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Large Boeing Satellite Suddenly Explodes Into Pieces (futurism.com)

submitted 16 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A satellite belonging to multinational service provider Intelsat mysteriously broke up in geostationary orbit over the weekend.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

...was designed and manufactured by Boeing Space Systems and launched in 2016. It provided broadband services, including internet and phone communication services, to parts of Europe, Africa, and most of Asia.

IS-33e was the second satellite to be launched as part of Boeing's "next generation" EpicNG platform. The first, dubbed IS-29e, failed due to a propulsion system fuel leak. Intelsat declared the satellite a total loss in April 2019, later attributing it to either a micrometeoroid strike or solar weather activity.

What caused IS-33e to break up in orbit remains unclear, however. Intesalt officials did observe that it was using far more fuel than it should be to maintain its orbit shortly after launching eight years ago, shaving off 3.5 years of its 15-year lifetime.

Could be a coincidence, but I feel "Boeing leaks" approaching "Samsung exploding" levels of memification (where they had washers, phones and some other things all exploding, and the look was not great).

Samsung shook the meme off, but I feel like Boeing will have a harder time.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Samsung makes consumer grade products that are “easily” replaced or fixed. Boeing makes shit for the US military, and they will 100% get what’s coming to them when a Boeing military project spontaneously combusts.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I do sort of feel that Samsung got a bit of a bad rep for their phones exploding because it wasn't really their fault. The company that made the batteries took shortcuts in the manufacturing process and that's what caused the fires. If they had followed the instructions Samsung had given them they would have been okay.

Although equally the company wouldn't have felt the need to take shortcuts if Samsung had made the batteries to a standard design.