spacetoday.net: Weather satellite damaged in factory mishap

Posted: Tue, Sep 9, 2003, 12:58 PM ET (1658 GMT)
A NOAA weather satellite under construction for launch later this decade was severely damaged in a factory accident on Saturday, Space News reported late Monday. The NOAA-N' spacecraft was being rotated from a vertical to horizontal position at a Lockheed Martin facility in Sunnyvale, California, when the spacecraft slipped off a cart and fell to the floor. The spacecraft suffered "severe damage" in the fall, according to an anomaly report obtained by Space News. Initial indications suggest that the spacecraft slipped because 24 bolts designed to secure the spacecraft to the cart were removed two days earlier by engineers working on another satellite, who then failed to document the removal of the bolts. The polar-orbiting spacecraft is not scheduled for launch until 2008, but Lockheed Martin officials were uncertain how much of an effect on the schedule the accident would have.