LightSquared Satellite Disabled By Last Week's Solar Storm

volts writes "Troubled LightSquared's primary Skyterra 1 satellite has been out of service since the solar storm on March 7. The company says it is 'working through the rebuild of the satellite tapping into the resources that were involved in the original program.' This development follows a stream of bad news including layoffs, default on payments, the resignation of CEO Sanjiv Ahuja and FCC rejection of a scheme to repurpose satellite frequencies for cellular data due to interference with GPS. Another kick in the teeth as company struggles to avoid bankruptcy."

Comments

This is a cover-up

[Anonymous Coward]

They'll use this as an excuse for bankruptcy/liquidation/etc. "Don't blame us, blame the Sun."

Re:This is a cover-up

[MightyMartian]

I was more thinking who they're going to sue over this. Perhaps God, with the God Apollo and the FCC named as co-defendants.

Re:This is a cover-up

[Surt]

I'd guess their solar storm insurance provider. And they shouldn't have to sue, but when the dollars get that big they will probably have to.

Re:This is a cover-up

[antdude]

But Sun is no more. It got taken over by Oracle. [grin]

Re:This is a cover-up

[maxwell demon]

But The Sun still exists.

Re:This is a cover-up

[CAIMLAS]

Try 'insurance claim'. They'll try to cash out their CxOs before bankrupting themselves outright. The layoffs are trying to make that possible.

Re:This is a cover-up

[antdude]

Or maybe the Phoenix Suns. ;)

Re:This is a cover-up

[Lando]

I doubt the sun had anything to do with their issues with the satellite. It comes across more and more than these guys are politicians not actually doing anything but trying to be given free money. I would assume that the satellite had issues before this, but the flare makes a convenient excuse.

Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting, LS doesn't happen to have an insurance policy on that baby that would payoff if it failed do they?

Re:Interesting

[NicknameAvailable]

Someone mod the AC up, excellent point AND started with "Interesting" to make it get clicked - pro.

Re:Interesting

[zerro]

yes.. was just thinking the same thing... great excuse! - "The solar flare burned down ma failing business..."

Re:Interesting

[BronsCon]

I'm sure it was insured against a great number of possible occurences, and I'm sure there were just as great a number of exclusions. Have you ever read an insurance document?

Re:Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

"I'm here to collect my castle insurance."
"What happened?"
"It sank into the swamp."
"Your policy doesn't cover swamps, we explicitly removed that when you said you were building it in a swamp."
"Well, before if sank into the swamp it fell over."
"Also not covered, the shoddy foundation of a swamp made the falling over inevitable."
"While your engineers still hold to that claim, I'm fairly certain it only fell over because of the fire."
"A fire? In a stone castle? Built in the swamp?"
"Yes."
"Ok, that's covered, finish filling out this form and go get a ticket from counter B."

(Imaginary deleted scene from a movie that most of you should be able to sing along with)

Re:Interesting

[tomhath]

This is much closer to real life than you probably think. After Hurricane Katrina, people found they didn't have flood insurance. So they sued, claiming their house was blown apart by the wind before it washed away.

Re:Interesting

[Psion]

And back in the great earthquake of '06, folks set fire to their quake-smashed homes because their insurance covered fire but not quakes. As a result, out-of-control fires caused more damage to San Francisco than the earthquake itself.

Re:Interesting

[davester666]

Yup, in the middle, about page 12, in 1 point font:

12.5.2.1(a) This policy excludes coverage of everything that actually occurs
12.5.2.1(b) This policy excludes coverage of everything that does not occur

Re:Interesting

[artor3]

In fairness, many of those people were being honest. A good friend of mine had her home wrecked by Hurricane Gustav. It blew off the roof off the house, allowing rain to come in and flood the interior, destroying basically everything she owned. If it hadn't been for the wind removing the roof, there wouldn't have been any flooding, so I think it's quite reasonable to classify it as wind damage.

Admittedly, not every homeowner could claim this. In Katrina especially, due to the failing levies, there were lots of houses that were legitimately flooded (i.e. the water levels rose above the ground floor of the house). But there were also lots of houses that were outside the actual flood zones, but which suffered enormous water damage because they no longer had a roof.

Re:Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, homeowners insurance is a complete ripoff. I was well inland during Hurricane Ike, and there was no flooding for miles, but the wind ripped a few shingles and a vent off my roof and the rain came in through the vents.

