A mysterious event has taken place in Earth’s geostationary orbit. A communications satellite built by Boeing has disintegratedscattering several dozen fragments, new space debris. Last Saturday, the satellite IS-33eoperated by Intelsatstopped working for a ‘anomaly’. This Monday, the company confirmed the ‘total loss’ of the IS-33e.
‘We are coordinating with the satellite manufacturer, Boeing, and government agencies to analyze data and observations,’ Intelsat said. Since then, the company has established a team to carry out a ‘comprehensive analysis of the cause of the anomaly’.
This event comes in a particularly difficult year for Boeing in the aerospace industry. This summer, the capsule Starliner made its first manned flight to International Space Station. After a series of technical problems experienced during the trip, with helium leaks and thruster failures, NASA opted for the astronauts Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams will return to Earth next February, aboard a Crew Dragon of SpaceX. Finally, Starliner was able to return to Earth without a crew and without new incidents, but also without having achieved NASA certification.
The destruction of IS-33e at 06:30 PST on Saturday has also been confirmed by the US Space Force ‘They are currently being tracked around 20 associated piecesanalysis in progress. ‘S4S has observed no immediate threats and continues to conduct routine assessments to support the security and sustainability of the space domain,’ it said in a statement.
However, It is not clear how many fragments of the satellite there are. The satellite tracking company ExoAnalytic Solutions has claimed to be monitoring 57 pieces of the satellite. The Russian space agency Roscosmos raise the total over 80. The satellite had a mass of 6,600 kilograms and its dimensions were 7.9 x 3.8 x 3.2 meters.
Intelsat 33e launched in 2016 to provide communications in Europe, Asia and Africa. So the satellite experienced a propulsion problem shortly after launch and reached orbit later than expected. Another propulsion problem In 2017, its estimated useful life of 15 years was reduced by 3.5 years.
Intelsat is an American company that is one of the major telecommunications satellite providers. The IS-33e provided service to governments and companies of the 3 continents mentioned and that have now been interrupted. The company is using other satellites to restore lost services.
Having taken place in the geostationary orbit, more than 35,000 kilometers of the Earth’s surface, the possibility of fragments damaging other satellites is much smaller than in the much more crowded low Earth orbit.