A television communication satellite which broadcasts cable service throughout the United States has suddenly gone rogue. On April 5, Intelsat, a communications company that controls the satellite, known as Galaxy 15, suddenly lost control of the orbiting vessel. Although, the cause of the loss of control is unknown, it is speculated that solar radiation caused by a recent sun storm is what caused the loss of navigational controls. However, the satellite is still broadcasting and is now expected to cross the orbit of another satellite, known as AMC 11. When this happens, the two satellites will be too close to one another and their signals will be disrupted. This could result in the loss of cable tv signals through out the United States.
Intelsat has been working with SES World Skies, the controllers of the AMC 11 satellite in order to attempt to regain control of this satellite, but to no avail. It is also unknown why the broadcasting signal from the Galaxy 15 satellite cannot be shut down, which broadcasts on the same frequency as the AMC 11. Currently, among other preventative measures, they are pondering using the propulsion system of the AMC 11 satellite to move it approximately 60 miles away from the equator, where it orbits approximately 22,000 miles above the Earth’s surface. This should sufficiently seperate the two satellites enough so that, hopefully, no degredation of signal will be noticed. This should also keep the AMC 11 satellite within its broadcasting ‘orbital box’, a carefully prescribed set of orbiting parameters in which the satellite must maintain in order to send signals and have them be received on Earth.
Cable and satellite TV companies are watching this attentively. According to the Associated Press, Direct TV has stated that this will not affect their services. Comcast has stated that they are monitoring the situation, and a spokesperson for Cox Communications said it did not immediately know whether this would affect it’s services. Calls from the Associated Press to Dish Network, Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications, and Cablevision Systems either had no statements or did not return calls.
The expected date when these two communications satellites are expected to cross orbits is on May 23rd. There is absolutely no chance of a direct collision between the two orbiting satellites.
A spokesperson for Intelsat was quoted as stating “We are confident that service disruptions will be minimized or avoided”
Let’s Hope So!!
My Edible Earth 