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No Shuttle = no hope



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 4th 11, 01:05 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Rich[_4_]
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Posts: 372
Default No Shuttle = no hope

Get used to this:

BBC:

4 March 2011 Last updated at 05:40 ET

Nasa Glory mission ends in failure
By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News
Glory
Continue reading the main story
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The US space agency's (Nasa) attempt to launch its latest Earth
observation mission has ended in failure.

The Glory satellite lifted off from California on a quest to gather new
data on factors that influence the climate.

But about six minutes into the flight, officials became aware of a
problem.

It appears the fairing - the part of the rocket which covers the
satellite on top of the launcher - did not separate properly.

This would have made the rocket too heavy and therefore too slow to
achieve its intended 700km orbit. It would probably have fallen into the
Ocean near the Antarctic, but this still has to be confirmed.

It is the exact same failure which befell Nasa's Orbiting Carbon
Observatory in 2009. It too launched on a Taurus XL rocket from the
Vandenberg Air Force Base, and again the fairing failed to separate
properly.

On that occasion a "Mishap Investigation Board" was established to
determine the root cause of the nose cone's failure and to make
recommendations to remedy the malfunction. It noted four hardware
problems that needed correction. Friday's launch was the XL's return to
flight after the OCO loss. Another board will now have to be convened.

The loss of Glory is a huge blow to the Orbital Sciences Corporation. It
makes the rocket and assembled the Glory satellite for Nasa.

Glory was carrying two instruments. One of its instruments would have
measured the total energy coming from the Sun; the other would have
looked at particles in the atmosphere that can trap that energy or
scatter it back out into space.

Understanding both is vital to our ability to forecast future change.

The Taurus XL lifted off at 0209 Pacific Standard Time (1009 GMT). A
number of sensors on the rocket would have indicated the fairing failure,
and the launch director Omar Baez had no choice but to declare a
spacecraft contingency.

The Taurus XL is the smallest ground-launched rocket currently in use by
the US space agency.

Since its debut in 1994, this type of rocket has flown nine times, with
six successes and three failures including this launch. This was the
second time Nasa had tried to launch a satellite on the XL.

The OCO mission which failed in 2009 is being rebuilt and is due to be
launched on another Taurus XL rocket in 2013.

The British OCO scientist, Dr Paul Palmer from Edinburgh University,
commented: "This is another big blow for the Nasa Earth science
programme, particularly because the reason for the failure appears to be
the same as that which affected the OCO launch . It's also sad news for
the climate community - Glory promised to provide important information
we desperately need for better understanding Earth's radiative balance,"
he told BBC News.

"Sometimes we forget because we rely on satellites every day that
launching instruments into an Earth orbit is still a risky business and
that we should expect a few failures."
  #2  
Old March 4th 11, 05:13 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Thomas Womack
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Posts: 206
Default No Shuttle = no hope

In article ,
Rich wrote:
Get used to this:


This is NASA deciding that pushing money towards random US startup
providers of launch services is more important than actually getting
satellites launched - they should at least have asked Taurus to launch
500kg of bits of scrap metal and check that the fairing deployed
before giving them a second real satellite to drop into the Antarctic
ocean. Soyuz is really quite reliable.

There hasn't been a satellite launched on the Shuttle since 2000.

Tom
  #3  
Old March 5th 11, 03:07 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Sam Wormley[_2_]
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Default No Shuttle = no hope

On 3/5/11 2:18 AM, Rich wrote:


The Shuttle is the only reliable delivery system available, from any
country.


Even though one blew up and another one burned up? There is
always risk associate with space launches. So many thousands of
things have to work properly.
  #4  
Old March 6th 11, 04:14 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Quadibloc
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Posts: 7,018
Default No Shuttle = no hope

On Mar 5, 8:58*am, Chris L Peterson wrote:

The shuttle was developed to carry people, and to carry extremely heavy
cargo. It was never intended to deliver most satellites to space.


Before the Challenger disaster, it was carrying some relatively
prosaic satellites into space.

Here's a garden-variety geostationary communications satellite being
released from the Space Shuttle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:STS-5_Anik_deploy.png

John Savard
  #5  
Old March 6th 11, 04:18 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Quadibloc
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Posts: 7,018
Default No Shuttle = no hope

On Mar 5, 8:14*pm, Quadibloc wrote:

Here's a garden-variety geostationary communications satellite being
released from the Space Shuttle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:STS-5_Anik_deploy.png


And here's a video of a similar American satellite being deployed from
the Shuttle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PWlp8vufqI

John Savard
 




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