{"id":507397,"date":"2024-10-19T22:29:51","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T02:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/?p=507397"},"modified":"2024-10-21T16:16:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T20:16:07","slug":"intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/","title":{"rendered":"Intelsat 33e breaks up in geostationary orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was updated Oct. 21 with more details about the incident.<\/em><\/p>

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Intelsat 33e satellite has broken up in geostationary orbit (GEO) and lost power, ceasing communications services for customers across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia Pacific.<\/p>

Intelsat said in an Oct. 19 news release it was working with satellite maker Boeing to address an anomaly that emerged earlier that day, but added it was \u201cunlikely that the satellite will be recoverable.\u201d<\/p>

In an Oct. 21 update<\/a>, Intelsat declared the satellite a total loss. The company said it is working with government agencies to analyze data and observations, and has set up a Failure Review Board to investigate the anomaly\u2019s cause.<\/p>

An Intelsat spokesperson said the satellite was not insured at the time of the issue.<\/p>

The U.S. Space Force reported Oct. 19 that it was tracking around 20 pieces of debris associated with the spacecraft.<\/p>

\u201cU.S. Space Forces-Space (S4S) has confirmed the breakup of Intelsat 33E (#41748, 2016-053B) in GEO on October 19, 2024, at approximately 0430 UTC,\u201d stated an alert posted on SpaceTrack<\/a>, the U.S. Department of Defense\u2019s space-tracking platform.\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cCurrently tracking around 20 associated pieces – analysis ongoing. S4S has observed no immediate threats and is continuing to conduct routine conjunction assessments to support the safety and sustainability of the space domain.\u201d<\/p>

Douglas Hendrix, CEO of ExoAnalytic Solutions, said the U.S.-based space-tracking company identified 57 pieces of debris Oct. 21 associated with the breakup.<\/p>

\u201cWe are warning operators of any spacecraft that we think are at risk of collision,\u201d Hendrix said via email.<\/p>

\"\"

A snapshot of Intelsat 33e\u2019s break-up taken Oct. 19 by U.K.-based Spaceflux. 44071 and 58698 are the WGS 10 (USA 291) and Ovzon-3 satellites, respectively, which Spaceflux said are unlikely in danger of being hit by the debris. \u201cThe problem is that there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the orbits of these fragments at the moment,\u201d Spaceflux spokesperson Viktoria Urban said Oct. 21. \u201cThey can be potentially dangerous for other satellites but we do not know that yet.\u201d Credit: Spaceflux.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Intelsat said it is working to move customers to other satellites in Intelsat\u2019s fleet or spacecraft operated by third parties.<\/p>

Intelsat 33e launched in August 2016 and entered service in January 2017 at 60 degrees East, about three months later than planned following an issue with its primary thruster.<\/p>

A second propulsion issue that emerged during in-orbit tests helped knock off around 3.5 years<\/a> from the satellite\u2019s initially estimated 15-year lifespan.<\/p>

Intelsat 33e is the second in Intelsat\u2019s EpicNG (next-generation) series of high-throughput satellites.<\/p>

