sofien72tu
Super VIP
- Messages
- 25,214
How to lose $1bn
Deborah Shrewsbury - Fri, 28/10/2011 - 2:39pm
Chris Forrester’s Launch Pad
Operational glitches have led to a bad few months for the satellite industry.
Canada’s Telesat launched its Telstar 14R/Estrela do Sol 2 satellite in May.
Although the launch seemed successful, one of the satellite’s solar panels failed to open. The craft, built by Space Systems/Loral has been given a very limited life in orbit, and can only handle about half of its planned channels. The bird was designed to serve viewers in Canada and Latin America.
A board of enquiry has established that a nylon clip – probably costing a dollar or two – which held the satellite’s external cabling in place became loose during launch, swung and snagged on a piece of metal used to hold the folded solar array in place. The cabling snapped and broke off a chunk of solar panel – rendering the panel useless.
Space Systems/Loral President John Celli said the investigation board found no evidence of a lapse during the construction.
‘I would not say it was a workmanship error. We found nothing indicating that,’ Celli told Space News in August.
Maybe this clip was weakened by multiple tests – or something touched it during integration of the satellite with the launch vehicle. The clip is a nylon hook. It attaches to the panel with a screw. Did the screw come off? Was the bracket damaged? Loral is now adding tests for satellite deliveries and modifying the cable clip.
Anyway, the bird’s north solar array will be almost useless, causing owner Telesat of Canada to rely on the south array (which deployed normally) to operate Telstar 14R/Estrela do Sul 2. Solar array performance always degrades over time, and the absence of 50 per cent of the satellite’s intended solar power will limit the sat’s operational life to 12 years and reduce the number of transponders it can use to serve customers.
Telesat will make an insurance claim of some $200million.
New Dawn defects
Intelsat’s New Dawn satellite launched in April has a design defect that meant the craft’s giant C-band reflecting antenna was unable to be deployed, rendering the craft’s C-band capacity useless. The antenna’s spring-loaded deployment mechanism got caught in the gold-foil sun shield.
Sources suggest that the gold foil came loose when Intelsat and New Dawn’s manufacturer, Orbital Sciences Corp, tried to deploy the satellite’s Ku-band antenna by shaking the satellite by alternately firing the craft’s tiny thruster rockets. New Dawn’s Ku-band antenna reflector works well. But Intelsat says it has lost about $310million worth of C-band business due to the glitch.
Then there was Russia’s Express-AM4 DTH satellite – vital to the roll-out of Russia’s digital terrestrial TV system. Launched in August, the craft went into a useless orbit. The Proton-Briz M rocket put the satellite into a highly elliptical orbit of 20,294km at its highest and 995km at its closest to the Earth. The correct orbit should have been 35,786km apogee and 5,210km perigee. The craft’s thrusters would then have raised the perigee (low) orbit to its correct DTH position. The satellite was insured for $300million. Add in the lost revenues from failed birds and the bill for these three satellites is over $1billion.
Deborah Shrewsbury - Fri, 28/10/2011 - 2:39pm
Chris Forrester’s Launch Pad
Operational glitches have led to a bad few months for the satellite industry.
Canada’s Telesat launched its Telstar 14R/Estrela do Sol 2 satellite in May.
Although the launch seemed successful, one of the satellite’s solar panels failed to open. The craft, built by Space Systems/Loral has been given a very limited life in orbit, and can only handle about half of its planned channels. The bird was designed to serve viewers in Canada and Latin America.
A board of enquiry has established that a nylon clip – probably costing a dollar or two – which held the satellite’s external cabling in place became loose during launch, swung and snagged on a piece of metal used to hold the folded solar array in place. The cabling snapped and broke off a chunk of solar panel – rendering the panel useless.
Space Systems/Loral President John Celli said the investigation board found no evidence of a lapse during the construction.
‘I would not say it was a workmanship error. We found nothing indicating that,’ Celli told Space News in August.
Maybe this clip was weakened by multiple tests – or something touched it during integration of the satellite with the launch vehicle. The clip is a nylon hook. It attaches to the panel with a screw. Did the screw come off? Was the bracket damaged? Loral is now adding tests for satellite deliveries and modifying the cable clip.
Anyway, the bird’s north solar array will be almost useless, causing owner Telesat of Canada to rely on the south array (which deployed normally) to operate Telstar 14R/Estrela do Sul 2. Solar array performance always degrades over time, and the absence of 50 per cent of the satellite’s intended solar power will limit the sat’s operational life to 12 years and reduce the number of transponders it can use to serve customers.
Telesat will make an insurance claim of some $200million.
New Dawn defects
Intelsat’s New Dawn satellite launched in April has a design defect that meant the craft’s giant C-band reflecting antenna was unable to be deployed, rendering the craft’s C-band capacity useless. The antenna’s spring-loaded deployment mechanism got caught in the gold-foil sun shield.
Sources suggest that the gold foil came loose when Intelsat and New Dawn’s manufacturer, Orbital Sciences Corp, tried to deploy the satellite’s Ku-band antenna by shaking the satellite by alternately firing the craft’s tiny thruster rockets. New Dawn’s Ku-band antenna reflector works well. But Intelsat says it has lost about $310million worth of C-band business due to the glitch.
Then there was Russia’s Express-AM4 DTH satellite – vital to the roll-out of Russia’s digital terrestrial TV system. Launched in August, the craft went into a useless orbit. The Proton-Briz M rocket put the satellite into a highly elliptical orbit of 20,294km at its highest and 995km at its closest to the Earth. The correct orbit should have been 35,786km apogee and 5,210km perigee. The craft’s thrusters would then have raised the perigee (low) orbit to its correct DTH position. The satellite was insured for $300million. Add in the lost revenues from failed birds and the bill for these three satellites is over $1billion.