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Solar Flares Knock Out LightSquared Satellite
As Run of Bad Fortune Continues
Earlier this week we noted that recent solar flares managed to knock HughesNet's Spaceway 3 satellite offline for a significant part of Tuesday. User viperadamr See Profile writes in to note that the flares also took out LightSquared's Skyterra 1 satellite, which has been out of service since the original solar flare on March 7. The last update from the company was on March 9 insisting they'd have the satellite operational again by last Sunday -- something that didn't happen. The outage arrives as LightSquared slowly stumbles toward death after being rejected a necessary waiver to operate their interference-prone hybrid LTE network.
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FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

And Sprint finally pulls plug on LS; but LS gets $65 million

»online.wsj.com/article/S ··· news_wsj

Sprint Nextel Corp. will terminate a 15-year contract with billionaire Philip Falcone's LightSquared Inc. Friday and return $65 million in prepayments to the wireless start-up, according to people familiar with the plans.

At least Lightsquared gets $65 million back from what they paid to Sprint to manage their planned wireless network. They can use it to pay their high priced lawyers for suing the FCC.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

Re: And Sprint finally pulls plug on LS; but LS gets $65 million

Are you in favor of that or just stating what will happen? If you favor it, can you help me understand why?

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: And Sprint finally pulls plug on LS; but LS gets $65 million

said by rradina:

Are you in favor of that or just stating what will happen? If you favor it, can you help me understand why?

just stating what will happen

Thane_Bitter
Inquire within
Premium Member
join:2005-01-20

1 recommendation

Thane_Bitter

Premium Member

New lawsuit pending....

I can see the headline now:
"LightSquared to sue the sun for causing interference to its Skyterra 1 satellite."

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT

SimbaSeven

Member

Re: New lawsuit pending....

I think they might sue the laws of physics first.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Sat communications has huge vulnerability to solar flares

The satellite industry has a huge exposure to solar flares. Some day a truly huge solar flare is going to knock dozens of sats out of business and they won't come back to life.

DavePR
join:2008-06-04
Canyon Country, CA

DavePR

Member

Re: Sat communications has huge vulnerability to solar flares

CMEs travel relatively slowly. It takes hours to days for the plasma to arrive after a flare. Satellite operators can "feather" their PV arrays, shut down vulnerable activities up to and including going off the air until the energy subsides.

In space you have no ground...

Transmaster
Don't Blame Me I Voted For Bill and Opus
join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY

Transmaster

Member

Re: Sat communications has huge vulnerability to solar flares

There is no excuse for being caught unaware of a pending CME.
Being a hamradio operator I have always been interested in such events because of their effects on my radio transmissions. For more them 35 years I have been getting bulletins from the Space Weather Prediction Center concerning what the Sun is doing to the earth. These are the same bulletins Power Transmisson companies, NASA, Satellite operators, Airlines, and others get. Go to the link below you can sign up for the same alerts.

The Home page:
»www.swpc.noaa.gov/index.html
Where to sign up:
»pss.swpc.noaa.gov/LoginW ··· rvice%2f
LucasLee
join:2010-11-26

LucasLee

Member

Re: Sat communications has huge vulnerability to solar flares

said by Transmaster:

There is no excuse for being caught unaware of a pending CME.

being caught unaware isn't the same as not being negatively affected. that you can't guarantee.

DavePR
join:2008-06-04
Canyon Country, CA

DavePR to Transmaster

Member

to Transmaster
Solar Cycle 24 is the weakest since we started using satellites. Cycle 22 was flaring like crazy in the late '80s, and we had very crude CME prediction methods, but we survived.

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
Netgear WNDR3700v2
Zoom 5341J

KrK

Premium Member

Re: Sat communications has huge vulnerability to solar flares

True, and although the Satellites weren't as powerful then as they are now... there's another saying.

They don't build 'em like they used to. Well, maybe they do.

You'd have to hope the components are first rate and excellently designed and tested, but these days... cost cutting.... well, you know how it goes.
KrK

KrK

Premium Member

Will this satellite have any potential uses?

... other then making a spectacular deorbit into the South Pacific.
pvtpilot94
System
Premium Member
join:2001-11-23
Bucyrus, OH

pvtpilot94

Premium Member

Hughesnet

Karl Does not have his facts straight. Hughenet was not taken offline due to a solar flare.problem was at the NOC

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT

SimbaSeven

Member

Re: Hughesnet

NOC communication to the satellite?
chances14
join:2010-03-03
Michigan

chances14

Member

Lies Lies Lies Lies

for the last f'in time Karl, spaceway 3's outage was not because of a solar flare. it was equipment failure at their ground based network center. stop posting these made up assumptions