Intelsat 33e, also known as IS-33e, was a high throughput (HTS)

geostationary A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a Transponder (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

operated by

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly Intel-Sat, Intelsat) is a Luxembourgish-American multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons, Virginia, United States. Originally formed ...

and designed and manufactured by Boeing Space Systems on the BSS 702MP

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are less customized than specially-produced satelli ...

. It was the second satellite of the Epic^NG service, and covered

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and most of

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

from the 60° East longitude, where it replaced Intelsat 904. It had a mixed C-band,

Ku-band The Ku band () is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally ), because it is the lower part of the original NATO K band ...

and

Ka-band The Ka band (pronounced as either "kay-ay band" or "ka band") is a portion of the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The designation "Ka-band" is from Kurz-above, which stems from the German word ''kurz,'' meaning "short". There ...

payload with all bands featuring wide and C- and Ku- also featured spot beams. After nearly eight years in service, the satellite broke into at least 57 pieces on 19 October 2024. As of December 2024, over 700 pieces of debris have been detected.

Satellite description

Intelsat 33e was designed and manufactured by

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

on the Boeing 702MP satellite bus. It had a launch mass of and a design life of more than 15 years. When stowed for launch, the satellite measured . It was powered by two

solar panels A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

, with four panels each, of triple-junction

GaAs Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a III-V direct band gap semiconductor with a zinc blende crystal structure. Gallium arsenide is used in the manufacture of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits, monolithic microwave integrated circui ...

solar cells. The 702MP platform was designed to generate between 6 kW and 12 kW, but Intelsat 33e was designed to generate 13 kW at the end of its design life. Its payload was the second high throughput Epic^NG deployment. The Epic^NG is characterized by the implementation of frequency reuse due to a mix of frequency and polarization in small spot beams. Not only applied to the classical High-throughput satellite (HTS) Ka-band, but also applying the same technique in Ku-band and C-band. The Epic^NG series also keep the use of wide beams to offer high throughput and broadcast capabilities in the same satellite. In the case of Intelsat 33e, the C-band side had 20

transponders In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

with a total downlink bandwidth of 2,670 MHz. The spot beams offered high bandwidth for

Central Africa Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, and a wide beam covered

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

. The Ku-band had 249 transponder equivalents, for a total downlink bandwidth of 9,194 MHz. The Ku-band spot beams covered Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, while a wide beam was able to broadcast to Europe, Middle East and Asia. The Ka-band payload had 450 MHz of bandwidth on a global beam centered at its position.

History

In July 2009,

became the first customer of the Boeing 702MP satellite bus, when it placed an order for four spacecraft, Intelsat 21, Intelsat 22, Intelsat 27 and the first Epic^NG satellite, Intelsat 29e. In May 2013, Intelsat made a second order for an additional four Epic^NG satellites, the first of which would be Intelsat 33e. On 15 July 2016, Senior Space Program Managers Richard Laurie and Brian Sing blogged that they had been at the Boeing factory overseeing the transport preparations for Intelsat 33e to

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

. There it would join another Intelsat satellite, Intelsat 36, for integration on the

Ariane 5 ECA Ariane 5 is a retired European Heavy-lift launch vehicle, heavy-lift space launch vehicle operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was launched from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in French Guiana. It was used to deliver p ...

launcher, which was expected to launch on 24 August 2016. On 22 July 2016, Intelsat announced that Intelsat 33e had arrived to the Guiana Space Center for launch preparations. It also announced not only communication but aeronautical and maritime mobility clients that were expecting the satellite service. On 27 July 2016, it was explained that the satellite had traveled by truck from the factory to an airport in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, where it was loaded in an Antonov 124. It flew to

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

for a refuelling stop and then flew straight to

Kourou Kourou (; ) is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France in South America. Kourou is famous for being the location of the Guiana Space Centre, the main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency (ESA). It ...

airport. At the French launch site, even though Intelsat is the owner of the two passengers of the Ariane 5 ECA VA 232 flight, they have separate launch teams. Each satellite is built by a different manufacturer, and it has a different supervisor team within Intelsat. On 24 August 2016, at 22:16:01

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

, after a slight delay due to a rocket issue, the Ariane 5 ECA VA-232 flight launched from Guiana Space Center

ELA-3 ELA-3 () is a launch complex at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. The complex was first used in June 1996 in support of the now retired Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a retired European heavy-lift space launch vehicle operated by Arianespac ...

, with Intelsat 33e and Intelsat 36. At 22:44 UTC, Intelsat 33e separated from the rocket's upper stage. After 41 minutes of flight, both satellites had separated successfully. Intelsat confirmed that it had received the satellites signals as expected after separation. Arianespace estimated the insertion orbit as 248.7 km × 35,858 km × 5.98°, very close to the target of 249.0 km × 35,879 km × 6.00°. On 9 September 2016, Intelsat announced that due to a malfunction in the LEROS-1c primary thruster, it would require more time for orbit rising and thus the service date had been moved from the last quarter of 2016 to the first of 2017. On 22 September 2016, insurance officials estimated that the main propulsion failure would not reduce the on orbit life of the spacecraft more than 18 months. This could translate to an insurance claim by Intelsat of around 10% (1.5 years) of the satellite service life, which could have a value close to US$40 million. Intelsat 33e entered service on 29 January 2017, three months later than planned. In August 2017, another propulsion issue appeared, leading to larger-than-expected propellant usage to control the satellite attitude during the north/south station keeping maneuvers. This issue reduced the orbital life-time by about 3.5 years.

Disintegration

Late on 19 October 2024, U.S. Space Command reported that the satellite had broken up into about 20 pieces at approximately 04:30 UTC that morning. At least 700 pieces of space debris associated with the event have since been detected. Intelsat declared the satellite a total loss on 21 October 2024. The 2024 loss was not insured, unlike the earlier malfunction of the satellite in 2016. The satellite's predecessor, Intelsat 29e, also suffered a premature failure and was rendered inoperable after only three years in service.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2016 Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Satellites using the BSS-702 bus Spacecraft launched in 2016 Intelsat satellites Ariane commercial payloads Spacecraft that broke apart in space