Intelsat satellite lost in space

Satellite communications provider Intelsat reported disruption to services for customers in Europe, Africa and parts of Asia-Pacific on Saturday (19 October) after one of its fleet lost power, with authorities subsequently reporting it had broken-up.

The company announced there had been a loss of power on IS-33e following an anomaly and, as of Saturday, it was working with manufacturer Boeing Space Systems to address the situation.

Even in its initial statement the company described the chances of recovering the bird as unlikely.

Intelsat added it was in contact with impacted customers while it assessed its “fleet’s capacity” and worked with third party providers to “mitigate service interruptions”.

The US Space Forces website for sharing orbital data noted official agency S4S had confirmed the satellite had broken up and was “tracking around 20 associated pieces,” though noted there were no “immediate threats” observed as of a social media post yesterday.

IS-33e was a high throughput satellite (HTS) in GEO orbit, which had come into service at the start of 2017.

At the time of launch Intelsat noted it would expand its HTS in the C, Ku and Ka bands to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, APAC, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean regions.

Among its initial group of customers expected to use services supplied from the bird were US government agencies such as the Department of Defense operating in the regions, and mobile infrastructure companies focused on enabling services in hard to connect rural areas.

It was the second launch in the provider’s EpicNG fleet.

The first bird launched in the fleet, the 29e, was declared a “total loss” in 2019 after just over three years in service. GEO birds have an average lifespan of 15-20 years according to an Intelsat statement from earlier this year.