Intelsat’s mission to prolong the life of its Intelsat 10-02 satellite will not impact on services on the satellite.
10-02, which is co-located with the Telenor’s Thor neighbourhood at 1 degree West (359 degrees East), is the subject of the second MEV (Mission Extension Vehicle).
Unlike the previous mission, the manoeuvre will take place in-situ from within the GEO belt.
Rhys Morgan, regional vice president, Europe & MENA Sales, Intelsat explained MEV-2 would grip onto the side of Intelsat 10-02. “The new Mission Extension Vehicle MEV-2 will travel to meet the satellite IS-10-02 at its geosynchronous orbital location before docking with it, without any impact on its position,” he said. “Our first Mission Extension Vehicle, MEV-1, successfully docked with our satellite IS-901, enabling it to provide some critical services for 5 additional years. Based on our experience with this first mission, except some potential minimal switching breaks during the docking operation only, we don’t anticipate any service interruption when MEV-2 will dock with IS-10-02.”
MEV-2, alongside BSat 4b and Galaxy 30, MEV-2 is slated to launch on July 28th, 2020, following Arianespace’s resumption in the wake of the coronacrisis.