Communications Satellite Outages Due to the Environment

P. N. Wadham

When geosynchronous satellites were first placed in orbit, it was thought that there was little about the space environment which could cause sudden failure of the satellites other than the direct impact of a meteorite. Since 1972, there has been a growing awareness that the environment is not as benign as was first thought and that communications satellites now commonly used for international and domestic relay of telephony and television can suffer some unexpected interruptions in service. This paper describes the nature of this new problem and the way in which it can affect spacecraft. It also describes some of the earlier problems which have complicated the operation of spin-stabilized satellites.

Print ISSN
Published
1976-02
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J13297