Anik E1 and E2 failures (1994)
Failures of two Canadian communications satellites on January 20, 1994, attributed to electrostatic discharges during a geomagnetic disturbance, one of which stayed out of service for months.
In geostationary orbit, bouts of geomagnetic activity bombard satellites with energetic electrons that build up in insulating materials; when the charge passes a threshold, an electrostatic discharge sends a spurious pulse through nearby electronics. The peril destroys nothing visible: it flips a control circuit, and a perfectly intact satellite can lose its pointing. Anik E1 and E2 became the textbook case because two satellites of the same design were hit on the same day by the same mechanism, in their momentum wheel systems. For an insurer, the episode illustrates two things: accumulation, since a single natural event strikes a family of satellites at once, and partial loss, since recovery by backup means burns propellant and therefore service life. It shaped the clauses and underwriting questionnaires that now ask how satellites are protected against the space environment.
On January 20, 1994, Anik E1, a satellite operated by Canada's Telesat, lost attitude control and cut off television, news wire and northern telephone customers for several hours before being restored through its backup system; that night, Anik E2 lost both its primary and backup momentum wheel systems and stayed out of service for about five months, until Telesat developed a way to control it from the ground.
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