Associated Press | A TV communications satellite is drifting out
of control miles above the Earth, threatening to wander into another
satellite’s orbit and interfere with cable programming across the
United States, the satellites’ owners said Tuesday.
Communications company Intelsat said it lost control of the Galaxy 15
satellite on April 8, possibly because the satellite’s systems were
knocked out by a solar storm. Intelsat cannot remotely steer the
satellite to remain in its orbit, so Galaxy 15 is creeping toward the
adjacent path of another TV communications satellite that serves U.S.
cable companies.
Galaxy 15 continues to receive and transmit satellite signals, and they will probably interfere with the second satellite, known as AMC 11, if Galaxy 15 drifts into its orbit as expected around May 23, according to AMC 11’s owner, SES World Skies.
AMC 11 receives digital programming from cable television channels and transmits it to all U.S. cable networks from its orbit 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above the equator, SES World Skies said. It operates on the same frequencies as Galaxy 15.
“That fact means that there is likely to be some kind of interference,” SES World Skies spokesman Yves Feltes told The Associated Press. “Our aim is to bring any interference down to zero.”
He would not name any of the cable television channels or providers that could be affected or say how long the interference could last.
Feltes said one option would be to use AMC 11’s propulsion system to shift that satellite about 60 miles (100 kilometers) away to an orbit that’s still within its carefully prescribed “orbital box,” but as far away as possible from Galaxy 15.
He said SES had other strategies under consideration, but declined to provide details.
“We have all of our technicians, all of our specialists on this case,” he said.
Both companies said there was no risk of an actual collision between the two satellites in space.
Intelsat said it was analyzing signals from Galaxy 15 daily in order to predict its trajectory, and was trying to figure out if it can shut down the satellite’s transmission so it would not interfere with AMC 11.
The company declined to comment on the value of Galaxy 15 but such spacecraft can be worth about $400 million (€315 million) and cost about the same to launch.
Feltes said the two companies, both based in Luxembourg, were cooperating closely.
“They have tried numerous things to regain control of the satellite or to have it finally shut down,” he said. “It needs some collaboration to bring the impact of this failure to an absolute minimum.”
The cable companies will have a repair man up to fix the satellite Wednesday morning, between 9 and noon.
lol
LOL. Good one Southernsider.
Maybe Bart Simpson was right…MLB is interfering.
Southernsider
Thats the best comment I’ve ever read. LOLLOLOLOLOLOL
Good to know, but which providers does this satellite work for? Comcast? Dish Network? Direct TV? All?
Very funny, Southernsider.
Maybe people will be forced to play with their children, learn a hobby, or heaven forbid, read a book!
my guess that the list of channels are Viacom, A&E Television Networks, C-SPAN, Court TV, Crown Media, Discovery Communications, E! Networks, iN DEMAND, Lifetime Entertainment, NBC, QVC, Scripps Networks, and The Weather Channel, ABC Radio Networks, Antrix Corporation Ltd., AT&T Alascom, British Telecom, Connexion by Boeing, Deutsche Welle, Discovery, EchoStar, Fox, Gannett, TV Guide/Gemstar, Globecomm Systems, HBO, Hughes Network Systems, JSAT, Korea Telecom, MCI, NBC, The New York Times, NHK, PaxNet, PBS, PCCW, SCC, TELE Greenland, TV Europa, TimeWarner, Unitel Hellas, Viacom, and various agencies of the U.S. government.
But that is a guess.
Good. Maybe that means people will actually drop the remote and go outdoors for a little while.
Very funny Southernsider.
Maybe this will force people to play with their kids, learn a hobby, or, heaven forbid, read a book.
Please God, please, get it fixed for the World Cup. Amen.
What Will This Country Do Without “American Idol”? Will we discovery real music?
Wow! That will enrage more Americans than BP’s oil spill.
It is all part of Obama’s master plan to knock out all dissent.
Good post, Southernsider, but it’s more like the cable companies will have a repair man up to fix the satellite next week sometime between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
OMG … what will Obama do? He needs to appear on TV daily to feed his ego …
Does this mean someone has to stay ‘home’ at the International Space Station to let someone in? Can you say service outage compensation request?
“The cable companies will have a repair man up to fix the satellite Wednesday morning, between 9 and noon.”
That’s what they say. You’d better have someone floating in a spaceship over there until 4 PM at least.
Really? Can I ever read an article and the posts that go along with it and not hear about Obama? This is getting out of control.
With that said… I really hope this doesn’t happen during a Blackhawks playoff game. I might injure someone.
Somehow this has to Be George Bush’s fault.
commit2theIndian — I agree fully.
GO HAWKS!
first step in the fcc/ftc taking over. oh by the way. TRIBUNE STOP CALLING MY HOUSE AND TRYING TO FORCE ME INTO BUYING YOUR PAPER. WHEN YOU REPORT ON REAL NEWS AND ARE NOT COMPLETELY ONE SIDED. ONLY THEN WILL I CONSIDER. YOU BLOCK ALL COMMENTS RELATING TO CCX, JOYCE FOUNDATION, AND ANYTHING ELSE THAT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO THE PUBLIC TAX PAYERS. WHY DON’T YOU GROW A SPINE AND REPORT THE FACTS, BUT THEN AGAIN, ARE YOU ARE TOO AFRAID THAT OBAMA WILL SHUT YOU DOWN? IF SO, STAND UP FOR YOUR 1ST AMENDMENT RIGHTS. UNLESS LIKE OBAMA, “YOU DON’T REALLY FOLLOW THE CONSTITUTION”
List of channels on AMC 11: http://www.lyngsat.com/amc11.html
I do not get how the President gets japed in every comments section even when the story clearly isn’t political in nature and has nothing to do with him.
