- The satellite Intelsat 33e broke up at 04:30 UTC on October 19, 2024, while in geostationary orbit. Boeing designed and manufactured the satellite, which launched to space in August 2016.
- The breakup resulted in at least 20 pieces of newly made space junk, which the U.S. Space Force is now tracking.
- This space junk adds to the growing debris pile currently in Earth-orbit. This debris poses an increasingly dire threat to other spacecraft and spaceflights, experts say.
By Sara Webb, Swinburne University of Technology; Christopher Fluke, Swinburne University of Technology and Tallulah Waterson, Swinburne University of Technology
Satellite breakup on October 19-20
A large communications satellite broke up in orbit, affecting users in Europe, Central Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. And it adds to the growing swarm of space junk clouding our planet’s neighborhood.
The Intelsat 33e satellite provided broadband communication from a point some 35,000 kilometers (22,000 miles) above the Indian Ocean, in a geostationary orbit around the equator.
Initial reports on October 20 said Intelsat 33e experienced a sudden power loss. Hours later, US Space Forces-Space confirmed the satellite broke up into at least 20 pieces.
So what happened? And is this a sign of things to come as more and more satellites head into orbit?
A space whodunnit
There are no confirmed reports about what caused the breakup of Intelsat 33e. However, it is not the first event of its kind.
In the past we’ve seen deliberate satellite destructions, accidental collisions and loss of satellites due to increased solar activity.
What we do know is that Intelsat 33e has a history of issues while in orbit. Boeing designed and manufactured the satellite, which launched to space in August 2016.
In 2017, the satellite reached its desired orbit three months later than anticipated. That was due to a reported issue with its primary thruster, which controls its altitude and acceleration.
More propulsion troubles emerged when the satellite performed something called a station keeping activity, which keeps it at the right altitude. It was burning more fuel than expected, which meant its mission would end around 3.5 years early, in 2027. Intelsat lodged a US$78 million insurance claim as a result of these problems.
However, at the time of its breakup, the satellite was reportedly not insured.
Intelsat is investigating what went wrong, but we may never know exactly what caused the satellite’s breakup. We do know another Intelsat satellite of the same model, a Boeing-built EpicNG 702 MP, failed in 2019.
More importantly, we can learn from the aftermath of the breakup: space junk.
EarthSky’s Dave Adalian interviewed Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard Center for Astrophysics – a world expert on space debris – in September 2024. Watch in the player above, or on YouTube.
Satellite breakup adds to 30 blue whales of space junk
The amount of debris in orbit around Earth is increasing rapidly. The European Space Agency (ESA) estimates there are more than 40,000 pieces larger than 10 centimeters (4 inches) in orbit. And it says there are more than 130,000,000 smaller than 1 centimeter (0.4 inch).
The total mass of human-made space objects in Earth orbit is some 13,000 tonnes (28.6 million pounds). That’s about the same mass as 90 adult male blue whales. About one third of this mass (30 blue whales’ worth) is debris (4,300 tonnes or 9.5 million pounds), mostly in the form of leftover rocket bodies.
Tracking and identifying space debris is a challenging task. At higher altitudes, such as Intelsat 33e’s orbit around 35,000 kilometers (22,000 miles) up, we can only see objects above a certain size.
One of the most concerning things about the loss of Intelsat 33e is that the breakup likely produced debris that is too small for us to see from ground level with current facilities.
The past few months have seen a string of uncontrolled breakups of decommissioned and abandoned objects in orbit.
In June, the RESURS-P1 satellite fractured in low Earth orbit (an altitude of around 470 km or 300 miles), creating more than 100 trackable pieces of debris. This event also likely created many more pieces of debris too small to track.
In July, another decommissioned satellite – the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) 5D-2 F8 spacecraft – broke up. In August, the upper stage of a Long March 6A (CZ-6A) rocket fragmented, creating at least 283 pieces of trackable debris, and potentially hundreds of thousands of untrackable fragments.
We don’t yet know whether this most recent event will affect other objects in orbit. This is where continuous monitoring of the sky becomes vital, to understand these complex space debris environments.
Who is responsible?
When satellites and so forth become space debris, who is responsible for cleaning it up or monitoring it?
In principle, the country that launched the object into space has the burden of responsibility where fault can be proved. The Convention of International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects explored this in 1972.
In practice, there is often little accountability. The US Federal Communications Commission issued the first fine over space debris in 2023.
It’s not clear whether Intelsat 33e resulted in a similar fine.
Looking ahead
As the human use of space accelerates, Earth orbit gets increasingly crowded. To manage the hazards of orbital debris, we will need continuous monitoring and improved tracking technology alongside deliberate efforts to minimize the amount of debris in order to manage the hazards of orbital debris.
Most satellites are much closer to Earth than Intelsat 33e. Often, companies and governments can safely bring down these low-Earth-orbit satellites from orbit at the end of their missions without creating space debris, especially with a bit of forward planning.
In September, ESA de-orbited its Cluster 2 “Salsa” satellite with a targeted re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, where it burned up safely.
Of course, the bigger the space object, the more debris it can produce. NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office calculated the International Space Station would produce more than 220 million debris fragments if it broke up in orbit, for example.
Accordingly, planning for de-orbiting of the space station at the end of its operational life in 2030 is now well underway, with SpaceX receiving the contract.
Sara Webb, Swinburne University of Technology; Christopher Fluke, Swinburne University of Technology and Tallulah Waterson, Swinburne University of Technology
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Space junk with Jonathan McDowell
Intelsat’s IS-33e communications sat has undergone a breakup event in geostationary orbit, with US Space Force reporting 20 tracked (but not yet cataloged) debris objects. The sat was launched 2016 Aug 24 and is over the Indian Ocean at 60.1E; breakup was 0430 UTC Oct 19.
— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) October 20, 2024
We don’t know yet. Two possibilities: 1) satellite was impacted by a piece of space debris. 2) internal energetic event like a propulsion system exploding
— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) October 20, 2024
Bottom line: On October 19-20, 2024, the satellite breakup of Intelsat 33e added at least 20 pieces of space junk to the growing debris pile in orbit around Earth.