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Former GOES engineer here. At this point I'd almost be surprised if 19 didn't have something go wrong. We had issues on almost every other satellite. GOES-17

Former GOES engineer here. At this point I'd almost be surprised if 19 didn't have something go wrong. We had issues on almost every other satellite. GOES-17 had the loop heat pipe anomaly(Supposedly from someone stepping on it in the cleanroom...), GOES-15 (IIRC) had a micrometeorite strike, and GOES-13 had a fuel tank anomaly right before deorbit. GOES-16 and GOES-17 are on-orbit spares, so in the extremely unlikely event of a total failure there's at least another spacecraft on-orbit ready to take up station. That said, I have every faith in the GOES team to get to the bottom of this. They're the best, and I often wish I was back there working with them.

fishgoesblub 2mo ago
> Supposedly from someone stepping on it in the cleanroom I would be too embarrassed to return to work if I did that.
- pooloo 2mo ago
  How do they track that? Is there a log book where someone has to write to? "Observed EMP555 step on loop heat pipe. Conducted visual inspection of the affected area; no damage found, pipe remains nominal."
  - robszumski 2mo ago
    I'm sure they take detailed close out photos and likely video of the entire handling process.
  - altairprime 2mo ago
    “Measurements taking of the person: foot and shoe weight, total weight including clothing, height and leg length, estimated velocity of travel at time, estimated duration of load”
  - KennyBlanken 2mo ago
    Since it went into space with the stepped-on part, clearly nobody DID write it up. They really don't care. If the satellite blows up or fails, they get to build another.
    - Alive-in-2025 2mo ago
      I didn't but that's the case. More likely there was a limited chance to evaluate the issue and something like they had a limited time launch window, no replacement ready and it tested good. "Just put a little butter on it, it's fine".
Rygian 2mo ago
From now on, every time I see the word "anomaly" I will assume it is an euphemism for "someone stepped on it".
- dabluecaboose 2mo ago
  "Anomaly" is one of those words that, in the space industry, can mean anything from "Our payload isn't behaving as well as we're expecting" to "Someone stepped on it" to "A rock hit it" You can use it to describe literally anything that's off nominal. It's fantastic.
  - bigfatkitten 2mo ago
    I learned recently that it can also mean "the spacecraft exploded on the launchpad in an enormous fireball." https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-29/blue-origin-rocket-explodes-during-test-jeff-bezos/106737482 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-29/blue-origin-rocket-ex...
    - DaiPlusPlus 2mo ago
      That's already known as "rapid unscheduled disassembly" - and happens so-often in spaceflight that it's hardly anomalous at this point.
      - waste_monk 2mo ago
        I do love the term "lithobraking" as well.
  - superxpro12 2mo ago
    I feel like we're all forgetting the most obvious root cause... "aliens"
  - bayindirh 2mo ago
    Or it has failed catastrophically and gone under voluntary rapid disassembly to help engineers to diagnose the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC9icOKGJ94 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC9icOKGJ94
doright 2mo ago
> GOES-17 had the loop heat pipe anomaly(Supposedly from someone stepping on it in the cleanroom...) Was this reported anywhere in the news? Sounds like one of those "not even once" kind of mistakes.
GTP 2mo ago
You expect cleanrooms to be extremely controlled environments where skilled technicians and engineers very carefully handle sensitive equipment... Then someone steps on a component :D
- krisoft 2mo ago
  Yeah. Stuff happens. There is the famous case of dropping the NOAA N-Prime weather satellite on the ground. They were trying to turn it from vertical to horizontal and they forgot to bolt it to the adapter. Worse: multiple people signed the paperwork attesting that they verified that it was bolted down correctly. Pictures and details here: https://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0410/04noaanreport/ https://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0410/04noaanreport/ Or the famous “space aligator” event. There the original plan was to launch a manned space craft and an unmanned module to do a docking test between them. But the shroud protecting the target module didn’t deploy properly. If i remember it right because the man who usually assembled that part had to leave during assembly because his wife was giving birth. Someone put it together but appearantely not correctly. The half opened shroud reminded the astronauts to the jaws of an angry aligator hence the name. Pictures: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/gemini/gemini-ix/gemini-ix-crew-found-angry-alligator-in-earth-orbit/ https://www.nasa.gov/missions/gemini/gemini-ix/gemini-ix-cre... Or to not only list American failures: this russian satelite launch failed spectacularly because the IMU was installed upside down. https://youtu.be/ycRVAcZC5R4?si=LRTS7sutKSp6HnGs https://youtu.be/ycRVAcZC5R4?si=LRTS7sutKSp6HnGs This was designed to be impossible to do, but someone bent and forced the component to stay in place in the wrong orientation. Then someone else whose job was to check it just signed the paperwork without climbing into the location where he could have checked it. I love these cases. Because it shows to me how even though the trappings of high-tech we are all fundamentally just occasionally lazy, occasionally distracted monkeys banging rocks together.
  - fhdkweig 2mo ago
    > multiple people signed the paperwork attesting that they verified that it was bolted down correctly. In my experience, the more people who are assigned to do something, the more those people assume that someone else did it and slack off. Of course, I've never worked on something as difficult to fix as an orbital satellite.
NetMageSCW 2mo ago
The independent review team concluded the issue was from FOD in the pipe and recommended a redesign. Do you have a definite citation for someone stepped on it?

