Boeing-Built Satellite Explodes in Orbit

In the latest blow to Boeing, one of its 2016 Intelsat communication satellites blew up in late October while in geostationary orbit and has been declared "a total loss." The fragments are being tracked by the US Space Force and Roscosmos but US officials said that they have detected no immediate threats to other satellites.

The development is yet another setback for Boeing which is already dealing with a variety of issues, including its troubled Starliner spacecraft which NASA brought back to Earth without its two-person test-flight crew on board because of thruster failures.

No cause for the explosion was disclosed. The satellite is frequently used for internet, telephone and satellite TV and radio broadcast signals. According to published reports, its launch had been delayed by three months after it developed problems with its primary thruster.

Hams in Brazil Honor Pioneer of Wireless Telephony

Although many amateur radio special events focus on the earliest pioneering efforts that established communication via telegraphy, hams in Brazil are celebrating the 125th anniversary of the first wireless transmission of the human voice. The inventor-scientist was a Catholic priest.

Listen throughout the month of November for PR5LM on the air. The "L" and the "M represent the name of Padre Landell de Moura, an ordained priest and inventor fascinated with the concept of transmitting the human voice - and later, images - wirelessly. Before he died in 1928, Padre de Moura had successfully transmitted both music and voice on the electromagnetic spectrum - a feat celebrated throughout Brazil since his accomplishment in 1899. The declaration of National Amateur Radio Day in Brazil on November 5th honours his work as well as the 1924 government decree that established regulation of amateur radio stations in Brazil. By then, the priest had already been granted a US patent while he was in New York City in 1904 for what was known as a wave transmitted. It used a form of modulation that we know today as amplitude modulation.

Amateurs in Brazil will be active on all the HF bands using CW, SSB, RTTY and FT8 and hope to make contacts as well via the QO100 satellite. They hope each contact will pay tribute to the man who successfully navigated that delicate territory balancing religion and science.