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Edition 15 - 11 April 1999
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# Newly launched military satellite flies into wrong orbit #

11 April 1999

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- A $250 million missile- warning
satellite ended up in the wrong orbit following its launch aboard an
Air Force Titan rocket, military officials said Saturday night. 

The Defense Support Program satellite was lifted into orbit Friday for
the Defense Department. It was the first Titan IV flight since a
spectacular $1 billion launch explosion in August. 

The rocket performed as planned and the mishap apparently occurred
several hours later, said Patsy Bomhoff, a spokeswoman at Schriever
Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 

"We don't know what went wrong when," she said. "They're working
around the clock and trying to work every angle possible to salvage
this satellite." 

The highly sensitive 21/2-ton infrared telescope is designed to detect
missile and rocket launches as well as nuclear detonations. It was
intended for a 22,300-mile-high orbit. 

Bomhoff said the satellite separated properly from its upper- stage
motor seven hours after Friday afternoon's liftoff. Controllers
discovered later in the night, however, that the satellite was in a
highly elliptical orbit, she said. 

Bomhoff said she did not have any additional information, such as the
specifics of the orbit. 

The Air Force Space Command is convening an investigating board of
officers to look into the mishap. 

The satellite was to have joined other Defense Support Program craft
in orbit and begun operating in three to six months. Air Force
officials declined before Friday's launch to say how many working DSP
satellites are in orbit, but stressed they were providing worldwide
coverage. 

DSP satellites were instrumental in tracking Scud missiles during the
1991 Persian Gulf war. 

The next DSP satellite isn't due to be launched until December. 

TRW built the satellite. Boeing provided the upper-stage motor.

http://europe.cnn.com/TECH/space/9904/11/satellite.trouble.ap/index.html


# Mir crew to try patching holes during space walk #

10 April 1999

MOSCOW (AP) -- Two crew members aboard Russia's Mir space station will
perform a space walk to set up experiments and test tools designed to
patch holes in the aging ship, a news report said Saturday. 

Russian cosmonaut Viktor Afanasyev and French astronaut Jean-Pierre
Heignere will embark on the space walk Friday. The third crew member,
Sergei Avdeyev, will monitor them from inside the Mir. 

The hole-patching equipment, which includes a drill, glue and special
patches, was originally designed to seal leaks in Mir's Spektr module,
which was severely damaged when a runaway cargo ship slammed into it
in 1997. 

Spektr was never repaired, and the tools never tested, because crew
members at the time could not find all the module's leaks. 

Afanasyev and Heignere will also set up a Russian device called Sprut,
or Octopus, to test radiation levels around the Mir, and attach
various organic substances in special casings to the outside of the
ship to see what happens to living matter in space. 

They also plan to retrieve a French-made "meteorite trap" that was
installed earlier this year to catch microscopic debris when Mir
passed through a meteor shower. 


Aging ship may be scrapped

The Mir's current three-man crew is possibly its last. If outside
investors cannot be found to foot the 13-year-old station's $250
million annual costs, the cash-strapped government will discard it in
August. 

Because of funding shortages, space officials have already said they
will have to scrap at least two planned space walks, making it likely
that Heignere and Afanasyev will only go on one more. 

Russia's space chief has said private investors have come forward to
pay for Mir's operation, but the United States still wants the
government to dedicate itself to the new International Space Station.
The 16-nation project has been delayed by Russia's inability to build
key components on time. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. space agency NASA announced Friday that the
crucial third piece of the new station, a living module, will be
rolled off the factory floor in a ribbon-cutting ceremony April 26 in
Moscow. 

The piece, which has been delayed by Russia's cash problems, will be
transported to the Baikonur cosmodrome early next month. It is likely
to be launched in September and inhabited in January, Russian space
officials said Friday. 

Copyright 1999   The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://cnn.com/TECH/space/9904/10/russia.space.walk.ap/index.html


# Ion propulsion - over 50 years in the making #

6 April 1999

The ion propulsion system on Deep Space 1 is the culmination of over
50 years of development on electric engine systems in space. Launched
on Oct. 24, 1998, Deep Space 1 will be the first spacecraft to
actually use ion propulsion to reach another planetary body.
The engineering that makes this possible represents a journey that
started more than half a century ago, when modern rocketry was
invented. Looking back, Ernst Stuhlinger, a world expert on electric
propulsion, said that the technology "owed its life-giving spark to
Wernher von Braun."

Read the rest of this interesting article at:

http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/prop06apr99_2.htm

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