A Boeing-made satellite has been deemed a “total loss” following a space “anomaly,” operator Intelsat said in a statement on Monday.
Issues with the IS-33e that was launched in August 2016 and entered service in January 2017 were first publicized by Intelsat on Saturday. The McLean, Virginia, company said then that the service outage on the satellite affected customers in Europe, Africa and parts of the Asia-Pacific region.
“The satellite experienced an anomaly on October 19, resulting in a loss of power and service to customers,” a statement said. “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.”
Two days after the “anomaly” was reported, Intelsat said it “resulted in the total loss of the Intelsat 33e satellite.”
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Intelsat again said it is “coordinating” with Boeing and government agencies to see what went wrong by analyzing data and observations.
“A Failure Review Board has been convened to complete a comprehensive analysis of the cause of the anomaly,” Intelsat, a company founded six decades ago, said. “Since the anomaly, Intelsat has been in active dialogue with affected customers and partners. Migration and service restoration plans are well underway across the Intelsat fleet and third-party satellites.”
The satellite was last reported as being located at “60 degrees East.”
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A previous statement from Intelsat said IS-331 was “equipped with the most advanced digital payload on a commercial spacecraft.”
“Many U.S. government customers are eager to begin using Intelsat 33e,” Skot Butler, president of Intelsat General Corporation, said in a 2017 statement. “The coverage Intelsat 33e provides is ideal to support U.S. Department of Defense mobility applications and means deployed forces in these regions will benefit from the same game-changing performance and efficiency that Intelsat EpicNG already delivers in the Americas and the North Atlantic.”
Back in April, satellite company SES agreed to buy Intelsat S.A for $3.1 billion in a deal that would create a major European player but raised investor concerns around debt, sending the buyer’s shares to a record low.
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The deal, unanimously approved by the two companies’ boards, should close in the second half of 2025 and will be financed by cash and new debt, including hybrid bonds, the companies said.
Boeing did not immediately respond to a FOX Business request for comment.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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