Zombiesats!!

Analoguesat

Analoguesat

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Sky+ UK.
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Scottish Borders
Yankee bird Galaxy 15 (ex 133W) failed in orbit at the end of April and has now started to drift eastwards off station.

She went silent after apparently being hit by a solar flare but for the first time ever in a situation like this the C-band payload is still powered up. :eek:

If she keeps on broadcasting dead air and doesnt discharge her batteries then theres some severe interference coming up for AMC 11!

Full story:

-http://ww.space.com/news/zombiesat-galaxy-15-shutdown-fails-sn-100505.html
 
Lots of money in that sat !
 
_http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/Publications/StarBus_FactSheet.pdf

To be honest, I thought she would be slightly larger than 558kgs
 
An interesting animation here:

-http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10150614.stm

showing how AMC 11 & SES 1 movements are to be coordinated with those of Galaxy 15 to minimise the possibility of interference as the out of control bird rattles through the 131W home of AMC 11

SES are fortunate to have SES 1 as a fallback - she was only launched a few weeks ago!
 
Ah something else interesting:

Depending on their position at the time of failure, these satellites tend to migrate toward one of two libration points, at 105 degrees west and 75 degrees east. Figures compiled by XL Insurance of New York, an underwriter of space risks, say that more than 160 satellites are gathered at these two points, which Bednarek described as the orbital equivalent of valleys.

"Unfortunately for us, we were downhill from Galaxy 15 as it rolls toward" the 105 degrees west libration point, Bednarek said.

Do we know the identity of any of the defunct broadcast sats stuck in these gravity wells??
 
Analoguesat said:
Do we know the identity of any of the defunct broadcast sats stuck in these gravity wells??
Click to expand...

Normally, you could find them using the following link

_http://science.nasa.gov/realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3D.html

but it is down at the moment
 
It's back up now. Very interesting CH.
 
A bigger version of the "satellite dance"

-http://www.ses-worldskies.com/videos/AMC_SES_CommSwitch.wmv
 
Ah, found it

_http://www.swfound.org/siteadmin/images/files/file_371.pdf

Designations L1 and L2 determine the scrapyards of interest.




About Galaxy XV

'The spacecraft is not insured as Intelsat routinely buys insurance for its satellites only for launch and the first year in orbit'.
 
Apparently Galaxy 15 hasnt discharged her batteries as expected and is still powered up!

-http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1009/15galaxy15/

She is now at about 117W

-http://www.n2yo.com/?s=28884


Next bird in the interference cross hairs is Satmex 5 at 116.8W on September 21st with Satmex 6 & Anik F2 in the bullseye for mid October.
 
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