(ORDO NEWS) — A geomagnetic storm disabled the Galaxy-15 satellite, which served the media. The sun is increasing activity, and new spots appear on its surface.
As the Sun’s activity increases, the latest geomagnetic storm that approached Earth on August 19 destroyed the Galaxy-15 broadcast satellite operated by the international satellite company Intelsat.
The satellite was disabled due to extreme space weather, which likely damaged the electronics aboard the spacecraft, rendering it useless. However, the company said it is still trying to regain control of the satellite.
The satellite is equipped with 24 C-band transponders that serve media customers, as well as an L-band payload, which was previously used by the US Federal Aviation Administration to transmit GPS information to aircraft.
The company is currently in the process of transferring its customers to another satellite.
“Otherwise, the satellite is operating nominally, maintaining a direction to Earth with all nominal operations,” Intelsat spokeswoman Melissa Longo said.
The Sun was extremely active last week, resulting in 17 coronal mass ejections, as well as 19 solar flares and 11 sunspots.
The appearance of several new spots was observed on the surface of the Sun, including AR3085, which in just two days increased 10 times, that is, almost to the size of the Earth.
Spaceweather, a company that monitors solar activity, said the spacecraft’s active region is facing Earth and is experiencing class-C solar flares.
This is not the first time space weather has destroyed satellites. Earlier this year, SpaceX lost a batch of 40 Starlink satellites due to a sudden change in space weather.
The satellites were already deployed in orbit about 210 kilometers above the Earth, but a geomagnetic storm broke out and the spacecraft became unusable.
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