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157 points milgrim | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.203s | source
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ThrowawayTestr ◴[] No.41904665[source]
How does a satellite break up in orbit? Was it struck by something?
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1. wongarsu ◴[] No.41904890[source]
It's anyways possible that it was struck by a meteorite or a piece of space debris that's too small to be tracked.

But these satellites also carry fuel for orbit keeping, evasion manoeuvres and going to a graveyard orbit at its end of life. Given that this satellite had two separate propulsion issues and Intelsat-29e suffered from electrostatic discharge it's not difficult to imagine the satellite igniting its fuel in an uncontrolled manner