An Intelsat satellite is thought to have been destroyed in its orbit around the Earth, affecting satellite service worldwide.
The satellite, named Intelsat 33e or IS-33e, lost power on October 19 due to an "anomaly," impacting users across Europe, Central Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.
The satellite, which has only spent eight years in geostationary orbit thus far, was confirmed by the U.S. Department of Defense's space-tracking platform SpaceTrack to have broken up on October 19.
"U.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," a SpaceTrack alert stated.
"Currently 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."
IS-33e was a geostationary communications satellite. These satellites are widely used for telephone, internet, and mobile communication services and for broadcasting television and radio signals.
Geostationary satellites orbit the Earth at the same rotational speed as the planet, making them appear stationary from the ground. This allows ground antennas to maintain a constant connection without needing to track the satellite's movement.
Intelsat has said that they are in the process of moving IS-33e's services to other satellites.
"We are working closely with Boeing, the satellite manufacturer, to address the situation. Based on the information available to us, we believe it is unlikely that the satellite will be recoverable," Intelsat said in a statement.
IS-33e has had other issues, with its primary thruster failing just after its launch in August 2016. Another propulsion issue shaved 3.5 years off its 15-year planned lifetime in orbit.
The reason for IS-33e's failure and break-up is still unknown, but it follows the loss of Intelsat-29e in 2019, which was caused by either a meteoroid impact or electrostatic discharge during increased solar weather activity caused by a wiring flaw.
The pieces of IS-33e will add to the increasing reservoir of space junk orbiting around our planet, which could eventually lead to a scenario known as Kessler Syndrome.
Proposed by NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler in 1978, this refers to a future where the density of objects in low Earth orbit becomes so high that collisions between them create even more debris, which in turn increases the likelihood of further collisions in a cascading effect, leading to a runaway situation.
"As launch vehicles become reusable, it gets cheaper to launch into space, so there are more opportunities for everyone to launch satellites. The rise of megaconstellations is a result of this," Vishnu Reddy, a planetary defense expert at the University of Arizona, told Newsweek.
"We need to be mindful of mitigating the long-term effects of leaving trash in space as it will take decades, if not 100s of years, to remove them naturally, especially at higher altitudes. Recently, we have seen large upper stages, especially from Chinese rockets, fall to the Earth."
A Kessler Syndrome-style debris cloud could destroy other functioning satellites and pose serious risks to the International Space Station and future manned missions.
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