SES is moving customers off a 14-year-old geostationary communications satellite that’s drifting in orbit following a “significant anomaly” discovered over the weekend.“SES has taken immediate action in contacting all customers and is working to transfer services to alternative satellite capacity in order to minimize disruption,” the company said in a June 19 statement.
The Luxembourg-based global fleet operator first became aware of a problem with AMC-9 the morning of June 17 — a Saturday – and was still assessing the situation two days later. The Thales Alenia Space-built satellite was launched in 2003 on a Russian Proton rocket.Payer said SES does not know whether the satellite, which provides data and broadcast services over the U.S. and Mexico using C- and Ku-band, can be returned to service. Losing the satellite would cost SES up to 20 million euros ($22.3 million) in revenue this year, SES said.
AMC-9 was designed to last 15 years, but it is not uncommon for geostationary satellites to surpass that age and continue to generate revenue.
What's the orbit? For a purely circular orbit that isn't synchronous, the bird would be either be above and slower or below and faster. It's orbit would not intersect other satellites. But if the orbit is elliptical and out of control, then it could collide with something, correct?There is a very large need for tenders out there that can go grab and properly dispose of problem sats like this.
A large satellite appears to be falling apart in geostationary orbitIt is not clear what might have caused the AMC-9 satellite to become unresponsive.by Eric Berger - Jul 2, 2017 3:41am BST
SES re-establishes communications with AMC-9; pieces of satellite appear to have broken offby Peter B. de Selding | Jul 2, 2017
Can some one explain the motion in the video of the largest bright fragment from AMC 9 AKA GE 12. Having now taken the video apart and looked closely this fragment is at first moving away from AMC 9 then makes what looks like a near 180 degree turn and moves back towards AMC 9. Thomas
SES regained telemetry of the craft on July 1st. AMC-9 continues to drift westward at approximately 0.2 deg/day with an apogee approximately 190 km above GEO, perigee 155 km below GEO, and a daily longitude variation of 1 degree in a stable and predictable orbit. We continue to monitor the orbit and attitude rates to identify conjunctions and facilitate further attitude and maneuver analysis as SES works with assistance from Thales on possible re-orbiting options for AMC-9.
Update from Peter de Selding: https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/886906498986762240Quote from: pbdesSES regained telemetry of the craft on July 1st. AMC-9 continues to drift westward at approximately 0.2 deg/day with an apogee approximately 190 km above GEO, perigee 155 km below GEO, and a daily longitude variation of 1 degree in a stable and predictable orbit. We continue to monitor the orbit and attitude rates to identify conjunctions and facilitate further attitude and maneuver analysis as SES works with assistance from Thales on possible re-orbiting options for AMC-9.
Quote from: eeergo on 07/17/2017 11:21 AMUpdate from Peter de Selding: https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/886906498986762240Quote from: pbdesSES regained telemetry of the craft on July 1st. AMC-9 continues to drift westward at approximately 0.2 deg/day with an apogee approximately 190 km above GEO, perigee 155 km below GEO, and a daily longitude variation of 1 degree in a stable and predictable orbit. We continue to monitor the orbit and attitude rates to identify conjunctions and facilitate further attitude and maneuver analysis as SES works with assistance from Thales on possible re-orbiting options for AMC-9.It's an old satellite wouldn't it be better that if possible they just put it into a standard retirement orbital position?
Quote from: Star One on 07/17/2017 11:33 AMQuote from: eeergo on 07/17/2017 11:21 AMUpdate from Peter de Selding: https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/886906498986762240Quote from: pbdesSES regained telemetry of the craft on July 1st. AMC-9 continues to drift westward at approximately 0.2 deg/day with an apogee approximately 190 km above GEO, perigee 155 km below GEO, and a daily longitude variation of 1 degree in a stable and predictable orbit. We continue to monitor the orbit and attitude rates to identify conjunctions and facilitate further attitude and maneuver analysis as SES works with assistance from Thales on possible re-orbiting options for AMC-9.It's an old satellite wouldn't it be better that if possible they just put it into a standard retirement orbital position?That is what it is sounds like they are referring to.
The question is whether the spacecraft still retains orbital adjustment authority. If the causative anomaly was a fault in the propellent system of either the RCS or MPS then the satellite may not be controllable beyond attitude control (if it has reaction wheels).
Satellite fleet operator SES says it will retire the malfunctioning AMC-9 satellite a year early if it can regain control of the spacecraft.
The company has also not been able to confirm if debris spotted in the satellite’s vicinity broke off from the spacecraft or originated elsewhere.
Peter B. de Selding @pbdes 14m14 minutes agoManufacturer of @SES_Satellites AMC-9, @Thales_Alenia_S says no sign of breakup despite @exoanalytic radar images.https://www.spaceintelreport.com/amc-9-satellite-builder-says-theres-absolutely-no-sign-orbit-breakup/
Radar images show something that appears to be debris alongside AMC-9.What that is I don’t know. There are lots of theories, including that it could be elements of propulsion — gases that were emitted and then froze, and that now produce a radar signature resembling satellite debris.SES, which gets information from space agencies looking at the situation, has also concluded that there is no evidence showing a breakup.Could it be a thermal blanket that detached? I suppose that’s possible but the information we have indicates a satellite that is whole.
Since then, we have reestablished full control. We receive the telemetry, the satellite receives our commands. The satellite is in a stable condition and we are now preparing the de-orbiting procedure.That takes some time because the the attitude control, while stable, is not optimal. We need to adapt a command sequence to accommodate the fact that the satellite is turning on itself. But it’s a predictable sequence and we now know the condition of the satellite.We are optimizing the sequence to boost the satellite into a retirement orbit. This will take several weeks because we cannot order thruster firings as we would in a satellite that was in normal health.
Quote from: Thomas Dorman on 07/03/2017 08:54 PMCan some one explain the motion in the video of the largest bright fragment from AMC 9 AKA GE 12. Having now taken the video apart and looked closely this fragment is at first moving away from AMC 9 then makes what looks like a near 180 degree turn and moves back towards AMC 9. ThomasThe video was tracking the satellite itself. The motion of the fragment(s) is then relative to the main body of the satellite. If some propulsive event moved the main body of the satellite in the direction of the largest fragment, it would give the appearance of the fragment moving back towards the satellite. This is only one possible explanation, of course; I suppose the fragment itself might've experienced an impulse somehow. It should be fairly easy for somebody with access to the raw data to tell if the satellite's motion changed during the observation. I bet you could take a few frames on either side of the apparent change in motion of the fragment and check the motion of the main piece and fragment relative to the background stars before and after the event, see which one changed.
Quote Peter B. de Selding @pbdes 14m14 minutes agoManufacturer of @SES_Satellites AMC-9, @Thales_Alenia_S says no sign of breakup despite @exoanalytic radar images.https://www.spaceintelreport.com/amc-9-satellite-builder-says-theres-absolutely-no-sign-orbit-breakup/https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/909775092359532544
Update: @exoanalytic responding to @Thales_Alenia_S, stands by its original report, will update at @amoscon this wk.
Also, Comga's explanation of the apparent reversed motion potentially being simply due to different orbital elements is quite possible, and probably more likely than mine: Occam's razor.
Rotating or tumbling, as rotating about more than one axis at different rates?
The reason for the very bright flash from AMC 9 on Kevin Fetter's video, at this time, has to do with what happens visually with Geosats around the spring and fall equinox where GeoSats give off very bright flashes which some can easily be seen with the naked eye.