There is little space to play with 36,000km above Earth …

Yahsat: The National meets the Yahsat engineers responsible for steering Abu Dhabi's first satellite through meteor storms, and dodging rogue spacecraft.

From left: Scott Randal, Eisa al Shamsi and Keith Rowe in the payload control center of Yahsat. Delores Johnson / The National
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Navigating traffic on the UAE's roads may be tricky but it is nothing compared to steering a satellite through meteor storms and dodging "rogue" spacecraft.
But that is the task of engineers at Abu Dhabi's Yahsat control station, who steer the emirate's first satellite, which blasted into orbit last April from French Guiana and is now in orbit 36,000km above Earth.
The satellite is operated by Yahsat, which provides communications for the UAE Army and corporate customers. It also beams down high-definition television broadcasts to countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Engineers staff the centre 24 hours a day, and their mission is to make sure the satellite does not veer off course - or, of course, crash.
Last last year, the team was on high alert when a meteor storm neared the satellite, which is dubbed Y1A. Luckily, no damage was done.
"There are very few incidents of spacecraft actually being hit by meteorites. There are a couple, but fortunately nobody has lost a spacecraft yet," says Keith Rowe, the executive director of operations at Yahsat.
Occasionally, operators lose control of their satellites, which are then termed "rogue". These pose another collision hazard to Y1A, Mr Rowe says.
For a special report, The National spent a day last month at Yahsat's HQ, which is located at Al Falah, 64km from Abu Dhabi island. It was a crucial time for the team, as they prepared to send navigation instructions to the spacecraft.
7.45am
Tareq Abdul Raheem Al Hosani, the chief executive of Yahsat, is doing his regular rounds at the company's ground station and HQ. Mr Al Hosani is a details man - and likes to inspect the site every couple of weeks. He does not miss a thing as he drives around the site. Yahsat's security is tight - double-perimeter fences - partly on account of the military aspect to the operation.
Reporting on those matters is very much off limits. Even a traffic cone out of place attracts the attention of Yahsat's observant boss.
"In the loading area, we have cones to prevent cars from going in; they were removed and not put back," he says.
8.15am
Wayward cones back in order, Mr Al Hosani is in his office checking his email. He has a chat with his technical team about the delay in launching Yahsat's second satellite Y1B, and how to take the project forward.
Mr Al Hosani likes to know the minutiae of what's going on with Y1A, 36,000km above his head.
"I'm really into details. I'm a hands-on kind of CEO. I need to be the first to know, especially when it comes to operations," he says.
Technical problems are identified by Mr Rowe, including ones of a more terrestrial nature: in this case, the fibre-optic link between Yahsat's control centre and its site at Al Ain is down. Technical staff will scurry around trying to fix it later on.
One of the most important tasks performed by Yahsat technicians today will be the transmission of a series of commands to the satellite to help it stay in its correction position.
"There's a command plan," says Mr Rowe. "It says to the spacecraft, 'I want you to fire this thruster, for this amount of time, on this day, at this exact time.'"
There are numerous forces that threaten to knock the satellite out of its correct position. "You've got the sun, you've got eight other planets, you've got the moon - and they all pull and push the satellite throughout the year," says Mr Rowe. "The sun has a solar wind, which is a set of ionized particles that come out ... It's just like a sailing ship - they push it."
9.00am
Yahsat's operational team is busy dealing with two of the technical problems faced today.
One is an issue with interference of the satellite signal, which has been going on for the past three weeks. This morning, Yahsat's technicians finally discover the cause of it: a ground transmitter that was left on, disrupting other signals. Other potential sources of interference include aircraft, other satellites, or misaligned ground antennas.
Eisa Al Shamsi, a payload operations engineer, says Yahsat monitors daily for signal interference.
"It's our role to provide the link for our customers, and make sure we provide a high quality," he says.
Constant monitoring means constant staffing of Yahsat's HQ and control centre, which covers an area of six football pitches. The site includes gyms and even small bedrooms, where engineers on long shifts can get some sleep. Eight large satellite dishes stand on the site, communicating with the spacecraft. Models of two launch rockets stand in the reception. Yahsat plans to send its second satellite into orbit later this year.
While all was quiet at the control centre, there are times of extreme stress for employees. Mr Rowe likened his job to that of a fighter pilot.
"Ninety per cent of your job is routine, and 10 per cent is sheer panic," he says. "There's no other job like it. Anything can happen tomorrow."
The team must be aware of all potential issues and monitor operations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And given we are in a leap year - 366 days a year this time. "There are probably tens [of rogue satellites] up there. There is enough to worry satellite operators," says Mr Rowe.
