A Boeing satellite suffered an ‘anomaly’ that caused it to spontaneously explode in orbit, resulting in worldwide internet and communication blackouts.
In yet another blow to the aerospace company, the nearly 15,000 pound satellite – iS-33e – broke up into more than 50 pieces on Monday.
The orbiter was operated by the international satellite services provider Intelsat, which provides communications services to a variety of customers spanning nearly 150 countries.
Intelsat confirmed the ‘total loss’ of the satellite, which resulted in a ‘loss of power and service’ for customers in Europe, Africa and parts of the Asia-Pacific region.
This latest Boeing blunder comes as the company reports that 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 plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge and was fined $243.6 million after breaching a 2021 deferred prosecution deal.
A Boeing communications satellite has fallen to pieces in orbit, striking yet another blow to the aerospace company’s sullied reputation (artist’s illustration)
The exact cause of the satellite’s demise has not been revealed.
But Intelsat stated that an ‘anomaly’ that occurred on October 19 caused iS-33e to spontaneously break up.
The US Space Force is currently tracking around 20 pieces of debris associated with the incident.
This will add to the growing cloud of space junk encircling our planet, which increases the risk of debris falling back to Earth.
iS-33e was a geostationary communications satellite, which are used for telephone, internet and mobile communications and for broadcasting television and radio signals.
Intelsat has said that it is in the process of moving iS-33e’s service to other satellites, and that a ‘Failure Review Board’ has gathered to perform 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 meteoroids and increased solar activity. It’s possible that either of these could have led to the satellite’s demise.
Debris from this explosion will add to the growing cloud of space junk encircling our planet, which increases the risk of debris falling back to Earth
But this isn’t the first time iS-33e has experienced issues.
Just after its launch in August 2016, the satellite suffered a primary thruster failure. A year later, another propulsion issue decreased its estimated 15-year lifespan by 3.5 years.
But iS-33e only lasted eight years and one month before it spontaneously broke up in low-Earth orbit.
The debris from the explosion ads to the growing risk of space junk re-entries.
Scientists currently track more than 29,000 pieces of space debris larger than a softball that surround our planet, but estimate that there could be as many as 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 garbage could eventually lead to a scenario known as Kessler Syndrome.
This refers to a hypothetical future where 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 causes the debris cloud to exponentially worsen.
Around 33,000 of Boeing’s unionized West Coast workers, most in Washington state, have been on strike since September 13
Kessler Syndrome could destroy other functioning satellites, pose serious risks to the ISS and crewed space missions, and indirectly increase the risk of debris impact Earth.
Already, we’ve seen incidents of space junk re-entering the planet’s atmosphere and making landfall.
In March, a two-pound metal cylinder crashed through the roof of a house in Naples, Florida. NASA later confirmed that it came from a 2.9-ton pallet of used batteries jettisoned from the International Space Station (ISS) in March 2021.
And in May, pieces of debris as big as a car hood and weighing up to 90 pounds crash-landed in Haywood County, North Carolina. NASA determined that they were remnants of SpaceX Crew Dragon hardware that reentered the atmosphere.
While the iS-33e debris does not pose an immediate risk of impacting Earth, it delivered another blow to Boeing’s bruised reputation.
Boeing’s significant financial loss this year stems from a crippling strike, a hefty legal fee and nightmarish tech mishaps.
Around 33,000 of Boeing’s unionized West Coast workers, most in Washington state, have been on strike since September 13, halting productions of the company’s best selling planes: the 737 MAX and its 767 and 777 widebodies.
The workers are demanding a 40 percent wage increase spread out 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 funding, and that it would start laying off 17,000 employees – roughly 10 percent of its workforce – in November.
It’s been a rough year for Boeing’s spaceflight program too.
The company’s faulty Starliner spacecraft left two NASA astronauts stranded on the ISS after launching on June 5, returning to Earth without its crew following helium leaks and thruster failures.
SpaceX has been tapped to bring astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore back to Earth when its Crew-9 mission returns from the ISS no earlier than February 2025.
In the wake of this fiasco, NASA has halted all Boeing space missions for the time being.
‘The timing and configuration of Starliner’s next flight will be determined once a better understanding of Boeing’s path to system certification is established,’ the agency stated.
In regard to the iS-33e incident, Boeing did not directly comment and instead referred DailyMail.com to Intelsat.
