Feb 25 1998
From The Space Library
NASA partially cancelled the Clark satellite program, keeping only the US$13 million launch vehicle service portion of the contract with Lockheed Martin. As reasons for the cancellation, NASA cited cost overruns, an uncertain launch schedule, and questions concerning the effectiveness of Clark's instruments in orbit, because its primary instrument had been "sitting on the ground two years longer than planned." The intended mission of the program was to take black-and-white stereo images, showing detail as small as 10 feet (3 meters) across, for NASA's Office of Earth Science Enterprise (formerly the Office of Mission to Planet Earth), as well as for commercial customers. NASA had paired the Clark satellite with the Lewis satellite. However, after its August 1997 launch, the Lewis satellite had gone into a spin, which controllers were unable to repair. Consequently, the Lewis satellite plunged into the atmosphere where it burned up.
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