Intelsat has announced the loss of power in its Intelsat 33e satellite, which provided communications services for customers across Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia Pacific. The company stated that the anomaly is likely unrecoverable, despite efforts to address the issue with satellite manufacturer Boeing. An Intelsat spokesperson confirmed that the satellite was not insured at the time of the incident.
To mitigate the disruption, Intelsat is working to relocate affected customers to other satellites within its fleet or those operated by third parties. Intelsat 33e, launched in August 2016 and operational since January 2017 at 60 degrees East, faced a primary thruster issue during its initial launch, leading to a delayed launch date. Subsequently, a second propulsion issue during in-orbit testing shortened its estimated lifespan from 15 years to 11.5 years.
This incident marks the second failure in Intelsat's EpicNG (next-generation) series of high-throughput satellites. The first, Intelsat-29e, was declared a total loss in 2019 after only three years in orbit. This failure was attributed to either a meteoroid impact or a wiring flaw causing an electrostatic discharge during heightened solar weather activity.