Iridium Says Satellite 91 Working Fine Despite USAF Debris Sighting

Original Iridium Satellite

Iridium Says Satellite Working Fine Despite USAF Debris Sighting | SpaceNews.com
PARIS — Mobile satellite services operator Iridium Communications on Dec. 5 reaffirmed that its Iridium 91 satellite was fully operational in orbit and had experienced no breakup or other anomalies despite a U.S. Air Force assessment to the contrary.

Via the Space Track orbit-determination service, the U.S. Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on Dec. 4 identified several new pieces of debris as coming from Iridium 91, one of the satellites in McLean, Virginia-based Iridium’s low-orbiting fleet.

The JSpOC conclusion followed several days of speculation about an event occurring around Iridium 91 on or about Nov. 30.
Has Iridium 91 blown up or been struck by debris in orbit? Not according to the owner | Hyperbola

The news stimulating the space analyst community was that another Iridium satellite, Iridium
91,(2002-005A), has apparently an impact or explosion event causing “debris” to be shed from it.  According to reports, the event took place at about 1615 GMT on 30 November 2014 which resulted in at least four pieces of tracked debris to be produced which have  subsequently been tracked by US Space Command.  The owner of the spacecraft, Iridium Communications, has so far denied that there is anything wrong with the spacecraft.

While known to have experienced several previous technical failures in orbit, the original Iridium-bus design, built by Motorola, is not known to be prone to “explosive” failure.  An Iridium satellite has been destroyed by an impact with debris however.  In February 2009, Iridium 33 struck a defunct Russia store-forward communications satellite, Cosmos 2251.

IRIDIUM 91 Satellite details 2002-005A NORAD 27372