I was told that the Galaxy 5 satellite was to have y2k testing on November17. This is the same day as the Leonid meteor shower. The Galaxy 5 has a 90% chance of failure. Supposedly, the government wanted to test on this day in case there was a failure they could blame it on the Leonid meteor shower instead of the y2k testing. They were worried that if the truth of the testing was known, then it would cause chaos within the nation. Question #1- If the Galaxy 5 testing does fail will that affect the power grid or communications? Question #2- Is there truth to this testing or is it a hoax? Question #3- Is there a chance of the Leonid meteor shower causing problems with power or communications? This has really been bugging me a lot since it is suppose to happen Tuesday. A reply would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

-- Anonymous, November 14, 1998

Answers

Debbie, in answer to questions #1 and #3, the failure of any satellite MIGHT have repercussions in communications (such as the pager problems of a few months ago) and yes, the Leonid meteor shower MIGHT damage satellites in general, not just Galaxy5. To read all about the possibilities, just do a Yahoo search for "Leonids" and you'll get about 40+ links which cover all the scientific aspects, many of which are written in terms a layman can understand. According to most scientific articles the probability of damage is low, but no one can know for sure what meteors will go where, of course.

On question #2, the "Galaxy Y2K testing scenario" has been floating around as rumor or hypothetical what-ifs, with no factual substantiation that I have been able to discover. It has been postulated, however, that if Galaxy5 does go down, there are certainly ways for technical people to discover the true reasons, and any Leonid "cover story" for a Y2K test failure would not hold up anyway. To say the testing scenario is a hoax implies a deliberate act of misinformation. In my opinion the whole story has simply acquired a life of it's own in the way all rumors can do. I think it probably started when someone commented, "Gee, would the Leonids be a great time to test if the satellite people didn't want anyone to know they were testing?" and grew from there.

To sum up: Yes, there is a legitimate danger to satellites from the Leonid meteor storm. Anything else is unsubstantiated rumor with a very low probability of accuracy.

-- Anonymous, November 14, 1998

A person from the company that owns the Galaxy 5 (PanAmSat) posted an email to comp.software.year-2000 in response to this thread, and she said:

"I work in Corporate Communications here at PanAmSat, the owner of the Galaxy V satellite as well as 17 others, and I have to say that this message gave me a good laugh. Thanks to the few others in this thread who responded with some semblance of sanity.

To launch a communications satellite, a company must invest between $200 and $250 million--we wouldn't run a test on anything we have up there with the sure knowledge, as suggested in the message above, of losing the satellite. You're welcome to visit the company web site at http://www.panamsat.com for information regarding what we really ARE doing to prepare for Y2K as well as the Leonids."

To answer question #3, there is certainly a chance of the shower taking out a satellite or two.

Jon

-- Anonymous, November 14, 1998