Intelsat's New Skies Satellite company has ordered the return of its K-TV satellite from Kourou, French Guiana to Matra Marconi Space, Toulouse, for a full systems check. The study is likely to include a replacement of the solar panels, which will delay its launch to June next year, 12 months later than planned.
The arrays were integrated by Fokker Space with 20,000 solar cells made by TRW, each one having cover glass supplied by Pilkington UK.
These covers usually have an anti-UV coating applied by Pilkington, but in the case of K-TV, and Asiastar, Afristar, Astra 2B and Eutelsat's Hot Bird 5 satellites, the coating was applied by an unnamed US supplier and imperfections in it caused power-output losses.
Source: Flight International
