The Galaxy-15 broadcast satellite, which was being used by the worldwide satellite company Intelsat, was destroyed on Aug. 19 by a solar storm that passed near Earth.
A severe space weather event that knocked down the satellite destroyed its circuitry and electronics, leaving it worthless. However, the company told Space News that it is attempting to restore satellite control.
Intelsat Loses Control of Galaxy 15 Satellite Due to Solar Storm
After a space weather event-related anomaly, Intelsat can no longer control its Galaxy 15 satellite.
An Intelsat representative informed Via Satellite that the anomaly was to blame for the loss of control links, which is the signal needed to fly the satellite and receive telemetry data.
"The satellite is otherwise operating nominally, keeping Earth pointing with all payload operations nominal," Intelsat spokesperson Melissa Longo said per Space.com.
As customers from Galaxy 15 are transferred to other satellites, the business will "continue to try to regain command once they are off so we can eventually deorbit it," Longo continued.
According to Intelsat, Galaxy 15 transmits news to the Americas from a geostationary orbit at a 133-degree west inclination. Orbital Sciences Corporation made and launched the satellite in 2005. Northrop Grumman eventually bought the company.
However, Galaxy 15 has been out of Intelsat's control before. In 2010, the company lost contact with this satellite for more than eight months.
Communication between the satellite and the command center was reestablished following a complete discharge and reset of the spacecraft's battery.
The satellite has an L-band payload formerly used by the US Federal Aviation Administration to provide GPS data to airplanes, combined with 24 C-band transponders that serve media clients.
The Northrop Grumman-designed corporation is currently offloading its clients to another satellite.
History of Solar Storms Destroying Satellites
It has happened before that space weather has destroyed satellites, reports said.
It can be recalled that the abrupt shift in the orbital environment caused SpaceX to lose a batch of 40 Starlink satellites earlier this year.
Before the Sun's geomagnetic storm, each satellite had successfully completed a controlled flight after successfully launching into an orbit 210 kilometers above the Earth.
At low deployment altitudes, air density rises due to the storm's warming of the atmosphere. Compared to earlier launches, air drag increased by up to 50 percent due to the storm's escalating pace and ferocity.
Most geomagnetic storms are harmless, but powerful storms can injure satellites in addition to power lines, other electrical infrastructure, and radio transmission.
The frequency of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in 2022 suggests that the Sun is "waking up" from a more dormant phase of its 11-year cycle of activity.
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