Posted: Wed, Jan 19, 2005, 6:21 AM ET (1121 GMT)
A Boeing-built Japanese communications satellite suffered a temporary glitch that disrupted service earlier this week. The JCSAT-1B communications satellite, operated by JSAT Corporation, lost one of its liquid bipropellant thrusters late Monday, according to a company statement. JSAT reported that it is planning to restore operations of the satellite using its remaining satellites, although the Wall Street Journal reported that the thruster outage lasted only a few hours and that service had been restored. JSAT said in a statement that communications services normally carried on the satellite had been disrupted but would be restored starting Wednesday. The company was also moving its backup satellite, JCSAT-R, into the orbital slot used by JCSAT-1R "to cover all possibilities". JCSAT-1B (originally JCSAT-5) is a Boeing 601 model launched in December 1997. News of the failure comes just days after the Intelsat 804 communications satellite suffered a permanent failure; while unrelated, the problems have raised new concerns about the reliability of commercial communications satellites.

Related Links:

•  Wall Street Journal article
•  JSAT press release