Satellite Fails as Engineers Rush to Revive UHF Links
An $85-million satellite launched from the shuttle Discovery Aug. 29 has broken down, officials said Monday, threatening to deal another crippling blow to the ailing aerospace insurance industry.
Engineers scrambled to find a way to activate the UHF communications system on the military relay station by remote control, but they were not optimistic.
“We’re not yet claiming it as a complete loss,” said Penelope Longbottom, a spokesman for Hughes Communications Inc., which owns the Syncom 4 satellite. “We’re doing everything we can at this point to restore the communications link.”
Blow to Underwriters
If Syncom 4 cannot be fixed, it will be a staggering blow to aerospace underwriters, who have paid a whopping $365 million in the last 18 months to cover four other satellite failures.
“It’s very bad news,” said James Barrett, president of International Technology Underwriters of Washington, a leading aerospace underwriter.
Syncom 4 was insured for about $85 million and is part of a four-satellite global communications system owned by Hughes Communications of Los Angeles and leased by the Navy.
The satellite, a modified version of the Syncom 3 relay station that Discovery’s crew repaired during two space walks, was launched from the shuttle Aug. 29.
The drum-shaped satellite’s solid propellant and liquid-fuel rockets successfully boosted Syncom 4 to its operational altitude, 22,300 miles above the Equator.
Had Worked ‘Flawlessly’
“Initial measurements indicated the satellite was performing flawlessly,” a Hughes statement said. “The problem with (Syncom’s) communications payload developed after approximately two days of normal testing, when the UHF communications links experienced an outage. All efforts to revive the UHF links have so far been unsuccessful.”
Satellites in geosynchronous orbits appear stationary in space and cannot be reached by space shuttles for repairs because of their altitude.
Two space walkers aboard Discovery were able to repair Syncom 3, which never turned on after its shuttle launch in April and remained in a low-Earth orbit that the shuttle could reach.
That satellite is not scheduled to be fired into geosynchronous orbit until October to allow time for its frozen solid-fuel rocket motor to thaw.
Longbottom said that if Syncom 4 cannot be revived, Hughes has a spare satellite that can be launched to complete the military communications network.
