Word of the Sept. 21 anomaly which rendered Intelsat Ltd.’s IS-802 satellite useless to customers in the Eastern Hemisphere has raised renewed concern about whether poor design is to blame for manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp.’s star-crossed 7000 series of satellites.

IS-802, located at 33 degrees East, experienced "a sudden and unexpected anomaly." The Intelsat satellite-control center has reportedly remained in control of the satellite, which was launched in June 1997, and furnished telecommunications services to customers on the African continent and the Indian Ocean Region. Intelsat and Lockheed Martin are working together to identify the cause of the problem.

IS-802, which generated less than $30 million in revenues annually, was uninsured; Intelsat’s policy is to self-insure spacecraft beyond their initial years of operations. The company is making alternative capacity available to customers, and said it should be able to restore most of the customer traffic using its existing satellites.

Intelsat has reported uncertainty about whether there is a connection between the latest event and the failure of its IS-804 spacecraft, another Lockheed Martin 7000 series model, which occurred in January 2005.

In August 2005, preliminary analysis from a failure review board (FRB) examining the IS-804’s total loss suggested that its root cause was not unique, and raised questions as to whether there was a design issue with the entire 7000 series.

At that time, preliminary analysis made public in an Aug. 11 disclosure in Intelsat’s second-quarter 2005 earnings report said "we currently believe, based on the FRB’s analysis to date, that the IS-804 failure is not likely to have been caused by an IS-804 specific workmanship or hardware element, but is more likely related to the LM 7000 series design under certain operational and environmental conditions."

That report did not elaborate what any such "operational and environmental conditions" might have been, but Lockheed Martin spokesman Chip Manor told Satellite News then that the FRB had been considering factors including solar activity, charging environment and the changing of the satellite configuration over time based on the day-to-day operation of the spacecraft.

On Nov. 10, 2005, Intelsat stated in its third-quarter financial report that the likeliest cause of IS-804’s total was "an electro-static discharge event in the battery circuitry that propagated to cause the sudden failure of the high-voltage power system." At that time, Intelsat said the "risk exists for our other LM 7000 series satellites," but that the company believed such risk to be low. "We do not currently believe that any operational steps or adjustments to our satellite deployment plan are required to mitigate the risk," the company reported.

Of the 12 Lockheed Martin 7000 spacecraft launched between December 1993 and June 1998, seven remain in operation, including two remaining in Intelsat’s fleet (IS-801 and IS- 805), two in SES Global’s fleet (NSS-5 and NSS-806), two in Echostar Communications Corp.’s fleet (Echostar-1 and Echostar-2) and one in Asiasat’s fleet (Asiasat-2).

According to Roger Rusch, president of Telastra investment consultants, unanswered questions remain among the most troubling aspects of the situation. "I would say that as many failures as we’ve seen is a reason for concern," he said. "I think that until we hear more information provided by Lockheed Martin or Intelsat, that concern has to be a greater one that it was."

Asked last week to discuss Lockheed Martin’s 7000 series, Intelsat spokeswoman Jodi Katz withheld comment beyond saying that "the other two [7000 series] satellites in the fleet are operating normally."

"This problem seems to be more serious than people may have hoped," Rusch said. "I think there are probably other satellite companies that have difficulties or potential difficulties. But the companies involved are not being forthcoming about the nature of the problems or whether they know [the problems’ full extent] themselves."

As of press time, SES Global did not respond to written requests for comments about its NSS-5 and NSS-806 satellites. Meanwhile its partially owned company, Asiasat, with a total of three operational satellites in orbit, is keeping an eye on Asiasat-2.

Asiasat CEO Peter Jackson stated via e-mail that "we continue to monitor the situation closely and anticipate that Lockheed Martin will soon identify the cause of the problem and recommend possible precautionary steps the satellite operators can take if required."

Jackson added that Asiasat "has not detected or observed any sign of any imminent anomaly to Asiasat-2." The company has unspecified contingency plans in place to "deal with emergencies… [and] ensure the continuity of our customers’ traffic" should any anomaly occur.

The company also operates Asiasat-3S and Asiasat-4 (both Hughes 601HP model spacecraft), with the launch of Asiasat-8 satellite, being built by Space Systems/Loral, not scheduled until the second half of 2008.