Clearly, 2024 will truly have been a dark year for Boeing. After the repeated problems with its civil aircraft and the misadventure of the Starliner space capsule, it is now a satellite built by the American aircraft manufacturer which has broken up for no apparent reason in its geostationary orbit.
The machine in question is the 33rd satellite in the fleet of Intelsat, an American operator based in Luxembourg whose fleet of satellites offers standard telecommunications services (Web, TV, etc.) to customers on Earth, but also to planes. , boats, or even oil platforms. Some of its satellites also relay encrypted information for government military agencies.
On October 19, the company announced through communiqué that she was faced with a “ loss of service » at its 33rd satellite. It also warned that the outage affected customers in Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific. The company has remained discreet regarding the origin of the problem, contenting itself with speaking of a “ anomalies “. However, she clarified that her contacts with the satellite manufacturer, namely the aircraft manufacturer Boeing, were not encouraging. “ Based on the information available to us, we believe it is unlikely that the satellite is recoverable “, we can read in the text.
Several dozen potentially dangerous debris
This Sunday, the company quietly updated its press release to announce the “ total loss » of this famous 33rd satellite, launched in August 2016. She also specified that she was working with different American government agencies to analyze data relating to the incident, and that she had set up an internal investigation group to determine the cause.
What she failed to specify, however, is that the satellite did not simply stop working before peacefully shutting down. According to a report from SpaceTrack, an organization specializing in tracking traffic in orbit, it fragmented into a small cloud of debris. “ The US Space Force has confirmed the separation of Intelsat 33E from geostationary orbit on October 19, 2024, around 4:30 UTC. Around twenty pieces associated with the incident are being monitored, and analysis is still underway », we can read on the website of SpaceTrack.
Their exact number and the threat they represent, however, remain subject to debate. The Space Force has identified around twenty, but ExoAnalytic Solutions, another American company specializing in this exercise, numbered 57 this Sunday. She also seems less convinced that they are harmless. “We warn operators of any device that we believe poses a collision risk”, CEO Douglas Hendrix said in an email to SpaceNews.
Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, announced for its part that it had identified “ more than 80 pieces of debris ».
The origin of this destruction has still not been officially confirmed. One potential lead is based on an impact with a small meteorite. A scenario that Intelsat is already familiar with. In 2019, the firm had already lost its 29th satellite; the investigation concluded that the incident was either due to a wiring problem or a collision with a micrometeorite.
A new anomaly for a Boeing machine
Even if his responsibility in this affair seems very limitedthis is still a new episode that Boeing would have happily done without. To provide context, the company was already under fire because of recurring problems with its 737 Max planes; two of these planes crashed within 7 years, costing the lives of around 350 people.
And its space division isn’t doing much better. In addition to the delays and budget blowout for the SLS, the megarocket that Boeing is building as part of NASA’s Artemis program, it also faced a major humiliation with the Starliner. This space capsule, designed to shuttle between Earth and the ISS, encountered several worrying malfunctions during its maiden voyage, forcing two astronauts to delay their return by several months (see our article).
Source: www.journaldugeek.com
