Artist impression of Optus D1, built on the Orbital Star Bus platform

Star Bus is a satellite bus family of Orbital ATK. It was originally developed by Thomas van der Heyden, co-founder of CTAI, and later sold to and manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corporation.

The Star Bus satellite platform is designed for various applications, including communications, remote sensing, and scientific missions. The highly configurable platform allows customization to meet specific mission requirements. In addition, it can support a wide range of payloads, including high-resolution imaging systems, microwave sensors, and advanced communication systems.

The Star Bus platform is designed with a modular architecture, allowing for easy integration of various subsystems and payloads. The bus provides power, communications, and data handling capabilities, while the loads provide mission-specific capabilities. The platform is designed to be highly reliable and has been used in various missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto.

History

The first satellite program based on the Star Bus platform, developed by Thomas van der Heyden for the Indonesian Direct Broadcast program IndoVision, was IndoStar-1, which was launched in November 1997.

Variants

Name Mission type Orbit Payload capability Mission life
RapidStar-1 National Security Space LEO 60 kg/75W 1–5 years
RapidStar-2 National Security Space LEO 200 kg/500W 1–5 years
LEOStar-2 Civil/Defence LEO 150 kg/400W 1–10 years
LEOStar-3[1] Civil/Defence LEO 3,000 kg/800W 1–10 years
GEOStar-1 National Security Space GEO 150 kg/200W 5–7 years
GEOStar-2 Communications GEO 500 kg/5.5 kW 15–18 years
GEOStar-3 Communications GEO 800 kg/8.0 kW 15–18 years
MicroStar-1 Constellation LEO 15 kg/360W 1–3 years
ESPAStar-1 National Security Space LEO or GEO 250 kg/500W 1–5 years
ESPAStar-2 National Security Space LEO or GEO 1,080 kg/1.2 kW 1–5 years
References: [2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ LEOStar-3 Bus
  2. ↑ "Spacecraft Busses". OrbitalATK. Archived from the original on 6 September 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2016.

Further reading

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