Watching on NASA TV, we had an excellent view of the spinning and tumbling spacecraft as it descended. No drogue, not chute and as the camera tracked down, suddenly the ground appeared, the spacecraft disappeared and the camera stopped and panned back. A few moments later, the had a great view of the broken spacecraft in its crater and later, images from the circling helicopters. Reported estimated impact speed was about 100 mph and they reported the coordinates as N40d 07' 40" and W113d 30' 29". Closeups of the capsule show it badly damaged, cracked in one direction, broken open in the other. Workers are moving in, obviously examining the debris and photographing it. There may be a live mortar which would have deployed the drogue had it worked, so they are being understandably cautious. Not sure if the science is at all salvagable - certainly much of it was destroyed.... Jim. Jim Scotti Lunar & Planetary Laboratory University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 USA http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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