Maybe if they didn’t send me a “come back to DirecTV” ad in the mail three times a week, every week for two years they’d have more money for satellites.
Via CNBC:
A large broadcast satellite — owned by AT&T’s DirecTV, built by Boeing and operated by Intelsat — suffered major damage to its batteries in December and is now at risk of exploding.
DirecTV disclosed the issue in a special request to the Federal Communications Commission this week, asking for permission to remove its Spaceway-1 satellite from orbit.
“Spaceway-1 suffered a major anomaly that resulted in significant and irreversible thermal damage to its batteries,” DirecTV said in the filing. “There is a significant risk that these battery cells could burst.”
The satellite is notably several years beyond its intended lifespan. Launched in 2005, Spaceway-1 is a Boeing 702-model satellite, a build that is typically expected to last 12 years.
“The battery malfunction occurred in the course of beyond-contract-life operation after a collection of events that have a very low likelihood of occurring on other satellites,” Boeing said in a statement to CNBC.