A satellite belonging to multinational service provider Intelsat mysteriously broke up in geostationary orbit over the weekend.
A satellite belonging to multinational service provider Intelsat mysteriously broke up in geostationary orbit over the weekend.
That’s only because they’re designed with passivation to vent tanks and disconnect batteries to remove sources of explosion when they start to die. If that fails the tanks eventually pop from thermal cycling or the solar panels overcharge the battery until it blows up like a Russian satellite did earlier this year.