How an old 2001 satellite came to life while in orbit during this time

An old satellite that has been in Earth orbit since 2001 has come back to life in a rather ingenious way. Previously it had been abandoned and placed in the orbit of the cemetery so as not to be confused.

An old communications satellite from Earth’s orbit is used again, after receiving the life of a spacecraft. Intelsat 901, which has been in space since 2001, now offers telecommunications coverage across the Atlantic again, after being moved to a new location in space by the spacecraft, extending its mission for about 5 years.

The new life of Intelsat 901 is due to Northrop Grumman’s MEV-1 spacecraft. MEV-1 is the first such mission to demonstrate what is known as satellite debugging.

Therefore, a satellite is used to repair or adjust another one that is experiencing difficulties in orbit. Located tens of thousands of kilometers above Earth, Intelsat 901 works perfectly, but ran out of power, so ground operators had to think of something.

MEV-1 was tasked with assisting Intelsat 901. Therefore, MEV-1 could act as a new set of engines for Intelsat 901, moving the old 2001 space device to a new location so that it could continue to function as intended.

MEV-1 launched in October and long traveled to Intelsat 901, which was placed in orbit “graveyard” containing inoperable old satellites and is no longer usable.

In this way, they do not interfere with any operational satellite that continues to operate in orbit. On April 2, Intelsat switched 30 of its commercial and government clients to this old satellite, which has been in orbit since 2001, a process that took several hours.