Welcome to this week’s installment of The Intelligence Brief… on Monday, the explosion of a satellite was confirmed following an “anomaly” that reportedly took the spacecraft offline. In our analysis, we’ll be taking a look at 1) what is known about the circumstances involving the satellite’s destruction, 2) what U.S. Space Force officials and other agencies have said about the debris left behind by the spacecraft, and 3) why the unexplained incident has Boeing back in the crosshairs.
Quote of the Week
“U.S. Space Forces-Space (S4S) has confirmed the breakup of Intelsat 33E (#41748, 2016-053B) in GEO on October 19, 2024, at approximately 0430 UTC.”
– U.S. Space Force statement
Latest News: In recent news from The Debrief, Department of Energy scientists report they have captured imagery of a perplexing object that evades easy description. Elsewhere, astronomers scanning TRAPPIST-1 for alien signals have conducted the most extensive single-target search for extraterrestrial intelligence to date. You’ll find links to all our recent stories at the end of this week’s newsletter.
Podcasts: In podcasts this week, on The Micah Hanks Program I take my listeners down the rabbit hole as we examine recent statements by U.S. officials involving fake UFO programs, forged documents, and deceptive counterintelligence measures. Meanwhile, on the latest installment of The Debrief Weekly Report, Kenna and Stephanie discuss the secret powers mice may have and other scientific mysteries. You can find all our past episodes on The Debrief’s Podcasts Page.
Video News: On the latest episode of Rebelliously Curious, Chrissy Newton is joined by Daniel Otis, a Canadian journalist who discusses his recent investigations into the shoot-down of an unidentified object in Canadian airspace last February. Be sure to check out other great content from The Debrief on our official YouTube Channel.
With housekeeping out of the way, it’s time to focus on the events revealed this week involving the unexplained destruction of the Boeing-built Intelsat 33e satellite.
An “Anomaly” Destroys Intelsat 33e
The destruction of a communication satellite earlier this week has officials at the United States Space Force on the watch for debris, following its unexplained explosion just days ago.
Last weekend, the Boeing-built Intelsat 33e satellite was reportedly destroyed following an “anomaly” that prompted unsuccessful efforts to repair the malfunctioning satellite.
The U.S. Space Force confirmed that the satellite, which provided communications services to several countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa, had exploded according to a statement at spacetrack.org, which presents space situational awareness information issued by the U.S. Department of Defense.
The statement added that the Space Force “has observed no immediate threats and is continuing to conduct routine conjunction assessments to support the safety and sustainability of the space domain.”
Unexplained Outage Leads to Explosion
Intelsat initially confirmed in a press release that its satellite was experiencing an outage due to an anomaly on October 19. The company said it was “working closely with Boeing, the satellite manufacturer, to address the situation.” However, it was stated at that time that it seemed “unlikely that the satellite will be recoverable.”
Following the satellite’s destruction, power and communications were reportedly interrupted for many customers across several continents.
On Monday, Intelsat said whatever took the satellite offline remained unclear, but the company was coordinating with Boeing and unspecified government agencies to determine what caused the anomaly. Additionally, the company announced that a Failure Review board would analyze the situation.
U.S. Space Force and Others Tracking Debris
Following its destruction, the U.S. Space Force said it was tracking close to 20 pieces of debris believed to be associated with the satellite as part of what it called routine assessments to ensure overall safety. Presently, there are no threats believed to be associated with the satellite debris, the Space Force said.
Despite the figure provided by Space Force officials earlier this week, the Russian space agency Roscosmos claimed it had identified four times as many pieces of suspected debris from the satellite following the explosion.
“Roscosmos has recorded more than 80 fragments of the destroyed Intelsat-33e satellite,” a statement issued by the space agency read. “According to the OKP ASPO, a significant increase in the number of space objects in the orbital plane of the destroyed telecommunications satellite Intelsat-33e has been recorded.”
Although Roscosmos officials provided no additional details on what may have led to the anomaly that destroyed the satellite, the Russian space agency said that “Analysis of the trajectories of the fragments shows that the destruction of the satellite was instantaneous and high-energy,” characterizing the debris field as “a potential threat to all operating spacecraft, including the Roscosmos group in the geostationary region of outer space.”
Boeing in the Crosshairs Again
Naturally, the destruction of Intelsat 33e had many looking to Boeing, its manufacturer, a company that has remained controversial for several months.
Following a series of issues reported during flights involving Boeing aircraft, probes by federal investigators, and whistleblower allegations, an issue with the company’s Starliner spacecraft earlier this year left two astronauts stranded aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Ultimately, the Starline spacecraft returned to Earth with no issues, although its intended astronaut crew will likely remain aboard the ISS until early 2025.
The fallout from the company’s ongoing issues reportedly resulted in a loss of more than $6 billion during the third quarter, which experts say will likely cause Boeing to shed as much as 10% of its workforce amid ongoing strikes by large numbers of its employees.
Presently, there are few details on what caused the anomaly that destroyed Intelsat 33e, although the company maintains it “has been in active dialogue with affected customers and partners” as it works to assess the situation and help allocate alternative resources for those affected following the incident.
“Migration and service restoration plans are well underway across the Intelsat fleet and third-party satellites,” the company said on Monday.
That concludes this week’s installment of The Intelligence Brief. You can read past editions of our newsletter at our website, or if you found this installment online, don’t forget to subscribe and get future email editions from us here. Also, if you have a tip or other information you’d like to send along directly to me, you can email me at micah [@] thedebrief [dot] org, or Tweet at me @MicahHanks.
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