(CNN) — A NASA satellite crashed back to Earth about three minutes after launch early Tuesday, officials said.
“We could not make orbit,” NASA program manager John Brunschwyler said. “Initial indications are the vehicle did not have enough [force] to reach orbit and landed just short of Antarctica in the ocean.” “Certainly for the science community, it’s a huge disappointment.”
The satellite, which would have monitored greenhouse gases to study how they affect the Earth’s climate, was launched on a Taurus XL rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 1:55 a.m. PT (4:55 a.m. ET).
But the payload fairing — a clamshell-shaped structure that allows the satellite to travel through space — failed to separate from the rocket, NASA officials said. The weight of the fairing caused the rocket and the satellite to come crashing down to Earth about three minutes later. Breaking News
Russia is monitoring the wreckage of two communications satellites that collided in space above Siberia. NASA says neither the earth nor the International Space Station are at risk from the debris of the Russian and American satellites. But what caused the accident and who’s to blame?
Experts say tens of thousands of pieces could orbit Earth for 10,000 years
MOSCOW – The crash of two satellites has generated an estimated tens of thousands of pieces of space junk that could circle Earth and threaten other satellites for the next 10,000 years, space experts said Friday.
One called the collision “a catastrophic event” that he hoped would force the new U.S. administration to address the issue of debris in space.
Russian Mission Control chief Vladimir Solovyov said Tuesday’s smashup of a derelict Russian military satellite and a working U.S. Iridium commercial satellite occurred in the busiest part of near-Earth space — some 500 miles (800 kilometers) above Earth. Breaking News
Test on newly installed valves pushes liftoff date to Feb. 22
NASA’s planned launch of the space shuttle Discovery this month has slipped a few more days to Feb. 22 due to extra time needed to finish tests related to newly installed valves on the spacecraft, agency officials said Friday.
Discovery was slated to launch no earlier than Feb. 19 pending the completion of tests to ensure the shuttle’s three fuel flow control valves are safe to fly. But work at several NASA centers to evaluate the valves in time for a Tuesday meeting by shuttle managers is taking longer than planned, and shifted the launch to no earlier than Feb. 22, according to an update released late Friday.
Mission managers are now expected to discuss the valve test results on Feb. 13, and then meet again on Feb. 18 to review the Feb. 22 launch target, said NASA spokesperson Kyle Herring at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. That process, however, is wholly dependent on the progress and results of the valve tests, he added. Full Story
Astronauts living aboard the International Space Station were surprised by the unexpectedly strong vibrations that rattled their orbiting lab last month, but don’t believe the event damaged their $100 billion outpost.
Space station commander Michael Fincke of NASA said the Jan. 14 vibrations shook objects loose from the walls during a scheduled engine burn, but it did not immediately spark concerns over the health of the spacecraft.
“We were definitely surprised,” Fincke told SPACE.com Thursday via a video link. “It’s not usual during a reboost to see anything come off the walls.” Video from a camera inside the space station showed equipment doors and other objects shaking back and forth. Full Story
