Eutelsat 5 West B

[Mooncamm]

Still no up to date TLE for confirmation.
But possibly, both Eutelsat 5 West B and Eutelsat 7C are now near 1.6°E for testing, very confusing!

Could both of them wind up at 5 west now that Eutelsat 5 West B has had an incident?

 

[hvdh]

It's just wild speculation of course.
But I'd rather expect 7C to go the 7°E as planned, and either 7A or 7B to go to 5°W, either with or without a flawed 5 West B.

 

[solly]

the Eutelsat 5b now 0.5 w

 

[william-1]

the Eutelsat 5b now 0.5 w

EUTELSAT 5 WEST B

NORAD ID:
44624
LOCAL TIME:
07:51:01
UTC:
07:51:01
LATITUDE:
-0.03
LONGITUDE:
-0.46
ALTITUDE [km]:
35866.70
ALTITUDE [mi]:
22286.53
SPEED [km/s]:
3.07
SPEED [mi/s]:
1.91
AZIMUTH: 180.4 S
ELEVATION:
+31.1
RIGHT ASCENSION:
10h 09m 34s
DECLINATION:
-08° 20' 04''
Local Sidereal Time:
10h 12m 04s
The satellite is in day light
SATELLITE PERIOD:
1440m

Real time satellite tracking for: EUTELSAT 5 WEST B

 

[Channel Hopper]

Oh blimey. There not much to go wrong with solar panels so any "incident" is serious

I can think of:

physical damage by space debris

short circuit on the electrical bus

motor damage so the panels cant be optimised for solar illumination

You forgot fracturing of soldered joints, either expansion through heat, or stress.

http://www.dept.aoe.vt.edu/~cdhall/courses/aoe4065/NASADesignSPs/rp1390.pdf

There was also a venting/pressure issue a few years back on Loral and Intelsat birds, but the power loss occurred shortly after launch.

 

[solly]

now satellite move west

 

[solly]

Eutelsat 5b now 1.7 w

 

[hvdh]

Still no up to date TLE for confirmation.
But possibly, both Eutelsat 5 West B and Eutelsat 7C are now near 1.6°E for testing, very confusing!

Finally an updated TLE, Eutelsat 5 West B is at 1.5°E, and Eutelsat 7C is at 1.7°E.

 

[william-1]

Eutelsat 5 West B @ 1.5° East
10.855 V test carrier

I think this is from E7C

 

[solly]

how 5b ready test super beam both 3 different beam area

 

[william-1]

No test carriers confirmed for Eutelsat 5 West B atm

 

[hvdh]

No test carriers confirmed for Eutelsat 5 West B atm

Thanks for your observations! I can't check myself until Friday.
But how can you distinguish between 5WB and 7C, since they are no more than 0.2° apart?
Or is it just assumed 5WB testing has to wait until the solar panel problem is fixed?

 

[william-1]

Most of the frequencies tested so far match the 7C Ku band layout,

Eutelsat 7C @ 1.7° East
======================10700 to 11700
======================12500 to 12750


Only 2 or 3 could have come from here but when I move the dish to 1.2 east all the signals fade so it is safe to assume that all the signals are from 7C
Eutelsat 5 West B @ 1.5° East
==========================10.95 to 11200
==========================11450 to 11700
==========================12500 to 12750

 

[Analoguesat]

There are suggestions one of the solar panels on 5WB hasnt deployed correctly

Insurance market could face $192m+ Eutelsat 5 West B satellite loss - Reinsurance News

Satellite industry observers are discussing the potential for the EUTELSAT 5 West B geostationary satellite to become a total loss, which could cost the

www.reinsurancene.ws

And this site is very pessamsitic about the future of 5WB - about which more info should be released tomorrow.

 

[william-1]

Looks like a job for MEV-2

 

[Analoguesat]

Plenty of propellant on board for a burn up if shes junk.........

 

[Stevenvc19]

Eutelsat misses on all key metrics

They say:

"During the post-results analysts’ call there was considerable probing on the probable impact of the likely revenue impact on the damaged Eutelsat 5 West B. Management would only say that a review was underway and there would be a statement by the end of November at the latest. One glimmer of hope is that Eutelsat is looking at strategies to extend E-5WB’s life on orbit "

 

[william-1]

Eutelsat said in a statement Thursday that it is investing an apparent solar array anomaly on spacecraft.

“An incident occurred on one of the two solar arrays on the Eutelsat 5 West B satellite, as it approached its orbital test location,” said Marie-Sophie Ecuer, a Eutelsat spokesperson. “An inquiry with Northrop Grumman to investigate the causes of the incident and assess the impact on the performance of the satellite is underway.”

Eutelsat investigating solar array ‘incident’ on new communications satellite – Spaceflight Now

Looks like E5WB has hit something a similar incident happened to Eutelsat W5 suffered in 2008 the loss of one of its solar arrays due to the array's failed drive motor, leading to a switch-off of 4 of the 24 transponders.
Eutelsat W2, W3 (W6), W5 / Eutelsat 21A → 48C, 70A → 25C → 33B

So all is not lost on the Eutelsat 5 West B satellite as it has a Ku payload of 35 equivalent 36 MHz transponders,

Maybe another satellite can provide support @ 5 west there are a lot of spare empty satellites about :-
FlySat Sat List

 

[Fisty McB]

It sounds like that given what is in the public domain, 5WB will at best be able to operate as a functional satellite with one hand behind its back, no more than half its designed capacity. Wherever that is enough to cover all expected transmissions if it were to come into commercial service, I don't know. It could also I guess end up in a similar fashion to the old W2M which itself had problems after launch but prior to in-orbit testing, was subsequently written off for its intended mission but used elsewhere (at one point becoming Eutelsat 28B around the time the old Eurobird 1/28A seemed to be developing output problems).

 

[william-1]

We may end up with 3 satellites @ 5 west E5 West A + E5 West B + another satellite.