Water damage to the attic/ceiling was ruled as flooding (flooding that skipped the first two floors of the house, obviously!) by the homeowners policy with storm damage rider (the vent and shingles were covered as storm damage... except it cost about $500 to fix and I have 3% ($8k) deductible, lol). Flood insurance policy said "sorry we only cover REAL floods". I'm sure I could have lawyered up and forced one or the other to pay for the water damage but at that point I figured I'd just buy some sheetrock and fix it myself.

If I had lawyered up, I'd probably STILL be one of the people in a house with a tarp over the top listening to conservative fucktards tell me "hurr hurr quit whining and go buy insurance derrrrp!"

Re:Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

In between lawyering up and bending over is hiring a private insurance adjuster to dispute the claim.

Re:Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny, I was thinking the same thing.

Re:Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

and then they went to prison for arson?

good!

[migloo]

Solar justice is being served.

Re:good!

[mcwop]

Gives Solyndra a whole new meaning.

Re:good!

[Anonymous Coward]

Well they shouldn't have tried to steal the suns photons.

more private junk in space!

[Anonymous Coward]

Quick! An opportunity to redirect money from the poor to the rich! Put up another satellite!

Re:more private junk in space!

[Anonymous Coward]

maybe the problem is the money ... ... more damnge above and resource squandered

The Sun Says "HaHa"

[Anonymous Coward]

The Sun says, "HaHa" and points at LightSquared. Classic.

Maybe the universe is telling them something..

[Anonymous Coward]

First, the laws of physics conspire against them. Now the sun?

I heard that they were required to keep this satellite up as part of their (failed) agreement with the FCC, even if they mostly use the terrestrial towers. If this bird is toast, how can they foot the bill to launch another when they're out of capital? Just another nail in the coffin?

Re:Maybe the universe is telling them something..

[MightyMartian]

There are nails in the coffin, and then there's the coffin being doused in gasoline, lit on fire, pissed on, dropped from 30,000 feet with lit sticks of dynamite inside.

Re:Maybe the universe is telling them something..

[penandpaper]

At least pissing on the coffin doesn't add to the fire/gasoline or dynamite being lit. One less thing to worry about as you fall to your death in a gruesome yet fiery box of death that explodes with the majesty of Halley's Comet. :)

Re:Maybe the universe is telling them something..

[physburn]

Well the satellite is probably still up there, its just the hardware that burned out, or maybe correctably damaged. Didn't they buy insurance?

English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?

[Anonymous Coward]

From TFS:

Another kick in the teeth as company needs struggles to avoid bankruptcy.

Yep. as company needs struggles.

Now I've been around for a while, so I'm familiar with /.'s keyboard-bashing monkey approach to editing, and the general crappy quality of summaries. But it seems to me the last couple weeks have had a high incidence, even by /. standards, of these nonsense phrases in summaries. And it's getting old.

Re:English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?

[Americano]

I heard what you are said. But in a seriously note, I think you needs struggles to avoid blowing you're top.

Interestingly, it seemed they will edited the summary to finishing with, "Another kick in the teeth as company struggles to avoid bankruptcy."

Maybe this been a new approach to editing, and they just randomly insert and words until something vaguely intelligible on the screen?

(Editors: please consider this post a writing sample for purposes of my employment as a member of the crack /. editing team.)

Re:English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?

[volts]

When I submitted this article, the preview wasn't reliably displaying changes to text in the edit box; "needs struggles" got by me.

Re:English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?

[mcgrew]

When I submitted this article, the preview wasn't reliably displaying changes to text in the edit box;

Yeah, that's been broken for quite a while. I hate the way they changed journal submissions, too.

"needs struggles" got by me.

Fixing that's supposed to be an editor's job. Sometimes they do an excellent job and sometimes they do a really bad one.

FTFY...

[Anonymous Coward]

LightSquared Satellite Disabled By Last Week's Solar Storm and Nothing of Value Was Lost

ENGLISH MFer! Do you type it!?

[Nadaka]

"Another kick in the teeth as company needs struggles to avoid bankruptcy." This "sentence" makes my brain bleed.

Idea's don't die

[DEFFENDER]

They just get hit with solar flares and fizzle out.

