Acts of God and Controlled De-Orbitings

[Tim May]

On Tuesday, July 10, 2001, at 09:44 PM, Jim Windle wrote:

> There is lots of junk up there.  Schemes to de-orbit satellites at the 
> end of their useful life have been put forward but they always fail on 
> the liability issue.  Apparently if a satellite falls out of orbit it 
> is an "act of god" and the owner/insurer is not responsible for 
> damages, but if the satellite is deliberately de-orbitted the 
> owner/insurer is on the hook.  No one, partiucularly the insurance 
> companies wants to try it.


Five dozen Iridium satellites were on the verge of being de-orbited when 
a buyer could not be found.

(Was this just jive? Possibly, but plans were underway and retro-rocket 
firing sequences were ready to go. Had the U.S.G. not arranged a deal to 
keep the system in operation for military/embassy/spook purposes, I 
expect the de-orbiting would have happened.)

The "act of God" argument is a weak one, anyway. Had Motorola and the 
other Iridium partners simply said "We'll trust in God and just let them 
fall where they may," I expect they would have been hit with lawsuits as 
bits of wreckage made it to the ground.

A controlled de-orbiting over the Pacific was seen by them as the wiser 
choice.

--TIm May