this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
614 points (98.9% liked)

Technology

59575 readers
3440 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A satellite belonging to multinational service provider Intelsat mysteriously broke up in geostationary orbit over the weekend.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] lunar17@lemmy.world 45 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is slightly concerning. Satellites don't tend to explode on their own, but it is a Boeing design with a history of leaky propulsion, so who knows?

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Sure it was a Comm satellite for the world's tensest area, which is about to go to bigger war.

who would have ASAT capability at GEO?

how could it be launched to GEO undetected?

[–] Zron@lemmy.world 33 points 1 month ago

If you’re a government, you can pretty much put anything in a rocket fairing and call it a reconnaissance satellite.

The only warning that actually has to be given is that a rocket is being launched, so you don’t accidentally trigger WW3 by setting off launch detection satellites without warning. After it’s in space, no one can really tell what was in the fairing. Could be a spy satellite, could be navigation. Could just be a box with a bunch of little rockets in it, designed to slam into whatever you want at ridiculous speed.

But it’s way more likely that this was just Boeing having a tiny leak in a propellant tank, or a bad thruster and as soon as the concentration of propellant and oxidizer got high enough, it triggered a detonation. They certainly have a history of not leak testing their shit: airplanes falling apart, space capsules with leaky thrusters, and now a blown up satellite point more towards incompetence than malice.

[–] SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Is this a trick question? Cause you might as well be asking a 1600s peasant how to develop film.

[–] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago

Instructions Unclear : gave my wife Chlamydia.

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 0 points 3 weeks ago

China has anti geosync capability.