10.00am
While many Yahsat technicians are concentrating on the satellite, the staff relations officer Rashed Al Zaabi has the health of the company's workers in mind. The Emirati national is allocating staff "recreational allowance" payments - an annual bonus paid to staff to cover costs such as gym memberships.
Mr Al Zaabi, 25, a fresh graduate of the American University of Sharjah, joined Yahsat eight months ago. He is proud of the company's commitment to employ Emirati staff.
"We need to have UAE nationals to work in these positions because they will stay longer than people from abroad," he says.
"We didn't have many UAE nationals working with satellites before, as it's a new technology. Giving this experience to UAE nationals is something that we are very proud of."
10.30am
Layla Al Hayyas, 32, is busy at her desk. The Emirati is the billing manager at Yahsat's satellite broadband division, called Yahclick. This service is due to go live when the second satellite blasts of in the next few months. There is plenty of preparatory work to be done on billing systems. Ms Al Hayyas liaises with some 37 internet-service providers in the GCC and Africa, who plan to sell internet services linked to Yahsat's second satellite.
11.00am
Hisham Fadel is responsible for buying satellite ground terminals, and also works as the business development director of YahService. This provides satellite communications to the government, military and private sector.
Mr Fadel is on a conference call with Boeing in the US, negotiating a contract to buy airborne antennas for one of Yahsat's military clients. In a typical day, he could deal with some 15 customers, who may require satellite communications in the desert, on an oil rig, or in the sky.
11.30am
Khalid Al Awadi, the senior satellite specialist at Yahsat, is far from happy. During the weekend he received an email confirming the delay of the launch of Yahsat's second satellite, Y1B. This is due to technical issues with Yahsat's launch partner, International Launch Services, based in the US. He is sending out emails to staff to help manage the delay.
"We are not very happy about this. And the management is constantly challenging this delay, and pushing for an earlier launch date," he says, sounding rather deflated.
Mr Al Awadi, 27, an Emirati, is part of a team responsible for monitoring the manufacture and testing of satellites.
The testing process, which is performed outside the UAE, is gruelling. It includes a "thermal-vacuum" check, in which the satellite is exposed to extremes of temperature, and a vibration test. "They put the satellite on a huge shaker, and try to break it. If it survives, it's good. This is to simulate the launch," says Mr Al Awadi.
1.30pm
Scott Randall, the senior payload operations engineer, is rushing between desks in one of Yahsat's control rooms.
Impossibly complicated charts are displayed on giant screens in front of him, and rather worryingly for anyone not in the know, a red light is flashing.
Mr Randall works in the payload control centre, where Yahsat configures links to the satellite on behalf of its customers.
He is reassuring about the flashing red light: it signifies that a door has been opened near one of the ground-based antennas.
2.00pm
In the satellite control room, the senior spacecraft operations engineer Joseph Fowler, 35, appears to be incredibly busy. But the Briton says he is "never stressed".
"Most of the operations are relatively smooth. It's a lot different to a few years ago, when you had to send constant commands to the spacecraft," he adds.
The control room is always receiving data from the satellite. Much of it is processed automatically, but occasionally an alarm sounds to attract Mr Fowler's attention.
"We receive approximately 20,000 [pieces of information] every 28 seconds. It's constantly processing. You can't sit and monitor all those pieces of information. It would be a bit like The Matrix," he jokes.
Mr Fowler is preparing the control commands that must be sent to the spacecraft later that day. If they are not sent, the satellite could be in danger of veering off course.
2.30pm
Hassan Safi, 37, the finance director, is on a conference call with the vendor of some business development software. He is working on Yahsat's financial reports for the board.
He also has the less than enviable task of arranging insurance for the company's satellites. And it is a little more complicated than getting car insurance. "The space-insurance market is quite limited," says Mr Safi. "Two launch failures in a year could eat up the insurance premiums for the market." Both of Yahsat's satellites are insured, with premiums costing about 12 to 15 per cent of the craft's value during the risky launch period, and 3 to 4 per cent after it reaches its orbit. Given the $1.66 billion (Dh6.09bn) cost of building the two spacecraft, insuring them does not come cheap.
"Most satellites are insured. It's absolutely not advisable to take risks," says Mr Safi. "The risky part of the launch is the minute you fire the rockets. Anything can happen."
7.11pm
The transmission of the flight commands to the satellite commences. It takes 59 minutes to send all the data to the spacecraft, which successfully receives all the commands that help keep it in its correct position and out of harm's way - all 36,000km above us.
bflanagan@thenational.ae
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