Previous geostationary events involving AMC9, TELKOM1, and Intelsat 29E produced debris prior to the Intelsat 33E fragmentation.
Intelsat intended to award a contract by the end of 2019 for a direct replacement for the three-year-old Intelsat-29e satellite.
Intelsat-40e was ordered from Maxar Technologies to serve as a partial replacement for Intelsat-29e.
Intelsat ordered Intelsat-29e from Boeing in 2012.
Intelsat is projecting total revenue of $2,000,000,000 to $2,060,000,000 for 2019, down from $2,060,000,000 to $2,120,000,000 when Intelsat-29e was operational.
To replace capacity lost over North America from Intelsat-29e, Intelsat is moving a Ku-band satellite that it currently has over Africa.
Intelsat cited the failure of Intelsat-29e when reducing its business backlog by $400,000,000 to $7,500,000,000 during the quarter.
Intelsat-29e was launched in January 2016 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket and entered service about two months later.
Intelsat is preparing for quick procurement of a replacement for Intelsat-29e that will fit within the company’s previously stated 2019 capital expenditure guidance of $250,000,000 to $300,000,000.
Intelsat reported a net loss of $530,000,000 for the quarter that included the Intelsat-29e impairment.
Intelsat estimates the failure of Intelsat-29e will cost the company $45,000,000 to $50,000,000 in lost revenue for the year.
Telesat is providing a small amount of capacity to Intelsat to cover for Intelsat’s 2019-04-07 loss of the Intelsat-29e satellite.
Intelsat-29e provided coverage of the Americas and adjacent waters using a mix of C-, Ku-, and Ka-band capacity.
The investigation has indicated that Intelsat-29e’s failure is unrelated to the propulsion issues with the Boeing-built Intelsat-33e launched in 2016.
Intelsat is assessing replacement options for Intelsat-29e’s capacity, including a new satellite, hosted payloads, expanding use of other operators’ spacecraft, or stationing one of Intelsat’s 53 geostationary satellites at the 310-degrees east orbital slot.
Only three Intelsat satellites have failed in orbit out of 92 launched since 1992, including Intelsat-29e.
ExoAnalytic Solutions’ network of ground-based telescopes identified debris around Intelsat-29e on 2019-04-08.
Intelsat-29e was in a geostationary orbit at 50 degrees west longitude until 2019-04-08, when it began tumbling and drifting to the east along the geostationary arc.