Are there any drawbacks to star trackers that would argue against their more-widespread use on geostationary satellites?
Certainly they have a cost associated to them, but that’s true of all hardware and star tracker prices are coming down with the introduction of new technology. One advantage is that you can put a star tracker just about anywhere on your satellite, whereas Earth sensors obviously need to be on the side of the satellite pointing toward the Earth. Also a star tracker is less sensitive to measuring inaccuracies than gyros and needs less calibration. What advice would you give to future satellite builders who find themselves in a similar situation? Above all, I should stress the importance of rapid decision-making in the early hours after in-orbit separation. This is a 24/7 situation and you cannot afford to have someone unavailable. In this case, the decision-making was very quick, and we had good lines of communication opened between us, our customer, the technical teams, the Fucino operation and the insurers.
