Here are two more to add to Antonin's list of GEOs stranded in LEO that had happy endings. Both made use of the shuttle to effect on-orbit repairs: http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/chron/sts51-i.htm "Part of time spent retrieving, repairing and redeploying LEASAT-3, deployed on Mission 51-D." Unfortunately, a sister satellite launched on the same mission failed upon reaching GEO. http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/chron/sts-49.htm "Crew successfully captured and redeployed INTELSAT VI (F-3) satellite stranded in unusable orbit since launch aboard Titan rocket in March 1990." Unfortunately, most GEO's stranded in LEO cannot be salvaged. A dramatic recent example is Milstar 3: Milstar 3 15.0 4.5 4.5 3.5 v 1 25724U 99023A 02325.51061905 .00000020 00000-0 25282-3 0 09 2 25724 28.2220 56.4629 2131000 31.5941 328.4055 9.37432271 05 Let us hope that something can be done for Astra 1K, though I doubt that the shuttle will be available. Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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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