Seriously though, the only angle that LightSquard had was, "It's already up there, all we have to do it turn it on..." and that has just gone up in smoke. Just like their business model and momentum. It's time they go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan, get new backers, and find a new way to do what they want to do.

Re:Idea's don't die

[riverat1]

Actually I think if they had just stayed with satellite level signals instead of trying to get their high powered ground source signals approved they probably would have been ok with the FCC.

Re:Idea's don't die

[ngg]

There's no 'probably' about it. LS bought spectrum that was specifically earmarked for use in satellite to ground communications (which was why they got such a bargain on it in the first place: no other potential bidder could think of a profitable way to use it). Their problems only began when LS decided that they wanted to use this inexpensive spectrum for ground to ground communications, instead of using a more expensive band like everybody else. They attempted to exploit a loop-hole that the FCC created when it allowed "supplemental" ground stations for sat broadcasts (like for inside tunnels) by launching a sat for an ostensibly satellite-based broadband business (while actually transferring the bulk of the data from ground-based transmitters).

On the Other Side

[Anonymous Coward]

The solar storm would also be an opportune cover for their opponents to damage the satellite.

Hard not to feel bad

[Anonymous Coward]

I mean, you just keep hearing about one catastrophy after another with this venture. I'm sure the people working there are really stressing out, so to all of you at LightSquared trying to make this work: kudos for trying. Keep your chin up and don't lose perspective!

Re:Hard not to feel bad

[koan]

"catastrophe"

Fuck em, it's a scumbag deal and that's why you posted as AC.

Satellite Comm Business Model

[otterpopjunkie]

1. Create dummy company
2. Create functional satellite system
3. Go Bankrupt
4. Sell off hardware to "new" company
4. Profit.

Nail in the coffin

[koan]

Even God wants you to fail.

Another thought; since this was a put together deal by a bunch of investors to sell off at a later date, (or so it seems) it reminds me of the late 90's when groups of "investors" were buying up mom and pop dial up ISP's bundled them under the same name then selling them off, they had no intention of doing anything for the customer, the individual accounts were just a body count.
Lightsquared seems like a similar deal:
"The legal team now includes Theodore Olson, who helped George W. Bush secure the presidential election win in 2000"
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/03/14/lightsquared-gathers-lawyers-goes-to-war/

Ole Teddy seems like a guy that should be sent to prison for a rectal refit considering the Bush presidency was one of the single worst things to ever happen to this country.

Republicans urge FCC to allow Lightsquared: Really why? Would this have to do with their having insider knowledge and profiting from it?
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/216273-republican-urges-fcc-to-approve-lightsquared

Congress insider trading:
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-11-14/politics/30396448_1_stock-market-market-moving-information-trades

Scumbags...

Insurance

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

According to Space News, "SkyTerra 1 is insured for about $268 million, a policy for which LightSquared paid a $37.5 million premium." You can't talk about actual coverage for a loss without having the policy in front of you. Solar flares are a pretty obvious risk for which you would want coverage, although the obvious big risk is total loss on launch.

Re:Insurance

[BlueStrat]

The part I found interesting in TFS (yes, it's /. and I know reading it is unpossible) was; "The company says it is 'working through the rebuild of the satellite tapping into the resources that were involved in the original program.' "

Who here in the US feels another taxpayer-reaming coming up?

I wish the government, if it has to be involved in somehow assisting/subsidizing/granting the areas of technology/green energy/space/etc would stop just freaking handing out money to people, usually with political donors/backers somewhere in the mix, instead of setting up a results-oriented reward system. This crap happens regardless of party, year after year. Everybody knows it's corrupt, but no politician or party will stop it.

There needs to be some kind of vetting system where those who want money from our pockets must first produce/create/design a practical working example to a predetermined state of capability, sophistication, and reliability in order to earn ANY taxpayer funds. DARPA has done some exploring here and had some success, of course there's the X Prize Foundation and other such organizations and private-sector backers as well, but there needs to be more of that work-before-reward thinking applied across more of the systems through which the government subsidizes private entities with taxpayer money and procures goods and services.

The way it is with government funding/grants/contracts now is nothing more than a money pump taking from our pockets and going into political donor's/backer's and politician's and their operative's pockets, with only a small fraction trickling down to just barely keep the doors (mostly) open on the actual program/activity/research being funded or maintain standards and/or delivery/completion dates for goods/services being procured/contracted for.

