Re: Spaceway-1
"If Boeing designed an aircraft for a 12 year lifespan without ensuring that it would not still be flying around at the same altitude fifteen years later, you might think someone had been careless."
Is the comparison to an aircraft valid? An aircraft is maintained as part of normal operations while a satellite is almost entirely unserviced during its lifetime. Aircraft parts prone to stress are regularly replaced to minimise risk and anything with an operational life is replaced before it is likely to fail.
And aircraft operate in a less hostile environment than space - the fault that has end the life of this satellite is likely repairable if it occurred in an aircraft and if it was caused by being hit by an unknown object, then that is a risk satellite manufacturers take and attempt to workaround with additional resilience. But resilience doesn't protect you from multiple failures particularly as you reach the later stages of your mission where you may already be operating with failed components.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
