Solar sail microsatellite feared lost
Posted: Sun, Dec 12, 2010, 10:43 AM ET (1543 GMT)
NASA officials said late Friday that it has not established contact with a small experimental solar sail satellite deployed earlier in the week, and is not even sure the satellite ejected from another spacecraft as planned. The NanoSail-D satellite was scheduled to deploy early Monday from another small satellite, FASTSAT, and deploy a solar sail three days later. However, satellite controllers have not established contact with NanoSail-D since the deployment, and project officials said in a statement Friday that they can't confirm the satellite actually was ejected from FASTSAT, despite telemetry data from the scheduled deployment that was "indicative" of a successful deployment. NanoSail-D, weighing only a few kilograms, is designed to deploy a 10-square-meter solar sail that would be used to adjust and eventually deorbit the satellite. The satellites were among several launched last month on a Minotaur 4 from Alaska.
NASA officials said late Friday that it has not established contact with a small experimental solar sail satellite deployed earlier in the week, and is not even sure the satellite ejected from another spacecraft as planned. The NanoSail-D satellite was scheduled to deploy early Monday from another small satellite, FASTSAT, and deploy a solar sail three days later. However, satellite controllers have not established contact with NanoSail-D since the deployment, and project officials said in a statement Friday that they can't confirm the satellite actually was ejected from FASTSAT, despite telemetry data from the scheduled deployment that was "indicative" of a successful deployment. NanoSail-D, weighing only a few kilograms, is designed to deploy a 10-square-meter solar sail that would be used to adjust and eventually deorbit the satellite. The satellites were among several launched last month on a Minotaur 4 from Alaska.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Pentagon dismisses $1.2 trillion cost estimate for Golden Dome
Posted: Sat, May 16 9:36 AM ET (1336 GMT) Cowboy Space proposes 20,000 satellite orbital data center constellation
Posted: Sat, May 16 9:33 AM ET (1333 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Thursday, May 21
A Look Back at Hubble’s Most Breathtaking Images
Nautilus — 5:33 am ET (0933 GMT) Greenlight for next two ESA Scout missions
ESA — 5:33 am ET (0933 GMT) The SpaceX S-1 filing is packed with eye-popping deadlines. Here are the most important ones.
Business Insider — 5:31 am ET (0931 GMT) Germany touts pan-German space command amid European push to supplant US tech
Defense News — 5:30 am ET (0930 GMT) Acquisition reform ‘necessary’ but ‘not sufficient,’ U.S. Space Force official says
Aerospace America — 5:29 am ET (0929 GMT) |