Yes, the politicians of both parties think we're stupid. Yes, the politicians of both parties want to strip people of Constitutional rights and protections. They know they're right on the former because we let them get away with the latter. They make laws against guns when the 2nd Amendment plainly says the right to bear arms "shall not be infringed". The Supreme Court rules that your town can take your land and give it to some other citizen that will pay the town more in taxes. Yet, there are no enormous angry mobs ready to burn DC Federal/Government buildings to the ground and hang the scoundrels inside.

This is the kind of thing that must happen from time to time with any national government in order for people to keep their freedom in the face of a growing, and therefor increasingly corrupt, government. The US has actually done pretty well in that it has only had one major civil war in some ~230 years. The downside is that the government has grown wildly out of control, the government is surviving on borrowed money and money-printing, the economy is near collapse, unemployment is high, and the nation is on the fast-track to an Orwellian police state that tries to tell you how much salt you may eat meanwhile sending heavily-armed paramilitary teams on raids into Gibson Guitars and to organic food markets, as well as raiding residential homes of people convicted of no crime, shooting family pets and family members. Heck one team I saw on YT killed a young child in a raid by tossing a flash-bang through a window right onto the young child laying on a couch by the window.

And still, nobody does shit.

We deserve a real nightmare-worthy police state. Maybe, in a generation or ten, or fifty, our descendants might one day win back their freedom. Hopefully, their disgust and anger at our apathy and the fresh memories of atrocities and oppression will keep them freer for longer than they did us.

Strat

Karma

[holmstar]

I don't actually believe in karma, but if it did exist then this would be a very appropriate example.

Re:Karma

[VortexCortex]

I don't actually believe in karma, but if it did exist then this would be a very appropriate example.

Not believing in Evolution doesn't make one impervious to its effects...

Karma-Bonus Modifier: +1

A terrible idea that should have died long ago

[SuperKendall]

As soon as it was found LightSquared interfered with GPS (which was a while ago) all permission should have been axed and the company disbanded.

Instead, because of heavy donations to the Democratic party they got the blessing of the FCC to proceed despite actual physical interference to others caused by the product, making it inevitable the company could never go to market.

Some partisans will inevitably come down on me simply because of the origin of that news. But you can't deny the connections and how obvious it was the FCC should NEVER have allowed certification not matter who was involved.

Political connections should NEVER override something as important as allowing experiments that interfere with devices as important as GPS!

Re:A terrible idea that should have died long ago

[Anonymous Coward]

I would only argue that the RF spectrum is being mined by the FCC for any revenue it can squeeze out of it. Didn't start with the the Dems. The telecoms and other users have been trying to go after any bands that can support modern data rate needs. Digital TV wasn't just about HDTV. It was about freeing up bandwidth to sell off to other users. Amateur radio HF bands are reasonably secure, mostly because no one really wants them anymore. Even low band VHF (6 and 2 meter) doesn't get a lot of pokes. Once you get up around 70cm, everyone wants a piece. If it wasn't for PAVE-PAWS it would have been sold off already.

BTW, the cert was based on LS saying they could solve the GPS issue. The FCC should of known better, and LS was hoping to game the system based on Part 15 rules. (the GPS devices must accept all interference). They burned through a lot of other peoples money on that gamble.

Re:A terrible idea that should have died long ago

[artor3]

LightSquared made a $30,400 donation to the Democrats in Sept, 2010. One month later, in October, they made an identical $30,400 donation to the Republicans.

And yet strangely, people like SuperKendall only ever seem to mention the donation to the Democrats. I wonder why that is?

By the way, why do you feel that the FCC shouldn't have even let them test out their idea? Sure, it was probably doomed to failure, but I don't see the harm in letting them test it out with their own money.

Re:A terrible idea that should have died long ago

[tomhath]

Maybe because there were several $100K in other donations besides the two you mention?

Re:A terrible idea that should have died long ago

[artor3]

Got a source to back that up? I can't find any sources to support your claim, even on the most conservatives sites.

Wikipedia seems to agree with me:

The Federal Election Commission has no record of Phil Falcone, a registered Republican, nor LightSquared Chairman and CEO Sanjiv Ahuja of having ever contributed to President Obama’s political campaigns.[39] However, since 2007, Philip Falcone has donated $50,500 to the Democratic Senatorial campaign Committee (and $85,500 to Republicans). Both Falcone's wife and LightSquared CEO Ahuja donated $30,400 to the DSCC (Ahuja gave the same amount to Republicans).

