Posted: Fri, Feb 8, 2002, 9:06 AM ET (1406 GMT)
NASA is evaluating two proposals to launch the Triana spacecraft on foreign boosters, Space News reported Thursday. One proposal would launch Triana as a secondary payload on an Ariane 5; such a launch would be paid by a European national space agency in exchange in a scientific role on the mission. A second possibility is to launch it on a Ukrainian Tsiklon launch vehicle, arranged by an unnamed company trying to market the Tsiklon commercially. Triana is a mission that would observe the fully-illuminated disk of the Earth from the Earth-Sun L1 point, 1.5 million kilometers away. The Triana spacecraft has been built but is sitting in storage since there are no foreseeable launch opportunities on the shuttle, which was the original launch vehicle for the spacecraft. Triana was proposed in 1998 by then-Vice President Al Gore, but faced strong Congressional scrutiny, including an order to stop work on the mission until an independent panel confirmed the mission's scientific validity.

Related Links:

•  Space News article about Triana
•  Triana web site