Problems with Eurasiasat 1??

[Analoguesat]

Spotted this on the sat-index site:

Turksat 2A is a truly hot bird -- report
31 Oct 2006 - Twelve of Turksat 2A's 34 transponders have failed because of technical defects such as overheating, Turkish newspaper Zaman Daily reports.

No further details at the moment

[BGonaSTICK]

Yeah, I read about this earlier, but it was a bit sketchy. Let me post it anyway...

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The Turksat 2A satellite’s 12 TWT transponders have exploded and can no longer be used.

Alcatel, the satellite’s manufacturer, wants satellite capacity to be kept low in an effort to avoid paying the $300 million dollars in compensation.

Turksat 2A, one of Turkey’s two active satellites, was reported to have broken down shortly after its launch.

Twelve of the satellite’s 34 TWT transponders broke down from technical defects such as overheating; but the Turksat administration kept these explosions a secret.

Alcatel was worried that the satellite may break down in case it functioned at full capacity and stated that they advised not operating the TWT-Transponders side by side, a source said.

It is emphasized that if this advice is followed, the satellite cannot be used efficiently.

Turksat Satellite Communications Cable TV & Operations AS verified the information Zaman Daily obtained from authorities and said one more TWT-Transponder may explode.

“The Turksat 2A has a defective design,” a top authority said and added that the satellite was ordered by the former administration.

The same official said similar problems may occur in other countries’ satellite operations as well but the problem with the Turksat 2A is that the explosions take place more frequently.

Turksat 2A is planned to operate until 2015. In the event five more TWT-Transponders explode within this period of time, the insurance company will step in.

Insurance will pay the whole cost of nearly $300 million dollars the agreement says.

Authorities say the defects started to emerge within 5-10 days following the launch in 2001.

Turksat authorities stated that nonetheless no problems occurred in the satellite broadcast but informed: “We guess one more TWT-Transponder will explode. Even in this case, there will be no trouble with our satellite broadcasts.”

Another allegation that Turksat 2A was purchased while aware of the defect brings a new aspect to the issue.

The $300-million satellite was actually manufactured for another company, officials claimed.

The company changed its mind and decided not to buy the satellite following test failures.

Serious manufacturing defects were detected in the tests, but the same satellite was later sold to Turk Telecom.

Source: Rumour Central

[Analoguesat]

TWTA's exploding???? - thats a bit dramatic! :roflmao:

I doubt its an explosion..... :clap:

[BGonaSTICK]

LOL, that's been through the Google translator mangle a few times probably!