Roscosmos identifies around 20 objects in orbit of broken up European Intelsat-33e satellite

MOSCOW. Oct 21 (Interfax) - Around 20 objects have been detected in the orbit of the broken up European Intelsat-33e satellite, with four Russian spacecraft in its vicinity, Roscosmos said.

"According to data from the automated warning system about dangerous situations in near-Earth space of the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering (part of the Roscosmos state corporation), around 20 unidentified space objects were detected in the plane of the orbit of the Intelsat-33e telecommunications satellite on October 20, 2024," the statement said.

According to experts' calculations, these objects appeared on October 19, 2024, it said.

"The findings of preliminary analysis revealed the Express-AT1, Yamal-402 and Express-AM6 telecommunications satellites and the Electro-L weather satellite are the closest spacecraft from the Russian cluster to the position of the Intelsat-33e satellite in geostationary orbit," it said.

Russian experts are currently collecting coordinate data to update the orbital parameters of the identified space objects, and after these objects start being steadily tracked they will be included in the calculations of dangerous approaches to satellites of the Russian orbital constellation, it said.

Intelsat announced a service outage on the Intelsat-33e satellite on October 19. The satellite experienced an anomaly, resulting in a loss of power and service in geostationary orbit to customers in Europe, Africa and some parts of the Asia-Pacific region, it said.

"We are working closely with Boeing, the satellite manufacturer, to address the situation. Based on the information available to us, we believe it is unlikely that the satellite will be recoverable," it said.

The Intelsat-33e satellite was launched in August 2016 and entered service in January 2017.