Broadcasting satellite going down

A company who owns a broadcasting satellite now declares it to be a complete loss. The satellite was released by the Russian Proton rocket but failed to reach the planned orbital position.

"The loss of any satellite is a disappointment, and the failure of AMC 14 means there will be no revenues to come from this program," said Mark Rigolle, chief financial officer for SES, the satellite's Luxembourg-based owner.
The AMC 14 was built to broadcast television programming to viewers across the U.S. but unfortunately will meet an early end, probably fiery doom as it plunges into Earth's atmosphere. Rigolle says that the insurance policy will be redeemed for $150 million and the failure will have no impact on the company's financial statements.

The company officials showed optimism for recovering the satellite but later analysis proved it was impractical.

"SES and Lockheed Martin [The Manufacturer of the satellite] have carefully examined all the available options for repositioning this satellite into its intended geostationary orbit," Edward Horowitz, president and CEO of SES AMERICOM. "Unfortunately, none of those options would allow effective use of the spacecraft. The various repositioning scenarios presented carry unacceptable risks, and would result in a severely shortened life of the satellite. Therefore, we have no choice but to claim a total loss of the satellite with our insurers."

Last week, International Launch Services announced that the Russian Board investigating the problem was close to determining the failure's cause.
It appears that it would have been possible to recover the satellite, but the company decided to back down because the process of using the lunar flyby wayward GEO birds back to GEO Earth orbit involved violating a patent. Apparently, Boeing owns a patent for using the Moon's gravity in the lunar flyby process. It seems that SES has determined that the cost of the lawsuits would not be worth it, though they would likely win.