this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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A satellite belonging to multinational service provider Intelsat mysteriously broke up in geostationary orbit over the weekend.

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[–] echodot@feddit.uk 40 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

That's actually quite impressive because most satellites just don't do anything when they die. Boeing's vehicles die with flare, and depressing regularity

[–] bitwaba@lemmy.world 9 points 2 hours ago

"in space no one can hear you scream"

Boeing satellites: "AHHHHHH!!!"

Great, more bits of dangerous junk in orbit. The fuckers should have to clear up their mess before it fucks up other satellites.

[–] Ookami38@sh.itjust.works 63 points 5 hours ago

What, was it blowing a whistle?

[–] lunar17@lemmy.world 20 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

This is slightly concerning. Satellites don't tend to explode on their own, but it is a Boeing design with a history of leaky propulsion, so who knows?

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 10 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (2 children)

Sure it was a Comm satellite for the world's tensest area, which is about to go to bigger war.

who would have ASAT capability at GEO?

how could it be launched to GEO undetected?

[–] Zron@lemmy.world 9 points 1 hour ago

If you’re a government, you can pretty much put anything in a rocket fairing and call it a reconnaissance satellite.

The only warning that actually has to be given is that a rocket is being launched, so you don’t accidentally trigger WW3 by setting off launch detection satellites without warning. After it’s in space, no one can really tell what was in the fairing. Could be a spy satellite, could be navigation. Could just be a box with a bunch of little rockets in it, designed to slam into whatever you want at ridiculous speed.

But it’s way more likely that this was just Boeing having a tiny leak in a propellant tank, or a bad thruster and as soon as the concentration of propellant and oxidizer got high enough, it triggered a detonation. They certainly have a history of not leak testing their shit: airplanes falling apart, space capsules with leaky thrusters, and now a blown up satellite point more towards incompetence than malice.

[–] SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee 12 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Is this a trick question? Cause you might as well be asking a 1600s peasant how to develop film.

[–] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

You burn a witch and pray.

[–] SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee 3 points 2 hours ago

Instructions Unclear : gave my wife Chlamydia.

[–] dreikelvin@lemmy.world 11 points 4 hours ago

Satellite: "But I wasn't boing anything wrong!"

[–] Zip2@feddit.uk 13 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Rapid unscheduled disassembly.

Plus “Into pieces” is rather unnecessary there.

[–] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

You can explode without turning into pieces, though

[–] Zip2@feddit.uk 2 points 23 minutes ago (1 children)

Arguable. I’d say it’s the same but the size of the pieces varies.

[–] MelodiousFunk 2 points 10 minutes ago

Where do pieces end and particles begin?

philosoraptor.jpg

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

did you know that high powered lasers are invisible to the naked without a sufficient particulate medium to pass through?

[–] GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 19 points 3 hours ago

Good thing I'm wearing clothes.

[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 15 points 5 hours ago

Was it a Satellite Max?

[–] roserose56@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 hours ago

I did read about this yesterday, and as far as I know the name of the sat is intelsat 33e and its for communication purposes. I'm curious to know what really happen, how it broke.

[–] clutchtwopointzero@lemmy.world 23 points 6 hours ago

Boeing: outsources to an outsourcer who outsources to an outsourcer who outsources to an outsourcer who outsources to an outsourcer and so on and still has the shamelessness of appearing surprised at the shit quality and reliability they deliver

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 18 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I'm not really into the stock market, but I would not buy Boeing at the moment.

[–] reddit_sux@lemmy.world 12 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Now would be the best time to do it

[–] qaz@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Assuming it bounces back up

Their vehicles don't, so i wouldn't hold my breath

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 3 points 56 minutes ago

If it doesn't do it on its own, one of 2 things will happen:

  1. They get bought out, which almost always results in a bump.
  2. The government bails them out, which is an even bigger bump.
[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 61 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Man they are just on fire lately

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 9 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

~~on fire~~ rapidly decompressing

[–] flyingjake@lemmy.one 2 points 1 hour ago

Lol I believe it would be rapid uncontrolled oxidation

[–] Technotica@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

The satellite went boing boing?

[–] Resol@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

No, not double boing. It went triple boing.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 32 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

...was designed and manufactured by Boeing Space Systems and launched in 2016. It provided broadband services, including internet and phone communication services, to parts of Europe, Africa, and most of Asia.

IS-33e was the second satellite to be launched as part of Boeing's "next generation" EpicNG platform. The first, dubbed IS-29e, failed due to a propulsion system fuel leak. Intelsat declared the satellite a total loss in April 2019, later attributing it to either a micrometeoroid strike or solar weather activity.

What caused IS-33e to break up in orbit remains unclear, however. Intesalt officials did observe that it was using far more fuel than it should be to maintain its orbit shortly after launching eight years ago, shaving off 3.5 years of its 15-year lifetime.

Could be a coincidence, but I feel "Boeing leaks" approaching "Samsung exploding" levels of memification (where they had washers, phones and some other things all exploding, and the look was not great).

Samsung shook the meme off, but I feel like Boeing will have a harder time.

[–] yeather@lemmy.ca 7 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Samsung makes consumer grade products that are “easily” replaced or fixed. Boeing makes shit for the US military, and they will 100% get what’s coming to them when a Boeing military project spontaneously combusts.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

I do sort of feel that Samsung got a bit of a bad rep for their phones exploding because it wasn't really their fault. The company that made the batteries took shortcuts in the manufacturing process and that's what caused the fires. If they had followed the instructions Samsung had given them they would have been okay.

Although equally the company wouldn't have felt the need to take shortcuts if Samsung had made the batteries to a standard design.

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 6 points 7 hours ago

Did it happen to have a beeper?

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (3 children)

puts on conspiracy hat

Did musk hit it with something?

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 2 hours ago

Probably because it's very important that he is involved in every discussion, even if it doesn't initially involve him.

[–] LorIps@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

Nah, it obviously wanted to whistlelbow about Boeing.

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[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 204 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

It was probably a whistleblower satellite.

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