Intelsat has confirmed that it has been unable to rectify an anomaly causing disruption to regional VSAT services that was previously reported on its Intelsat 29e spacecraft, resulting in the total loss of the Epic-series satellite.
“A failure review board has been convened with the satellite’s manufacturer, Boeing, to complete a comprehensive analysis of the cause of the anomaly,” the company said, in a statement.
“Late on 7 April, the Intelsat 29e propulsion system experienced damage that caused a leak of the propellant on board the satellite, resulting in a service disruption to customers on the satellite.”
“While working to recover the satellite, a second anomaly occurred, after which all efforts to recover the satellite were unsuccessful.”
Intelsat says that it has since been in active contact with affected customers serving the Latin America, Caribbean and North Atlantic regions covered by the spacecraft, which includes a number of maritime VSAT providers relying on Intelsat satellite capacity to provide connectivity services to ships at sea.
Restoration paths on other Intelsat satellites serving the region, as well as third-party satellites, have been provided for a majority of the disrupted services, the company said.
