Sad indeed. What were the pre launch tests applied to the Star 30 before mating? Pjh ...recrystallised solid propellant????? > -----Original Message----- > From: Jim Scotti [mailto:jscotti@jupiter.lpl.Arizona.EDU] > Sent: 16 August 2002 23:53 > To: Ed Cannon > Cc: SeeSat-L@satobs.org > Subject: Re: CONTOUR possibly destroyed -- NASA > > As the observer who got the images of the spacecraft, it's certainly a sad > day for comet research. Our images (in the following URL) show two trails > rather than the one expected, so something catastrophic must have > happened. > Previous spacecraft, like NEAR had two trails as well as the booster was > ejected, but I guess that was not supposed to happen to CONTOUR. I wonder > what the two pieces are? The spacecraft was at about the -3% of from > nominal > burn location, so the engine burn was completed or nearly so. > > http://spacewatch.lpl.arizona.edu/contour.html > http://spacewatch.lpl.arizona.edu/Jeff/contour.jpg > > The first URL describes the image, the second is the image. The > spacecraft > is in a very dense star field near the Galactic plane, so in order to see > it, > I subtracted the 2nd image from the first so the first image is the white > pair, the second is the dark pair and the residual signal from the field > stars appear as conjoined black/white pairs since they don't perfectly > subtract out. > > Jim. > > On Fri, 16 Aug 2002, Ed Cannon wrote: > > > "CONTOUR Spacecraft Possibly Destroyed, NASA Says" > > > > "... [CONTOUR Mission Director Robert] Farquhar said late Friday that > > images from a ground-based telescope of two unknown objects about 250 > > kilometers apart appeared to be pieces of the comet-chasing craft. He > > said more investigation was needed to confirm the suspicion and that a > > concerted search effort would continue at least through Monday in the > > meantime. ... > > > > "In a teleconference with reporters Friday evening, Farquhar said the > > craft's engines had almost certainly fired and that it was no longer > > in Earth orbit." > > > > Source: > > > > http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/contour_telecon_020816.html > > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > > Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' > > in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org > > http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html > > > > > > Jim Scotti > Lunar & Planetary Laboratory jscotti@pirl.lpl.arizona.edu > University of Arizona > Tucson, AZ 85721 USA http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/ > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' > in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org > http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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