EchoStar III Communications Intermittent Since Anomaly, Company Says

Communications with EchoStar III have been intermittent since an anomaly last week while it was moving to a new orbital location, said a news release Wednesday. It said the Ku-band satellite was launched in 1997, significantly exceeding its 15-year design life. The company said it's working with the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, to re-establish a reliable link, to recover and retire the satellite, and it shouldn't pose a significant risk to other geostationary satellites.