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You are right, it is an incredibly expensive business. InclinedPlane is right, a 10 year lifetime is pretty good for a satellite. They have finite fuel for stationkeeping, and the electronics wear out. The space environment is very hard on electronics.


I imagine the combination of radiation plus the increasing amount of debris and garbage in orbit contribute to the degradation. Plus I'm sure part of it is just keeping up with the pace of technology innovation occuring on the ground. Everything computing/communication-related has been evolving fairly quickly the last 30 years or so.




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