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.