By Brian Myers | Published
A communications satellite made by U.S. company Boeing broke into at least 20 pieces while in orbit over the weekend, disrupting use by users on several continents and littering the sky with giant space debris. The Intelsat 33e satellite worked to provide needed high-speed communications from its position over the Indian Ocean to users in Europe, Africa and Asia, but immediately disconnected after failing to maintain cohesion. At this point, U.S. Space Force officials and Boeing engineers have not been able to determine the cause.
In orbit since 2016
The 14,600-pound Boeing satellite was slightly larger than a mid-size car and was designed and manufactured by the company. The Intelsat 33e was launched into orbit more than eight years ago and has been in its geostationary orbit over southern India since 2016. The craft was part of Boeing’s EpicNG platform, an effort intended, in part, to improve global broadband communications.
The Intelsat 33e was not the first of its kind to encounter major problems while orbiting Earth. Its predecessor, the IS-29e, spent several years in space before failing. The Boeing satellite was reportedly hit by a micrometeoroid strike, causing a serious fuel leak. The premature end of these two satellites significantly changes the expected lifespan of these ships in orbit, which Boeing engineers initially estimated at 15 years in space.
What went wrong?
A failure review board has been created to explore the causes of the Boeing satellite accident. It consists of the company and government agencies, all of which will work to study the data and hopefully come to a conclusion.
Boeing’s latest disaster is not only another black eye on the company’s recent performance, but it also serves to add a large amount of space debris to the area just outside the atmosphere terrestrial. It is estimated that there are now more than 30,000 pieces of debris orbiting the planet, which are monitored by several space agencies in several countries. These Boeing satellite pieces combine with other space debris that pose serious threats to other satellites in orbit as well as incoming and outgoing spacecraft.
More bad news
The unexplained destruction of the Boeing satellite is not the only bad news from the company in recent weeks. Its Starliner mission experienced multiple failures that resulted in two NASA astronauts being stranded in space for weeks after their originally planned return to Earth. But Boeing’s space woes are only a small part of its problems, as its major planes, domestic and international, are plagued by illnesses that have received much attention in recent years.
Boeing’s Max 737 planes have been grounded after two crashes that killed more than 300 people, prompting an investigation into allegations of fraud by the embattled company. Worse still, Boeing’s 300,000 employees have pushed the company to the wall and worsened its financial situation.
It was reported today that, in order to comply with the union’s growing demands and help overcome other financial difficulties, Boeing will sell more than $19 billion worth of stock to raise capital.
Source: Intelsat