In late June, the military launched communications satellite MUOS-5 with the goal of creating a secure communications grid over Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. MUOS-5 will work with the four other MUOS satellites that have already been launched. At least, it would if it made it to the correct orbit.

Unfortunately, it seems something has malfunctioned on the satellite, and it's no longer able to reach the orbital height it was supposed to. Currently, the satellite is stuck in a lower, intermediate, highly elliptical orbit.

MUOS-5 was successfully launched into a low-earth orbit by an Atlas V rocket on June 24. The satellite was supposed to boost itself into a higher altitude test orbit on July 3, but it failed to do so.

Investigators have concluded the problem is a malfunction in the satellite's propulsion system, built by Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings. The investigators declined to elaborate on the severity of the problem or any plans to fix it.

MUOS-5 was intended to serve as a backup to the other four MUOS satellites, so fortunately its failure won't cripple the MUOS network. However, if one of the other MUOS satellites fails, the network won't have a spare, and the life of the system will be much shorter as a result.

The MUOS team is still in the process of evaluating the situation and deciding how to proceed.

Source: Reuters

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