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<blockquote data-quote="Analoguesat" data-source="post: 250155" data-attributes="member: 176362">Hardened or not, plasma clouds from the sun can cause short circuits which can kill sats.AT&amp;T's Telstar 401 satellite experienced &quot;an abrupt failure of its telemetry and communications&quot; on 11 January 1997, 1115 UTC.The likely cause of the failure was found by scientists. Working together in the International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) Program, they managed to track a so-called &quot;magnetic cloud event&quot; that originated from the Sun's surface on January 6. Its effects were carefully monitored by various satellite and ground based detectors until it arrived on the earth on 10 January.&quot;Preliminary evidence [...] suggests increased levels in the radiation environment, and possibly a connection to the malfunction of an AT&amp;T satellite,&quot; the ISTP says on a Web page dedicated to the 'event.' Most charts available there show significant levels of activity in the earth's magnetosphere around the same time Telstar 401 went silent.One explanation for the death of Telstar 401 seems to be that a magnetic cloud caused a massive short in the satellite's circuitry. This is in compliance with NASA observations made shortly after the failure, which indicated the bird was still in place but slowly spinning.Other theories claim that the satellite was zapped by so-called killer electrons.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Analoguesat, post: 250155, member: 176362"] Hardened or not, plasma clouds from the sun can cause short circuits which can kill sats. AT&T's Telstar 401 satellite experienced "an abrupt failure of its telemetry and communications" on 11 January 1997, 1115 UTC. The likely cause of the failure was found by scientists. Working together in the International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) Program, they managed to track a so-called "magnetic cloud event" that originated from the Sun's surface on January 6. Its effects were carefully monitored by various satellite and ground based detectors until it arrived on the earth on 10 January. "Preliminary evidence [...] suggests increased levels in the radiation environment, and possibly a connection to the malfunction of an AT&T satellite," the ISTP says on a Web page dedicated to the 'event.' Most charts available there show significant levels of activity in the earth's magnetosphere around the same time Telstar 401 went silent. One explanation for the death of Telstar 401 seems to be that a magnetic cloud caused a massive short in the satellite's circuitry. This is in compliance with NASA observations made shortly after the failure, which indicated the bird was still in place but slowly spinning. Other theories claim that the satellite was zapped by so-called killer electrons. [/QUOTE]

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