A former aide to George W. Bush's campaign media adviser has admitted stealing and posting a Bush debate practice videotape to Al Gore's campaign. Like aircraft black boxes, the devices will provide information to help experts investigate catastrophic equipment failures. In this case they will tell scientists how a satellite has been damaged by fast-moving solar particles, meteor impacts or space junk. Unlike aircraft black boxes, the satellite devices will not be recovered, but instead will radio their data to Earth.
Solar weather is seen as the biggest threat to satellites.
Flares or solar eruptions called coronal mass ejections can send bursts of energy charged particles hurtling towards the Earth at the rate of a billion per second. When these hit satellites they can burrow into the sensitive electronics causing them to burn out. Several unexplained satellite failures in recent years have followed episodes of heightened solar activity. If you get a failure on a satellite it will give you information leading up to that failure. That in turn will lead to better ways of protecting satellites and more effective interplanetary weather forecasts.