Intelsat 19 Satellite Fails To Deploy Solar Array

The Intelsat IS-19 satellite launched May 31 has failed to deploy one of its two solar arrays, Intelsat announced late June 1 – an anomaly that has affected other Space Systems/Loral (SS/L)-built satellites and is likely to have ripple effects on two others preparing for launch in the coming weeks.

Luxembourg- and Washington-based Intelsat, in its statement, said only that there was a “delay” in the deployment of one of the arrays.

“Intelsat and Space Systems/Loral [SS/L], the manufacturer of the satellite, are investigating the cause and are pursuing corrective actions. The spacecraft is secure at this time in geostationary transfer orbit,” the statement said.

IS-19 is scheduled to replace Intelsat’s IS-8 at 166 degrees east, where in addition to taking on IS-8 customers it will play a key role in Intelsat’s planned global network providing broadband communications to aeronautical and maritime customers.

IS-8 has sufficient fuel to continue operating until late 2019, Intelsat said.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based SS/L had made no statement on the IS-19 anomaly as of early June 2.

The manufacturer is in the middle of one of the busiest satellite-delivery periods in its history. The SS/L-built Nimiq 6 satellite was launched May 18 and is in good health, according to its owner, Telesat of Canada.

Intelsat New Dawn: Glitch Puts Dent in Revenue

Satellite fleet operator Intelsat on Aug. 4 said it stands to lose up to $310 million in revenue already under contract because of the deployment failure of its New Dawn satellite’s C-band reflector antenna.

The revenue loss from customers that had already committed to using New Dawn’s C-band payload, coupled with delays in the launch of the Intelsat 18 satellite, likely will keep Intelsat’s 2011 sales just about at 2010 levels, company officials said.

Intelsat New Dawn was launched in April with a mixed C- and Ku-band payload. After abandoning initial efforts to shake free the stuck C-band antenna, ground control teams deployed — with difficulty — the Ku-band antenna, which is now in full operation, Intelsat said.

But a large part of the satellite’s revenue-generating potential has been definitively lost. Intelsat said in its financial statements released Aug. 4 that the company had already placed into its firm backlog $310.2 million from customers that had committed to using the C-band capacity.

In a conference call with investors, Intelsat Chief Executive David McGlade said Intelsat will try to line up other C-band capacity for its customers, which would at least retain these customers on Intelsat’s books, even if at much lower profit margins for Intelsat.

But with C-band capacity in sub-Saharan Africa still in short supply, and satellites over the region running at C-band fill rates of 90 percent or more, McGlade said the likelihood of placing all these New Dawn customers on competitors’ satellites is remote.

Intelsat’s total contracted backlog at June 30 stood at $9.8 billion. Removing all the New Dawn C-band customers would reduce that figure by just 3.2 percent. But New Dawn and the Intelsat 18 satellite, now scheduled for launch no sooner than October, had been seen as key drivers for 2011 revenue growth.

NASA Shuttle Atlantis Crew: Computer glitch wakes crew

After getting a little free time, the Atlantis space shuttle crew was woken up to deal with a second computer failure.

The astronauts switched to another of the shuttle's five main computers, and Nasa said the shuttle was in "stable condition with no concerns for the crew's safety".

A computer had also failed on Sunday.

The crew had gone to bed late on Thursday afternoon, but Mission Control woke them up about one and a half hours later because of the computer trouble. Nasa said they would troubleshoot the problem.

Sunday's computer failure occurred just before the shuttle linked up with the International Space Station. Engineers said the problem was likely caused by a bad switch throw. That computer was working again after new software was installed.

The check-and-balance network of computers provides redundancy during the most critical phases of the mission, and will be needed when Atlantis lands next week to wrap up the 30-year shuttle era.

Earlier on Thursday, the crew got some time off after a hectic week to savour their historic experience.

Until Thursday, the workload in orbit was so intense that the four astronauts had only fleeting moments of realising "wow, this is really it", astronaut Rex Walheim said in a series of TV interviews.

Atlantis first rocketed into orbit in 1985. This is its 33rd flight and the 135th shuttle mission overall. Atlantis will join Discovery and Endeavour in retirement, following its landing next week.

Large Handron Collider (LHC) stopped by Small Dry Joint (SDJ)

THE Large Hadron Collider (LHC), possibly science's greatest ever project, was undone in September by one badly soldered joint. With 10,000 such joints around the accelerator's ring, it is proving a struggle to check them all in time to restart this autumn as hoped.

A splice between two sections of superconducting cable melted when the current was turned up. As well as repairing the one that failed, engineers have so far found and fixed 20 slightly under-par splices. It is a slow process as each of the LHC's eight sectors must be gently warmed from its 1.9 kelvin operating temperature to about 300 K to be checked and repaired.

The repairers are now testing if they can check the splices at a moderately cool 80 K. "We'll know by Tuesday," says LHC technical director Steve Myers. If so, the last three sectors can be screened much more quickly. Any urgent repairs will delay the start-up, but less serious faults could be left and the LHC switched on anyway, perhaps at reduced energy.

It is an interesting dilemma that, as you approach the atomic layers the technology and physics that bring you there, are starting to break down. This is particularly so for materials and their interconnectivity.