Tim Furniss/LONDON
The US Air Force has written off $682 million following the loss of the Defence Support Programme DSP19 early warning satellite, which was stranded in elliptical orbit on 10 April.
The TRW-built satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, into a low earth orbit (LEO), attached to a Boeing inertial upper stage (IUS) by a Lockheed Martin Titan 4B booster. Aiming for an operational, circular, 36,000km geostationary orbit, the DSP19 was placed into a correct geostationary transfer orbit by the first stage of the IUS. The second-stage firing was terminated prematurely, however.
The 2,500kg DSP satellite separated from the IUS, but controllers did not deploy the solar panels of the rotating spacecraft in case they broke off, and the craft's battery power dwindled.
The USAF says the satellite loss is not a major problem, since it has a full constellation of DSP satellites in geostationary orbit providing worldwide coverage. Another DSP launch is planned for December.
The IUS has been used 22 times on Titan and Space Shuttle missions, with two failures. An IUS is due to place the Chandra X-Ray Observatory into a high orbit after deployment into LEO from the Space Shuttle Columbia STS93 on 9 July.
Source: Flight International
