A planet called Telkom-1 seems to be break apart in geostationary ambit , the second satellite to do so in three months .
The artificial satellite is owned by Indonesia , and orb at a acme of 36,000 kilometers ( 22,400 mile ) above Earth . On August 26 , it was revealed that the planet ’s feeler was sharpen in the wrong direction , block communications . Telkom Indonesia lately refer to this as an “ unusual person ” in astatement .
But US firm ExoAnalytic Solutions rule that the issue may bemore serious . Using information from its 165 solid ground - based visual scope , it found that the satellite looks like break off aside . They observed a large cloud of debris around the satellite , following a departure of contact on August 25 .
“ There were by all odds several big pieces that we can track individually , ” Doug Hendrix , ExoAnalytic Solutions CEO , toldSpaceNews . “ The question is : was there a cloud of very small pieces , too ? That is what we are test to figure out . ”
A video that appears to show the satellite give up
At the bit they recollect the orbiter did not collide with another object . But observance show the artificial satellite to be in a speedy tumble be the event , suggesting something moderately major pass off – perhaps an onboard explosion .
On August 30 , the satellite was say to no longer be recoverable . ExoAnalytic Solutions are continuing to track debris from the artificial satellite , to test and work out what happened .
Telkom-1 is a communicating artificial satellite . It was launched in 1999 , and had enough fuel to last until 2019 . ordinarily , space vehicle in geostationary orbit are raised into a in high spirits cemetery reach at the last of their life-time , to forestall them from littering a useful area of Earth orbit .
As mentioned , this is the second such result in three calendar month . In late June , the satelliteAMC-9 – operated by SES in Luxembourg – also appeared to break asunder . A brightening of this orbiter was observed , and then two fragments were spy nearby . In August , a satellite calledEchoStar-3also went sinister .
Satellites failing in orbit are not strange , but the timing of all these events together is perhaps a little snatch coincidental . There certainly does n’t seem to be any unsportsmanlike play at hand , but this serves as a reminder that outer space can be an unforgiving environment when something goes untimely .
