Galaxy 15, a communications satellite 22,400 miles above the planet, refuses to obey commands sent from Earth. And it's getting perilously close to other satellites — potentially "infecting" them as well.


In an ironic turn of events, a recent solar storm fried the communications systems on Intelsat's Galaxy 15 geostationary communications satellite — even though the other systems remain online. It's not quite unprecedented; when satellites fry out and drift purposelessly, they're called zombiesats, and industry experts have methods of dealing with them. According to Discovery, what makes Galaxy 15 different is that it's still powered-up:

If Galaxy 15 drifts too close to other satellites, it can steal their signal, thereby interrupting other vendor's services to customers on Earth. That's not too good for business, hence the increasingly desperate attempts to "kill" the satellite's power.


(Via Space)