Are Meteor Showers True Risks To Satellite Companies? (BA, DGI, GEOY, GILT, DISH, DTV, SIRI, HUGH, ICOG, IRDM, GSAT, ORBC, ORB, LORL)

There is a low-probability event cresting today and tomorrow that could pose risks to businesses that rely upon the availability and operations of satellites in orbit. This comes annually via the Perseid Meteor Shower that has started over the last weekend. Space.com noted “The peak of this year’s Perseids is forecast to come during the afternoon hours on Thursday… a single observer might count anywhere from 60 to 100 per hour.” The Perseid meteor shower is what is left of Comet Swift-Tuttle that last visited the inner solar system in 1992. Each year in August Earth passes through a debris field left along the orbit of the comet. Most debris items are the size pebbles or sand grains, but they enter Earth’s atmosphere at about 37 miles per second or 133,000 MPH. In short, nothing physical responds too well if it is hit by debris. That includes satellites, the space station, space craft and so on. If you don’t trust that this is a risk, all you have to do is look in the annual reports of any major satellite company. Again, it is a low risk, but a risk nonetheless. There are many companies that could be affected if debris from a meteor shower were to make contacts with any of the satellites. The Boeing Company BA, DigitalGlobe, Inc. DGI, GeoEye, Inc. GEOY, Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. GILT, Dish Network Corp. DISH, DIRECTV DTV, SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. SIRI, Hughes Communications, Inc. HUGH, ICO Global Communications Holdings Ltd. ICOG, Iridium Communications Inc. IRDM and Globalstar Inc. GSAT and ORBCOMM, Inc. ORBC are all likely monitoring their birds with a little more caution during this Perseid show. There is also Orbital Sciences Corp. ORB and Loral Space & Communications, Inc. LORL. To read the rest, head over to 247WallStreet.com