The satellite has lost power and is probably not recoverable – and maybe neither is Boeing’s space business
Intelsat announced a service outage on the Intelsat 33e satellite, which is in geostationary orbit. The outage is affecting customers in Europe, Africa and parts of the Asia-Pacific region.
The satellite experienced an anomaly on October 19, resulting in a loss of power and service to customers. Intelsat says, “We are working closely with Boeing, the satellite manufacturer, to address the situation. Based on the information available to us, we believe it is unlikely that the satellite will be recoverable.
“While we assess our fleet’s capacity as well as working with 3rd party providers to mitigate service interruptions, Intelsat representatives are in direct communication with all affected customers.
IS-33e was designed and manufactured by Boeing Space Systems and is located at 60 degrees East.. It was launched in August 2016 and entered service in January 2017. Originally the satellite was expected to have a 15-year lifespan. However, launch was three months later than planned due to an issue with the primary thruster. It then suffered a second problem during in-orbit tests which it was estimated would shorten its life by three and a half years.
Still, it did better than its predecessor. Intelsat 33e is the second in Intelsat’s EpicNG (for next-generation) series of high-throughput satellites. The first, the Intelsat-29e, was written off after three years in orbit. It was also made by Boeing.
Boeing’s future in space is increasingly in doubt, which is extraordinary for a company which has been involved in Nasa’s space programme since the 1960s. In September it stranded two astronauts at the International Space Station. They are to be rescued by a SpaceX spacecraft next year. SpaceX is owned by Elon Musk and is in the throes of creating its low-Earth orbit constellation, Starlink.
Boeing is also under huge pressure in its commercial airline business, which is its main area of activity, after a design flaw on on the 727 Max caused fatal crashes in 2018 and the 2019. In January a door blew off one of its aircraft during a flight, leading to increased scrutiny by legislators and regulators of the manufacturer’s manufacturing and quality control.