I do not recall that Bush was pilloried like this ad nasseum.
I think it’s either little stupid people or internet trolls or some combination of the two.
Do you, Stern, really believe that the President would shut down a newspaper (or even have the power to do so) that didn’t agree with him? If so, why has he not already stifled any criticism? Or, more likely, you are one of those little stupid people.
I hope it knocks out all the stations on all networks and providers. People have become to TV dependent. They’ve forgotten what it is to interact with one another. Kids nowadays are just dumbed up text/tv junkies who dont know how to converse with one another. We need to get back to the basics.
remember to ask your cable television provider for a credit to your bill for each day service is interrupted
May 23rd???? But…but…that’s the LOST finale!!! Nooooooooooooooo!!!!!
Well Steve, that may be fine for you, but gosh darnit there’s a Blackhawk playoff game tonight and I’d like to watch it rather than listen to it on the radio. Thank you very much
)
I’m in the minority – one of the 17% percent of U.S. households that does not have cable or satellite TV. I consider it a big waste of money. Just the networks, along with digital rabbit ears antennae, is fine for me.
Expect something drastic to happen on 23 May … something they wanna cover up!!!
@Lou Sussler
President Bush was pillaried about everything. There was a constant spin campaign going on. Turn about is fair play.
Laura wrote:”I’m in the minority – one of the 17% percent of U.S. households that does not have cable or satellite TV. I consider it a big waste of money.”
No one asked.
Translation: We’ve lost out last subscriber (and really, who can afford to wast $100 a month on something that is barely worth watching for free?) and are closing our doors – but we needed a semi-plausible excuse for it so we don’t get sued by our stupid stock holders.
Technical glitch? What, the NYSE already used that one? Crap.
How about nasty TV hating space aliens? Not plausible enough?
So . . . how about a ‘drifting’ satelite, then? OK?
Lou Sussler | May 11, 2010 2:55 PM | Reply
I do not get how the President gets japed in every comments section even when the story clearly isn’t political in nature and has nothing to do with him.
I do not recall that Bush was pilloried like this ad nasseum.
————————–
You have a bad memory Lou.
One day I’m going to read a news article online without being bombarded with the Fox News/Teabagger sheep who obsessive with President Obama to the extent of mentioning him in EVERY comment section available to them.
If only they were as diligent when Bush spent a trillion on Medicare and another Trillion in the Middle East on an unnecessary war. It’s enough to make you believe that maybe the Tea Party really has nothing to do with spending at all..
Lou Sussler | May 11, 2010 2:55 PM | Reply
I do not get how the President gets japed in every comments section even when the story clearly isn’t political in nature and has nothing to do with him.
I do not recall that Bush was pilloried like this ad nasseum.
————————–
You have a bad memory Lou.
There will be a run on Rabbit Ears at Radio Shack
southernsider, he shoots, he SCORRRRRRRRRREEEEESSSSSS!!!
southernsider ftw
lock the thread
As a cable technician I can tell you that this story is being blown WAY out of proportion. Cable companies pick up their channels from dozens of satellites in the atmosphere. If one satellite does go down, the most it could take out is maybe a dozen channels at best. And then if that DOES happen, there is always a duplicate feed on another satellite to the East or West that they can switch to. The media has no clue what they are reporting about and someone is feeding them misinformation which is more likely the case.
There are satellites in the atmosphere? Cool!
Lou, you’re right. After just about every negative story,
commentors lay the blame on Obama. What doesn’t get blamed on Obama gets blamed on illegals.
Reading the comments, one would think we lived in a perfect society before Obama was elected. Then it all when to hell, suddenly.
_M_M, I do remember Mr. Bush being lambasted by the press and pundits. But NO prez has been as vehemently ridiculed as Mr. Obama.
And I’m not saying he’s a great, or even good prez. But he is NOT the cause of every problem in America.
When the Satellites collide everyone will black out and wake up on an island and will have a glimpse of the future, when the aliens will eat us, and we start making meth in RVs.
This sounds just like how the aliens took over the Earth on a classic Twilight Zone episode, THE MONSTERS ARE DUE ON MAPLE STREET, only they messed with us by doing it one block at a time. First one house lost power, then another, then the first house got their power back, etc….After watching TV for 50 years, not much is new and entertaining anymore. Same old, same old. READ A BOOK PEOPLE! PLAY SCRABBLE! HAVE A PARTY AND TALK WITH YOUR FRIENDS! TAKE A WALK! SAVE SOME MONEY AND CANCEL YOUR CABLE. After a year, you could take a nice vacation with that money.
I’m praying that I don’t loose RFD TV on cable and can’t see the Big Joe Polka Show and, my favorite, “Training Mules and Donkeys”.
How can they say with 100% certainty that the two satellites will not collide? I cannot believe that a company that would spend so much money on a satellite, which is partly responsible
for generating so much revenue, did not consider the concept of redundancy! Exactly how is it really cable TV, if it is dependent upon a satellite for transmission? So much for going digital! At least you should be able to still get the lower channels, if you screw the cable onto the adapter on a cable ready TV. The bottom line is, life does go on without cable!
Back to reality!
I’m with you, Dave! Who couldn’t do with a vacation! Haven’t had one in years, money going to this utility and that one! Sounds good to me. I once gave up Cable TV for a year and a half and was totally content. May do it again!
may 23 is the series finale of LOST!
Excellent job.