Perilous Times
Out of control satellite threatens television reception across US
A TV communications satellite is drifting out of control thousands of
miles above the Earth, threatening to wander into another satellite's
orbit and interfere with cable programming across the United States.
Published: 7:00AM BST 12 May 2010
Out of control satellite threatens television reception across US
Photo: GETTY IMAGES
Communications company Intelsat said it lost control of the Galaxy 15
satellite on April 5, possibly because the satellite's systems were
knocked out by a solar storm. Intelsat cannot remotely steer the
satellite to remain in its orbit, so Galaxy 15 is creeping toward the
adjacent path of another TV communications satellite that serves US
cable companies.
Galaxy 15 continues to receive and transmit satellite signals, and they
will probably overlap and interfere with signals from the second
satellite, known as AMC 11, if Galaxy 15 drifts into its orbit as
expected around May 23, according to the two satellite companies.
AMC 11 receives digital programming from cable television channels and
transmits it to all US cable systems from its orbit 22,000 miles above
the equator, SES World Skies said. It operates on the same frequencies
as Galaxy 15.
"That fact means that there is likely to be some kind of interference,"
Yves Feltes, a spokesman for AMC 11 owner SES World Skies, said. "Our
aim is to bring any interference down to zero."
He would not name any of the cable television channels or providers
that could be affected or say how long the interference could last.
"We are confident that service disruptions will be minimized or
avoided," said Dianne VanBeber, a spokesman for Intelsat.
Galaxy 15 is floating over the Pacific Ocean slightly to the east of
Hawaii, said Emmet Fletcher, space surveillance and tracking manager
for the Space Situational Awareness Programme at the European Space
Agency, an 18-nation consortium.
He said Galaxy 15 was highly unusual because it continued to send out
television signals, unlike other malfunctioning satellites that
automatically went into complete shutdown when their navigational
systems malfunctioned.