So tell me, where did you get this stuff about "several hundred thousand dollars in other donations"?

Re:A terrible idea that should have died long ago

[SuperKendall]

And yet strangely, people like SuperKendall only ever seem to mention the donation to the Democrats. I wonder why that is?

It's because the Republicans have no power currently over the FCC.

The Democrats do, the actions taken are squarely on them. Note that it's a REPUBLICAN investigating. I wonder why you failed to mention THAT.

Talk about partisan...

Re:A terrible idea that should have died long ago

[artor3]

Is your theory that LightSquared donated roughly equal amounts of money to both parties, with the GOP actually receiving slightly more, as a way of currying favor with Obama? That they went to Obama and said, "Here's $100k. We gave even more to the men who have sworn to destroy you at any cost. Now do us a favor!"

Can't you see how illogical that is? Here's my theory: LightSquared is run by morons. They were morons to think that this plan would work in the first place, and that same stupidity drove them to engage in cargo cult bribery -- throw money at every party and hope to get favors in return. It didn't work, so like all mental children, they threw a tantrum, threatening to sue the FCC back in late 2011. At no point did they receive any real benefit from their attempts to bribe both parties. The Republicans are only "investigating" because they'd do anything to make the Democrats look bad. These are the people who shut down Acorn based on "evidence" from clearly doctored videos.

Re:A terrible idea that should have died long ago

[mcgrew]

LightSquared made a $30,400 donation to the Democrats in Sept, 2010. One month later, in October, they made an identical $30,400 donation to the Republicans.

You know, that should be a felony. If you give money to both candidates in a race, it's clearly bribery. Is it no wonder our country is so screwed up these days? Or that there seems to be little difference between Ds and Rs?

It's not the Sun's fault....

[ilsaloving]

Why should the Sun be at fault if lightsquared can't be bothered to build their satellites to the correct frequency of space/time?

Re:It's not the Sun's fault....

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the FCC should have rejected the sun due to interference with Lightsquared's satellite.

A parallel idea that tells the story...

[Anonymous Coward]

A parallel story would go something like this: suppose some new startup "green solar energy" company promised a miracle breakthru in technology for new solar cells and gave a current ruling political party a bunch of money in hopes so that the EPA would "look the other way" while their manufacturing facilities for these new solar cells spewed large amounts of toxic chemical wastes into the air and water all around the factories... and they were intending to build such a factory in almost every city of the USA.

Piracy is at fault. or terrorist.

[Nyder]

They are going to blame it on piracy, or terrorism. I know it.

So they can make a profit off it. Blame it on the Sun and it's an act of god! (notice, i didn't capitalize god. good, it don't exist.)

Re:Piracy is at fault. or terrorist.

[Anonymous Coward]

Space pirates' vessel came under cover of sun flare, boarded and ransacked the satellite? Yarr!

Ding dong the ...

[EmperorOfCanada]

Couldn't have happened to nicer people.

Not permanately out of service

[naturaverl]

From http://www.issi-us.net/ "Per our previous communication we continue to work the key procedures to restore Skyterra 1 to service. Based on our current progress we now estimate that we will return customers to service by 1200 EST (1600 UTC) on Sunday."

Did anyone even read TFA?

When life hands you a lemon...

[Anonymous Coward]

Give the CEO of LightSquared a bonus.

That will 'trickle down' into a campaign contribution for Obama's re-election.

That will reap benefits in the form of a federal bailout.

Part of that bailout money will go towards... a bonus for the CEO.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Defective by design

[RogueWarrior65]

Lightsquared got a $267 million dollar federal loan from the Dept of Agriculture. LightSquared's major backer is Philip Falcone, a high-level Democratic party donor and owner of Harbinger Capital, the venture fund with a $3 billion majority stake in LightSquared. And what were democrats saying about evil capitalists?

Given that Lightsquared's hardware interferes with GPS, it doesn't surprise me that their satellite wasn't designed properly either. My theory is that they designed all their hardware as cheaply as possible from back-of-the-envelope concept to implementation so as to maximize profit and were hoping that a fascist economic policy would allow them to proceed.