TV provider shifting satellite to high orbit over explosion fears

US authorities said Friday they had granted permission to a TV provider to urgently lift a four-ton (3,600-kilogram) satellite to a so-called "graveyard orbit" over fears a battery fault may soon cause it to explode.

DirecTV had told the Federal Communications Commission its Boeing-built Spaceway-1 satellite had suffered a "major anomaly" in its batteries and did not have time to deplete its remaining fuel before disposing of it by placing it 300 kilometers (190 miles) above the "geostationary arc."
The move was confirmed to AFP by both DirecTV's parent company AT&T and Boeing, which said "the battery malfunction occurred in the course of operating the satellite more than two years after its contractually required design life."