And Space-Track (https://www.space-track.org) says the following:

U.S. Space Forces-Space (S4S) has confirmed the breakup of Intelsat 33E (#41748, 2016-053B) in GEO on October 19, 2024, at approximately 0430 UTC. Currently tracking around 20 associated pieces - analysis ongoing. S4S has observed no immediate threats and is continuing to conduct routine conjunction assessments to support the safety and sustainability of the space domain.

This is the same Boeing 702MP satellite bus as the one used for Intelsat 29e, which had this anomaly: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19658800

What happened to it? Any ideas?

Hit by something, or an internal problem?

After what happened to Intelsat 29e (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19658800) it's probably an issue with the satellite bus.

"Late on 7 April, the Intelsat 29e propulsion system experienced damage that caused a leak of the propellant on board the satellite resulting in a service disruption to customers on the satellite." [0]

Intelsat 29e, way back in 2019, but that's interesting. Some kind of onboard issue?

[0] https://www.intelsat.com/newsroom/intelsat-29e-service-outag...

Boeing would be very unlucky to lose two satellites with the same bus to external causes.

I wonder if debris in GEO orbit is a problem for other satellites in GEO orbits. It'll be up there for a very long time I guess.

But maybe it just stays orbiting at about the same velocity in the same orbit, so it's not really a big issue for other spacecraft in GEO?

Here's a Wikipedia page with some ideas about it (look for "Higher Altitudes") -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_debris

At least collision avoidance manoeuvres are not that common in GEO as far as I know, so things like this are more the exception: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/flaviomurolo_meteosat-mtg-sat...

Well, there's also the Russians sneaking around: https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-russian-sigint-...

Indeed.