fishgoesblub 2mo ago

> Supposedly from someone stepping on it in the cleanroom I would be too embarrassed to return to work if I did that.

pooloo 2mo ago
How do they track that? Is there a log book where someone has to write to? "Observed EMP555 step on loop heat pipe. Conducted visual inspection of the affected area; no damage found, pipe remains nominal."
- robszumski 2mo ago
  I'm sure they take detailed close out photos and likely video of the entire handling process.
- altairprime 2mo ago
  “Measurements taking of the person: foot and shoe weight, total weight including clothing, height and leg length, estimated velocity of travel at time, estimated duration of load”
- KennyBlanken 2mo ago
  Since it went into space with the stepped-on part, clearly nobody DID write it up. They really don't care. If the satellite blows up or fails, they get to build another.
  - Alive-in-2025 2mo ago
    I didn't but that's the case. More likely there was a limited chance to evaluate the issue and something like they had a limited time launch window, no replacement ready and it tested good. "Just put a little butter on it, it's fine".

Rygian 2mo ago

From now on, every time I see the word "anomaly" I will assume it is an euphemism for "someone stepped on it".

dabluecaboose 2mo ago
"Anomaly" is one of those words that, in the space industry, can mean anything from "Our payload isn't behaving as well as we're expecting" to "Someone stepped on it" to "A rock hit it" You can use it to describe literally anything that's off nominal. It's fantastic.
- bigfatkitten 2mo ago
  I learned recently that it can also mean "the spacecraft exploded on the launchpad in an enormous fireball." https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-29/blue-origin-rocket-explodes-during-test-jeff-bezos/106737482 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-29/blue-origin-rocket-ex...
  - DaiPlusPlus 2mo ago
    That's already known as "rapid unscheduled disassembly" - and happens so-often in spaceflight that it's hardly anomalous at this point.
    - waste_monk 2mo ago
      I do love the term "lithobraking" as well.
- superxpro12 2mo ago
  I feel like we're all forgetting the most obvious root cause... "aliens"
- bayindirh 2mo ago
  Or it has failed catastrophically and gone under voluntary rapid disassembly to help engineers to diagnose the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC9icOKGJ94 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC9icOKGJ94

doright 2mo ago

> GOES-17 had the loop heat pipe anomaly(Supposedly from someone stepping on it in the cleanroom...) Was this reported anywhere in the news? Sounds like one of those "not even once" kind of mistakes.

GTP 2mo ago

You expect cleanrooms to be extremely controlled environments where skilled technicians and engineers very carefully handle sensitive equipment... Then someone steps on a component :D

krisoft 2mo ago
Yeah. Stuff happens. There is the famous case of dropping the NOAA N-Prime weather satellite on the ground. They were trying to turn it from vertical to horizontal and they forgot to bolt it to the adapter. Worse: multiple people signed the paperwork attesting that they verified that it was bolted down correctly. Pictures and details here: https://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0410/04noaanreport/ https://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0410/04noaanreport/ Or the famous “space aligator” event. There the original plan was to launch a manned space craft and an unmanned module to do a docking test between them. But the shroud protecting the target module didn’t deploy properly. If i remember it right because the man who usually assembled that part had to leave during assembly because his wife was giving birth. Someone put it together but appearantely not correctly. The half opened shroud reminded the astronauts to the jaws of an angry aligator hence the name. Pictures: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/gemini/gemini-ix/gemini-ix-crew-found-angry-alligator-in-earth-orbit/ https://www.nasa.gov/missions/gemini/gemini-ix/gemini-ix-cre... Or to not only list American failures: this russian satelite launch failed spectacularly because the IMU was installed upside down. https://youtu.be/ycRVAcZC5R4?si=LRTS7sutKSp6HnGs https://youtu.be/ycRVAcZC5R4?si=LRTS7sutKSp6HnGs This was designed to be impossible to do, but someone bent and forced the component to stay in place in the wrong orientation. Then someone else whose job was to check it just signed the paperwork without climbing into the location where he could have checked it. I love these cases. Because it shows to me how even though the trappings of high-tech we are all fundamentally just occasionally lazy, occasionally distracted monkeys banging rocks together.
- fhdkweig 2mo ago
  > multiple people signed the paperwork attesting that they verified that it was bolted down correctly. In my experience, the more people who are assigned to do something, the more those people assume that someone else did it and slack off. Of course, I've never worked on something as difficult to fix as an orbital satellite.

NetMageSCW 2mo ago

The independent review team concluded the issue was from FOD in the pipe and recommended a redesign. Do you have a definite citation for someone stepped on it?