When you think about human-made objects in space, the chances are, rockets, the International Space Station, and maybe the James Webb Space telescope are among the things that first come to mind.

But there’s a lot more of our technology out there than that.

In fact, there are currently over 7,500 satellites in space, with their technology and equipment providing important services including supporting weather forecasting, broadcasting, and communications across the world.

Satellites monitor our climate, and they undertake important research about space; they are used for monitoring and military observations, and even a fundamental part of our GPS tools.

They’re pretty fundamental to our modern functioning nowadays.

Hence it was alarming when Boeing satellite IS-33e exploded in orbit recently.

Generally, satellites orbit our planet at around 550km above us.

And IS-33e was no exception. With its role in multinational company Intelsat, the satellite had been in orbit since its launch in 2016.

Over the seven years in which it was fully operational (2017-2024), the satellite was integral to Intelsat’s satellite communications systems. Supporting important lines between governments, for example, the company’s tech has been leading the way for sixty years, with the unexpected failure of their equipment unprecedented.

And yet, as a result of an occurrence labelled by the company as an ‘anomaly’ in their statement, the satellite was wiped out entirely.

According to Intelsat, service was quickly restored using other satellites – including those owned by other companies too – meaning that intercontinental communication was not compromised by the ‘total loss’ of the satellite:

“Migration and service restoration plans are well underway across the Intelsat fleet and third-party satellites.”

However, given that the satellite was supposed to last 15 years, its loss must be disappointing to the company.

With its numerous broken parts scattered at 550km above our planet (along with, presumably, the components of the first Boeing satellite, IS-29e, which became damaged in 2019 due to a presumed meteor strike), IS-33e joins the millions of pieces of human-made space junk that continue to orbit Earth.

If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.