A Boeing satellite suffered an ‘anomaly’ that caused it to spontaneously explode in orbit, causing internet and communications blackouts around the world.
In yet another blow to the aerospace company, the nearly 15,000-pound satellite – iS-33e – broke into more than 50 pieces on Monday.
The orbiter was operated by international satellite services provider Intelsat, which provides communications services to a variety of customers in nearly 150 countries.
Intelsat confirmed the “total loss” of the satellite, resulting in a “loss of power and service” for customers in Europe, Africa and parts of the Asia-Pacific region.
This latest mistake by Boeing comes as the company reports it lost $6 billion in the third quarter, bringing total losses to nearly $8 billion for the current year.
It follows a year of scandals that included a failed space mission that left two astronauts stranded on the ISS and a crippling workers’ strike.
And in July, Boeing also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal fraud and was fined $243.6 million after breaching a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement.
A Boeing communications satellite has smashed into pieces in orbit, dealing a new blow to the aerospace company’s tarnished reputation (artist’s illustration)
The exact cause of the satellite’s disappearance has not been revealed.
But Intelsat claimed that an “anomaly” that occurred on October 19 caused the iS-33e to spontaneously break up.
The US Space Force is currently tracking about 20 pieces of debris associated with the incident.
This will add to the growing cloud of space debris surrounding our planet, increasing the risk of debris falling back to Earth.
The IS-33e was a geostationary communications satellite used for telephone, Internet and mobile communications and for the transmission of radio and television signals.
Intelsat has said it is in the process of moving iS-33e service to other satellites and that a ‘Failure Review Board’ has met to conduct an analysis of what caused the satellite to explode.
In the past, satellites like iS-33e have broken up due to collisions with space debris or meteorites and increased solar activity. Any of these may have caused the satellite to disappear.
Debris from this explosion will add to the growing cloud of space debris surrounding our planet, increasing the risk of debris falling back to Earth.
But this is not the first time the iS-33e has experienced problems.
Just after its launch in August 2016, the satellite suffered a main booster failure. A year later, another propulsion problem reduced its estimated 15-year useful life by 3.5 years.
But the iS-33e only lasted eight years and one month before spontaneously disintegrating in low-Earth orbit.
Debris from the explosion increases the growing risk of space debris re-entry.
Scientists are currently tracking more than 29,000 pieces of space debris larger than a baseball surrounding our planet, but they estimate there could be up to 100 million untracked pieces larger than a millimeter in Earth’s orbit.
As humans launch more and more objects into space, this rapidly increasing cloud of debris could eventually lead to a scenario known as Kessler syndrome.
This refers to a hypothetical future in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit becomes so high that collisions between them become extremely frequent, which in turn creates even more space junk and makes the debris cloud worse. exponentially.
About 33,000 unionized Boeing West Coast workers, most in Washington state, have been on strike since Sept. 13.
Kessler syndrome could destroy other functioning satellites, pose serious risks to the ISS and manned space missions, and indirectly increase the risk of debris impacting Earth.
We have already seen incidents where space debris re-enters the planet’s atmosphere and makes landfall.
In March, a two-pound metal cylinder crashed through the roof of a home in Naples, Florida. NASA later confirmed that it came from a 2.9-ton pallet of used batteries discarded from the International Space Station (ISS) in March 2021.
And in May, pieces of debris the size of a car hood and weighing up to 90 pounds crashed in Haywood County, North Carolina. NASA determined that it was debris from SpaceX’s Crew Dragon hardware that reentered the atmosphere.
While the iS-33e wreckage poses no immediate risk of impacting Earth, it dealt another blow to Boeing’s bruised reputation.
Boeing’s significant financial loss this year is due to a crippling strike, hefty legal fees and nightmarish technological mishaps.
About 33,000 unionized Boeing workers on the West Coast, most in Washington state, have been on strike since Sept. 13, halting production of the company’s best-selling planes: the 737 MAX and its 767s and 777s. wide body.
Workers are demanding a 40 percent wage increase over four years.
Boeing’s faulty Starliner spacecraft left NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore (left) and Sunita Williams (right) stranded on the ISS until February 2025.
Last week, Boeing announced it was seeking up to $35 billion in new financing and would begin laying off 17,000 employees – about 10 percent of its workforce – in November.
It’s also been a difficult year for Boeing’s spaceflight program.
The company’s faulty Starliner spacecraft left two NASA astronauts stranded on the ISS after its launch on June 5, returning to Earth without their crew after helium leaks and thruster failures.
SpaceX has been chosen to bring astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore back to Earth when their Crew-9 mission returns from the ISS no earlier than February 2025.
As a result of this fiasco, NASA has suspended all Boeing space missions for the moment.
“The timing and configuration of the next Starliner flight will be determined once a better understanding of Boeing’s path to system certification is established,” the agency stated.
Regarding the iS-33e incident, Boeing did not comment directly and instead referred DailyMail.com to Intelsat.