Mar 8 1999
From The Space Library
NASA announced the end of the scientific mission of its WIRE satellite, after the craft released into space its entire supply of frozen hydrogen, a critical element of the mission. Preliminary reports indicated that the satellite had released the primary telescope cover three days earlier than planned, exposing the telescope's cryostat to sunlight. The sunlight had warmed the frozen hydrogen in the cryostat, which was supposed to maintain the telescope's temperature, causing the hydrogen to vent into space at a much higher rate than planned. Ground controllers believed the fast venting of the hydrogen had caused the satellite to spin, but they did not yet know what had caused the release of the telescope cover.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
