Intelsat retires Marisat-F2 satellite after 32 years of service

The Marisat-F2 satellite may not have garnered quite the fame of other mission-defying spacefarers like the Mars Opportunity rover (it even seems to have been a bit camera shy), but it's earned it's own little place in the history books nonetheless, with it stretching its original five-year design life to a hefty 32 years of service. That apparently made it the oldest commercial communications satellite still actively operating in space but, sadly, that streak has now come to an end, with Intelsat announcing that it has decommissioned the satellite and is using its remaining bit of fuel to raise it to "disposal altitude" in order to keep it out of the way of other satellites. Originally built by Hughes Aircraft in 1976, the 700-pound satellite had been primarily serving ships at sea and scientists at the South Pole, who were using it for internet access in more recent years, since it had actually proven to be more capable than the two other more recent satellites serving the area.

[Zinger314 @ Nov 4th 2008 12:03AM]

"Closer, by far?"

Is Intelsat ran by Big Brother?

[Reader @ Nov 4th 2008 12:38AM]

Is using Big Brother in every one of your posts your idea of trolling?

[Wwhat @ Nov 4th 2008 6:55AM]

As I recall from reading about it even iran was in the intelsat group back then, it was quite the forward thinking international borderless thing, but then they privatised, and then later were sold to big brother (american companies with STRONG ties to the government), but during the launch of this satellite it was all peace and cooperation.
Shows you it works to elect a guy that is strong in throwing the world back in the middle ages I guess.

[OneLove @ Nov 4th 2008 10:42AM]

sell it on ebay

[Jeffrey @ Nov 4th 2008 12:14AM]

stories like this make me sad

[Thomas @ Nov 4th 2008 12:14AM]

I love it how Engadget claims that they are not all about apple and that they are not paid by apple.

People tell me what other company gets a special place for the review of their products right at the top of the website for weeks.

[nerdtalker @ Nov 4th 2008 12:24AM]

With as pretentious a title as "the only review you need," no less.

New macbooks are out? Really? I had no idea!

[oZ @ Nov 4th 2008 12:27AM]

T-Mobile.

[alfred @ Nov 4th 2008 12:36AM]

You have my vote for the least relevant comment of the week.... and it's only Monday. But I doubt anyone can top your comment with respect to relevance to the article

[Fernando @ Nov 4th 2008 12:45AM]

Tee-Mobile

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Nov 4th 2008 1:03AM]

So how much did you get paid for bringing up Apple in a thread about a communication satellite? Seems that would answer the question once and for all.

[Emanuel @ Nov 4th 2008 2:12PM]

stop coming here if you dont like it...

[Brian @ Nov 4th 2008 12:28AM]

Sad loss, I'd say.

[Haikibutsu @ Nov 4th 2008 12:32AM]

"Intelsat announcing that it has decommisioned the satellite and is using its remaining bit of fuel to raise it to "disposal altitude" in order to keep it out of the way of other satellites."

That sounds so sad. I almost let a tear drop... for a piece of technology...

No, really, I did

[MM @ Nov 4th 2008 12:35AM]

Fare thee well..

[fischju @ Nov 4th 2008 12:45AM]

Hey, I'll take the title on that...

[michas_pi @ Nov 4th 2008 1:26AM]

It's sad to see such a pioneering piece of technology go offline.

Here's to future endeavors.

[Taliesin @ Nov 4th 2008 3:07AM]

It's a sad time, so what will be providing the internet access for the researchers living in Antarctica (South Pole?)
Hopefully not the two satalite's which are newer but seem far worse then this great heap of metal that is now decomisioned...

[Martin Smallman @ Nov 4th 2008 3:59PM]

We received a communication directly from IntelSat last month advising of this decision...

They advised.....

"Due to a recent change in the health of the telemetry and command subsystems Intelsat General has determined that it can no longer SAFELY operate the satellite through 2010 as previously hoped"

In other words Id take it that they have basically lost control of the satellite

Marty
IT Specialist
US Antarctic Program

[Chuck @ Nov 4th 2008 3:36AM]

They don''t make em like that anymore.

[Holger @ Nov 4th 2008 3:43AM]

hehe amazing... let's just hope those scientist have another option for internet...

[martins_chc_nz @ Nov 4th 2008 3:52PM]

Yes there are alternatives. Broadband coverage continues with 2 main satellites. the GOES-3 and TDRS-F1.

Unfortunately with the demise of MARISAT-F2 the broadband window at pole decreases from hh:mm ~12:35 to ~10:32 per day...

Marty
IT Specialist
US Antarctic Program

[eric @ Nov 4th 2008 5:27AM]

hmmm... my parents worked and met working at Hughes Aircraft I wonder if they knew about this.

[benderillo @ Nov 4th 2008 10:51AM]

me too.

[funnyhaha @ Nov 4th 2008 12:44PM]

Actually they met in the parking lot in the back seat of that 76 Buick.

Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all day.

[justin @ Nov 4th 2008 10:45AM]

"Disposal altitude" Is this thing just going to float up there forever? Some day there will be way too much junk up there if they do not bring these things down or atleast crash them into the moon.

[MarbleMind @ Nov 4th 2008 11:12AM]

Moon? With those puny alignment thrusters?

But I agree that littering the orbit is stupid. If it still has fuel, why not blast it into the atmosphere at a steep angle and let it burn up?

[MarbleMind @ Nov 4th 2008 11:13AM]

Correction: *flat* angle, of course.

[Bill Mchale @ Nov 4th 2008 1:00PM]

I use to work at Intelsat back in the day working on developing the Ground Control Systems back then (Actually my primary responsibility was to write a telemetry simulator). Anyway, just a couple of points about what Justin and MarbleMind stated about the final resting place of the old bird.

The first is that Geo-Stationary orbit is a very empty place compared to LEO (low earth orbit). Not nearly as many satellites are sent up there because it costs a lot of money to get them there (being it is 22,000 miles up). There retirement orbits are even higher and are probably of no practical use (since the only reason to send anything up that high is to get it into geo-stationary orbit or to get it out of orbit of the earth). In any case, there is a lot of space up there; with an orbital circumference of almost 70,000 miles, its not very crowded there.

The other problem is that it takes an awful lot of reaction mass to deorbit something that high up. In LEO, just a nudge (relatively speaking will do it). at 22 thousand miles, you need an awful lot of change in Velocity if you want to get it back down to earth.

[Emanuel @ Nov 4th 2008 2:15PM]

thanks for that comment... interesting read :)

[MarbleMind @ Nov 5th 2008 4:01AM]

Thanks for sharing your expert knowledge, that clarifies a lot!