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0 pointsars9y ago0 comments

Tell that to the people in Africa who will soon have no internet access once AMOS-2 fails.

This payload, AMOS-6, was a replacement for the soon to fail AMOS-2 which among other things is part of a Facebook initiative to provide internet access in parts of Africa.

I am not aware of any replacement in the works for it, so that service may just shut down, and who knows if it will ever start back up.

So while this might be "nothing" to you, it has actual repercussions for people.

Not to mention the effects on the Israeli company that made the payload. Insurance may or may not pay for the satellite itself (I don't know), but even if they do, they were also relying on income generated from running it.

Actual humans working for that company may now be impacted.

0 comments

tarsinge9y ago

> provide internet access in parts of Africa

If you mean internet.org wheter it's a loss or not is debatable

dandelany9y ago

Internet.org was only a part of AMOS-6's planned internet bandwidth. Per Wikipedia "36 regional spotbeams with a throughput of about 18 Gbit/s — on Amos-6 to provide service for Facebook’s Internet.org and a new Eutelsat subsidiary focusing on African businesses. Costs would be divided in approximately equal shares between Eutelsat and Facebook."

tankenmate9y ago

It's a real bummer, also don't forget that now that SpaceX has had two payload losses in two years will mean that their insurance is very likely to go up.

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