that the satellite be in its correct orbit by January 2028.

But the manufacture is some 4 years late with software problems on the satellite’s design, and the problem having also affected at least 9 other satellites (for the likes of Viasat/Inmarsat, Intelsat/SES, Thaicom, Sky Perfect JSAT and Oman’s SCT).

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) had asked the ITU’s powerful Radio Regulations Board (RRB) to recognise the delay as a ‘force majeure’ over which Optus had little control. ACMA wanted the ITU to grant a 2-year extension to the 2028 obligation to launch and place the craft at 160 degrees East.

Optus told the ITU that it had “considered all other feasible alternatives, including the manufacture of a less-capable traditional bent pipe satellite. None of these alternatives are operationally or commercially viable.”

Optus, according to Space Intel Report, estimates that the craft would launch in the February-August timeframe but the earliest date for actual launch (by an Arianespace rocket) is not likely before mid-2028.

The ITU’s RRB said Optus took a gamble with a new product and should have known the risks. “The Board concluded that the decision to select a complex design with a new platform for the Optus-11 satellite introduced a high level of risk that had been known and accepted by the satellite operator, and that could not be considered unforeseeable, inevitable or beyond the operator’s control. Consequently, the Board further concluded that the situation did not satisfy the conditions for the case to qualify as a case of force majeure and decided not to accede to the request from the

Other posts by :

1. FCC approves orbital space mirrors
2. Analysts: “Unknown Unknowns for SpaceX”
3. Ligado’s bankruptcy clean-up continues
4. Arianespace to offer ‘rideshare’ launches
5. Space industry warns Europe must do more
6. Banks increase SpaceX forecasts
7. Orbex bankruptcy details released
8. South Korea confirms LEO plan
9. Bank: “SpaceX should lobby for an MVNO”

Categories: Articles, Satellite

Tags: Airbus, australia, ITU, optus, satellite