Nov 20 2000
From The Space Library
EarthWatch Inc., a Colorado-based company developing a network of satellites to capture images of various regions of the Earth for commercial applications, launched its QuickBird 1 craft from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, aboard a Russian Cosmos-3M rocket. However, ground stations did not pick up its signals as planned. U.S. tracking data listed the craft's orbit as "decayed," and a Russian Aerospace Agency spokesperson described the craft as "effectively lost." EarthWatch had lost its first satellite, Early Bird 1, four days after its 24 December 1997 launch because of a power-system problem.
Arizona State University and JPL, a division of California Institute of Technology, announced the creation of the Arizona State University Planetary Imaging Facility and Advanced Training Institute (PIF-ATI) for the study of Mars. Arizona State University and JPL would jointly fund the new facility, which the two institutions intended for scientists and students to use. PIF-ATI expanded on a facility originally planned in support of the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), scheduled to fly on the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. PIF-ATI would offer scientists and students outside the project greater access to instruments and data, providing access for university students, for students of the fifth through twelfth grades, and for their teachers.
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