Boeing’s annus horribilis is far from over. The company’s list of setbacks, which includes the Starliner fiasco and the popular demand to cancel the SLS rocket, now includes the explosion of a satellite in orbit.
Goodbye to the Intelsat IS-33e satellite. Intelsat suddenly lost the IS-33e communications satellite, which provided essential services to businesses and governments in Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.
The IS-33e, designed and manufactured by Boeing Space Systems, reached geostationary orbit in August 2016 aboard a European Ariane 5 rocket. An Antonov 124 aircraft delivered it to French Guiana. It was operational from Jan. 29, 2017, until Oct. 19, 2024.
Intelsat demands explanations from Boeing. This Monday, the company declared the IS-33e “total loss” and announced that it was forming a committee to investigate the incident. As a manufacturer, Boeing is working with Intelsat to analyze data and observations that may reveal the cause of the failure. Several government agencies are involved in the investigation.
Dozens of fragments are in orbit. What Intelsat initially interpreted as a sudden loss of power and signal has now been clarified as a breakup event.
The satellite’s explosion generated about 20 pieces of space debris in geostationary orbit, according to an Oct. 19 alert from the U.S. Space Force. Two days later, the tracking company ExoAnalytic Solutions raised the number to 57 pieces.
The economic impact of the loss. The communications satellite, part of Intelsat’s “next generation” fleet, was uninsured at the time of the incident.
Located at 60 degrees East, IS-33e served customers on three different continents. Intelsat is working to restore service using third-party satellites and its own fleet.
Graveyard orbit. Geostationary orbit, a region 22,369 miles above the Earth’s surface, poses a lower risk of collision than low-Earth orbit due to its vast size.
However, because the atmosphere exerts little drag at this altitude, space debris can remain there for thousands or even millions of years without re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. Following this incident, 57 new pieces of debris have been added to the so-called “graveyard orbit.”
Image | Intelsat
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