Intelsat Early Inquiry Results Hint at Potential Series-Wide Satellite Flaw
Advance data released Thurs. by Intelsat link the IS 804 satellite failure in Jan. to a design flaw that may affect all Lockheed Martin 7000 Series satellites. It will be Sept. before the joint Failure Review Board (FRB) commissioned by Intelsat and Lockheed Martin finishes its inquiry, but Intelsat officials said they think the FRB is far enough along in its work to release preliminary findings on why IS 804 had a “sudden and unexpected electrical power system anomaly” in Jan. that resulted in the total loss of the satellite.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
“We currently believe, based on the FRB’s analysis to date, that the IS 804 failure is not likely to have been caused by an IS 804 specific workmanship or hardware element, but is more likely related to the LM 7000 Series design under certain operational and environmental conditions,” said an Intelsat statement.
Lockheed Martin said the FRB is “evaluating system design issues that could cause a failure under certain environmental and operational conditions.” But because the FRB hasn’t completed it’s review and hasn’t “isolated the root cause” of the IS 804’s failure, “it hasn’t been determined to what extent other satellites in the fleet could be impacted, or the probability that they would be,” a company spokesman said. The spokesman said Lockheed Martin engineers are looking at the electrical system, plus the impact of solar activity on day-to-day operational configurations.
Of 12 7000 Series satellites built by Lockheed Martin, Intelsat runs 3 besides IS 804: IS 801, IS 802 and IS 805. Two of the satellites are stationed in the Atlantic Ocean region and the 3rd overlooks Africa, Intelsat COO Ramu Potarazu told investors in a quarterly conference call Thurs. With a 27-satellite fleet, Intelsat has the backup to compensate for future failures, Potarazu said. The maximum revenue loss for Intelsat, should all 3 satellites go awry, would “be less than 1% of total revenue,” Potarazu assured analysts.
“We do not expect that a failure of any other 7000 series satellites will have a material impact on revenue or backlog,” said Intelsat CEO David McGlade: “At this junction, we're analyzing our satellite configuration in advance to anticipate any adjustments recommended by the board.” Intelsat self-insures its in-orbit satellite fleet. IS 801 has 3.5 years of expected lifetime, while IS 802 has a little over 9 years left and IS 805 has around 11 years remaining, he said.
In total, 11 of 12 Series 7000 satellites reached orbit. Of those, 3 have had trouble. AT&T’s Telstar 401, launched in 1993, failed in Jan. of 1997. Telstar 402 R, launched in 1995, failed in 2003. And Intelsat’s IS 804, launched in 1997, failed in Jan. of this year -- a bump for the private equity buyout of Intelsat then in the works (CD Jan19 P7).
Other 7000 series owners are New Skies and EchoStar, each with 2 satellites, and AsiaSat with one. Intelsat FSS competitor New Skies, with only 5 satellites in the sky, could face the most risk from a series-wide problem; a Series 7000 failure would knock out 40% of its capacity. Commenting on Intelsat’s report, New Skies CTO Stephen Stott said New Skies thinks it premature to speculate on the FRB data, since the inquiry isn’t over.
“We are continuing to monitor the situation closely, in coordination with Lockheed Martin,” said Stott. Because Lockheed Martin hasn’t isolated the root cause of the Intelsat satellite failure, officials have “not yet determined to what extent other satellites of the same series face an increased risk of failure or whether operating procedures should be implemented to mitigate, in whole or in part, any such risk.”
EchoStar’s Series 7000 satellites, EchoStar 1 and 2, both reside at 148 degreesW and are the only EchoStar satellites there. The 148 degreesW orbital location looks over the Western and central U.S. EchoStar 1 is the company’s maiden spacecraft, launched in 1995. EchoStar 2 was launched the following year.
EchoStar said it has no comment prior to completion of the FRB’s investigation. But filings with the SEC say “no telemetry or other data indicates EchoStar 1 or EchoStar 2 would be expected to experience a similar failure.” The company’s filing points to problems with traveling wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) aboard each satellite. Each craft is fitted with 24 TWTAs, of which 16 are needed to support the satellite’s 16 transponders. “While we don’t expect a large number of additional TWTAs to fail in any year,” the EchoStar filing said: “It is likely that additional TWTA failures will occur from time to time in the future, and that those failures may impact commercial operation of the satellites.” - Adrianne Kroepsch