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.

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

[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: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.

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: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: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).