Re: CONTOUR possibly destroyed -- NASA

From: jcm@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Date: Fri Aug 16 2002 - 20:05:22 EDT

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Jim,
 Given your data, a plausible failure mode is nozzle failure
on the solid motor near the end of the burn - like what happened
to the Westar and Palapa satellites in Feb 1984 on the STS 41-B mission.
Your two objects would be the nozzle and the spacecraft. It's possible
in that case that the spacecraft might survive but be tumbling.
In most of the cases I know of such a late-time failure during
a solid motor burn (the two I mentioned, or the DSP satellite in 1999...)
the spacecraft survived the event, albeit stranded in an incorrect orbit.
 - Jonathan McDowell

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