THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 6, 1996 TAG: 9611060424
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ATLANTIC LENGTH: 36 lines
A rocket launched from an airplane off the Virginia coast soared to its proper orbit, but the two scientific satellites it carried failed to release properly and may be useless.
Both Orbital Science Corp., which owned the Pegasus XL rocket, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration appointed investigating boards to look into Monday's launch.
One of the spacecraft, called the Scientific Applications Satellite, which goes by the acronym SAC-B, was designed to look at solar flares and gamma ray bursts. It was a cooperative project between NASA and Argentina's National Commission of Space Activities.
The SAC-B and another satellite called the High Energy Transient Experiment remained attached to the rocket's third stage. Ground controllers at NASA's Goldstone tracking station in California received data from the SAC-B, indicating it was still alive.
Engineers believe that four of its five scientific instruments may still be functioning.
The HETE was unable to deploy its power-producing solar panels and its battery was expected to die quickly.
The HETE carried three instruments, a gamma ray burst detector, an X-ray camera and ultraviolet cameras. It was a joint project between NASA and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The cost of the loss could not be determined immediately.
The rocket was released from Orbital's L-1011 plane 100 miles east of Wallops Island. It climbed to its intended orbit of 164 miles by 184 miles.
Data obtained from Goldstone indicated the two spacecraft did not separate from the rocket. by CNB