Sep 6 2003
From The Space Library
While moving NOAA's 14-foot (4.3-meter) NOAA-N Prime weather satellite from a vertical to a horizontal position, workers at a Lockheed Martin plant dropped the nearly completed US$239 million craft, causing serious damage. Lockheed Martin spokesperson Buddy Nelson stated that the cart holding the spacecraft “was not in the proper configuration for the planned activity.” NASA's GSFC was responsible for overseeing the construction and launch of the satellite, and NOAA would assume control of the craft once it was in orbit. Lockheed Martin Space Systems]] Company had been building weather satellites since the NOAA satellites' initial launch in the early 1 960s. (Associated Press, “$239M Satellite Damaged at Lockheed Plant,” New York Times, 10 September 2003.
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