Intelsat loses second EpicNG satellite

Setback for Intelsat. The satellite operator has had to confirm the loss of its geostationary Intelsat 33e. The satellite from Boeing's EpicNG series failed on Saturday, which was felt by customers in Europe, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. Intelsat promised to work with manufacturer Boeing, but held out little hope of getting the device back into operation.

On Monday, the fears were confirmed. Apparently, the device broke into dozens of pieces in orbit: "The anomaly published on October 19 led to the total loss of the Intelsat 33e satellite," the Luxembourg-based company announced. This is the second such loss of an EpicNG satellite, of which there have been six in total. Data and observations are now being evaluated together with Boeing and the authorities, and a working group is to prepare a "comprehensive analysis". Affected customers will be migrated to other satellites from Intelsat and competitors.

EpicNG

EpicNG are geostationary satellites from Boeing (Bus 702MP), which were announced in 2012 and are expected to play great tunes. Higher efficiency (bit/hertz) should result in data throughput of 25 to 60 gigabits per second; more antennas enable both spot beams and wide-area coverage, on frequencies in the C, Ku and Ka bands; in addition, the satellites should not only be backwards-compatible with existing ground terminals, but also forward-compatible with terminals that were not even available at the time. Intelsat also promised its customers savings: they could transmit more data via a single satellite instead of having to use several, which significantly simplified the setup.

A Pakistani mobile operator later reported that it had reduced the power consumption of its satellite connections by 90 percent by switching to EpicNG. The main target groups are telecom network operators, government institutions, aviation and maritime service providers and broadcasters. The planned service life of the EpicNG satellites is 15 years.

Maiden launch in August 2016

The first EpicNG, Intelsat 29e, was launched in early 2016, but it broke up after just three years. Damage to the propulsion system caused fuel to leak, resulting in temporary failures, and then a second "anomaly" is said to have killed the satellite. A meteorite impact or inappropriate cabling were suspected as possible causes.

In August 2016, the now lost EpicNG satellite Intelsat 33e flew into space. Due to a propulsion problem, it was to take until December 2016 before it reached its working position at 60 degrees East. During subsequent tests, a second propulsion problem became apparent, which resulted in higher fuel consumption; although 33e was able to go into operation, its expected service life was shortened by around three and a half years.

Intelsat tried to hold itself harmless with insurance. Of the 78 million US dollars demanded, 55.5 million were paid, with the remainder ending up in arbitration proceedings with an unknown outcome. However, the insurance companies are likely to have subsequently canceled the policies, as the current total loss is reportedly not insured.

Intelsat launched a total of six EpicNG Boeing satellites into geostationary orbits between 2016 and 2018 (Intelsat 29e, 32e, 33e, 35e, 37e and Horizons-3e). They each have a mass of around 6.6 tons. Together they should provide global coverage with high data throughput. Two of them have already broken apart after about half their service life.

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