The first, Intelsat-29e, was declared a total loss in 2019<\/a> after just three years in orbit. That failure was pinned on either a meteoroid impact or a wiring flaw that led to an electrostatic discharge following heightened solar weather activity.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Intelsat 33e satellite has broken up in geostationary orbit and lost power, ceasing communications services for customers across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia Pacific<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11009,"featured_media":59689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4148,4161],"tags":[798],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[3507],"class_list":["post-507397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commercial-archive","category-news-archive","tag-intelsat","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nIntelsat 33e breaks up in geostationary orbit - SpaceNews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Intelsat 33e satellite has broken up in geostationary orbit and lost power, ceasing communications services for customers across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia Pacific\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jason Rainbow\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e694ba8bae6e05c03c0b95ded050a920\"},\"headline\":\"Intelsat 33e breaks up in geostationary orbit\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-10-20T02:29:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-21T20:16:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/\"},\"wordCount\":467,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spacenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Epic-satellite-Boeing.jpg?fit=879%2C485&ssl=1\",\"keywords\":[\"Intelsat\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Commercial\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/\",\"name\":\"Intelsat 33e breaks up in geostationary orbit - SpaceNews\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spacenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Epic-satellite-Boeing.jpg?fit=879%2C485&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-10-20T02:29:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-21T20:16:07+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Intelsat 33e satellite has broken up in geostationary orbit and lost power, ceasing communications services for customers across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia Pacific\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spacenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Epic-satellite-Boeing.jpg?fit=879%2C485&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spacenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Epic-satellite-Boeing.jpg?fit=879%2C485&ssl=1\",\"width\":879,\"height\":485,\"caption\":\"An artist's concept of a Boeing-built Intelsat EpicNG satellite.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Intelsat 33e breaks up in geostationary orbit\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/\",\"name\":\"SpaceNews\",\"description\":\"Covering the business and politics of space\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"SpaceNews\",\"alternateName\":\"SN\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spacenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo2x2.jpg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spacenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo2x2.jpg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1\",\"width\":200,\"height\":200,\"caption\":\"SpaceNews\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SpaceNewsInc\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/SpaceNews_Inc\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/668857\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SpaceNews_Inc\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e694ba8bae6e05c03c0b95ded050a920\",\"name\":\"Jason Rainbow\",\"description\":\"Jason Rainbow writes about satellite telecom, space finance and commercial markets for SpaceNews. He has spent more than a decade covering the global space industry as a business journalist. Previously, he was Group Editor-in-Chief for Finance Information Group, including its industry publication Connectivity Business (formerly SatelliteFinance and TelecomFinance).\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/JasonRainbow\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/author\/jrainbow\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Intelsat 33e breaks up in geostationary orbit - SpaceNews","description":"The Intelsat 33e satellite has broken up in geostationary orbit and lost power, ceasing communications services for customers across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia Pacific","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/"},"author":{"name":"Jason Rainbow","@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e694ba8bae6e05c03c0b95ded050a920"},"headline":"Intelsat 33e breaks up in geostationary orbit","datePublished":"2024-10-20T02:29:51+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-21T20:16:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/"},"wordCount":467,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spacenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Epic-satellite-Boeing.jpg?fit=879%2C485&ssl=1","keywords":["Intelsat"],"articleSection":["Commercial","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/","url":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/","name":"Intelsat 33e breaks up in geostationary orbit - SpaceNews","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spacenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Epic-satellite-Boeing.jpg?fit=879%2C485&ssl=1","datePublished":"2024-10-20T02:29:51+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-21T20:16:07+00:00","description":"The Intelsat 33e satellite has broken up in geostationary orbit and lost power, ceasing communications services for customers across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia Pacific","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spacenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Epic-satellite-Boeing.jpg?fit=879%2C485&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spacenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Epic-satellite-Boeing.jpg?fit=879%2C485&ssl=1","width":879,"height":485,"caption":"An artist's concept of a Boeing-built Intelsat EpicNG satellite."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Intelsat 33e breaks up in geostationary orbit"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/","name":"SpaceNews","description":"Covering the business and politics of space","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#organization","name":"SpaceNews","alternateName":"SN","url":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spacenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo2x2.jpg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spacenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo2x2.jpg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1","width":200,"height":200,"caption":"SpaceNews"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SpaceNewsInc\/","https:\/\/x.com\/SpaceNews_Inc","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/668857\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/SpaceNews_Inc"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e694ba8bae6e05c03c0b95ded050a920","name":"Jason Rainbow","description":"Jason Rainbow writes about satellite telecom, space finance and commercial markets for SpaceNews. He has spent more than a decade covering the global space industry as a business journalist. Previously, he was Group Editor-in-Chief for Finance Information Group, including its industry publication Connectivity Business (formerly SatelliteFinance and TelecomFinance).","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/JasonRainbow"],"url":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/author\/jrainbow\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spacenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Epic-satellite-Boeing.jpg?fit=879%2C485&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507397"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":507473,"href":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507397\/revisions\/507473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507397"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=507397"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=507397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}