$50M NASA Satellite Falls Into Ocean

By Associated Press

September 22, 2001, 6:26 AM EDT

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Investigators are trying to determine why a privately owned rocket carrying satellites and the cremated remains of 50 people failed during launch and apparently fell into the Indian Ocean.

Orbital Sciences Corp. said it is convening an investigation board to determine why its Taurus rocket veered from its intended flight path on Friday.

NASA lost its ozone-monitoring QuikTOMS satellite at a cost of $50 million, including $11 million for its share of the launch. Orbital Imaging Corp. lost its OrbView-4 satellite, which was designed to take high-resolution images of the Earth for sale.

The Taurus reached an orbit 266 miles high and could have placed the satellites there but lacked the proper velocity, causing the satellites to re-enter the atmosphere, said NASA spokesman Ed Campion.

Instead, the satellites apparently hit the water northeast of Madagascar, Campion said.

"They were essentially low and slow," he said.

It was the first failure of Orbital Sciences' four-stage Taurus in six launches since 1994.

Celestis Corp., a Houston company that launches small capsules of human remains into space for $5,300 apiece, had sent portions of ashes of 50 people up with the rocket. Families of the deceased are made aware of the risk and are asked to provide a second sample of cremated remains for a second attempt is the launch fails, said Charles Chafer, the company's chief executive.

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On the Net:

http://quiktoms.gsfc.nasa.gov/

http://www.orbimage.com/

http://www.celestis.com/

http://www.orbital.com/

(PROFILE (CO:Orbital Sciences Corp; TS:ORB; IG:ARO;) ) Copyright © 2001, The Associated Press

-- Anonymous, September 22, 2001

Answers

Don't we have enough junk up there without sending cremated remains?

-- Anonymous, September 22, 2001