X-SciTech

New Satellite Snafu

May 19, 1999 / 5:39 PM EDT / AP

A Boston University-built satellite launched this week on a $12.3 million ionosphere research mission was apparently orbiting without power Wednesday after failing to fully point its solar panels toward the sun.

The Terriers satellite "seems to have run out of battery power," the university said. The batteries were good for eight hours without being recharged by the solar panels.

"We haven't heard from the spacecraft since yesterday, which leads us to believe the batteries are probably depleted," said Dan Cotton, a senior researcher at the university's Center for Space Physics who is principal investigator for the project.

Cotton said he was hopeful the solar panels will slowly charge the batteries and that eventually Terriers will turn itself on. The orbit and spin were believed to be correct.

The satellite was developed under a NASA program to increase students' access to space. More than 60 students and faculty members worked on the mission since 1995.

Terriers was the latest small NASA satellite to run into trouble.

In March, the $73 million Wide-Field Infrared Explorer satellite spun out of control on its second orbit. The fatal spin involved the unexpected venting of frozen hydrogen intended to cool the instrument.

In 1997, the $64.8 million Lewis satellite was lost within days of launch on what was supposed to be a five-year mission of hyperspectral imaging of Earth. It also began spinning, apparently due to excessive firing of an attitude-control thruster.

The problem also comes amid wider problems in the nation's space capability. In less than nine months, six launch failures have wrecked missions involving three military satellites, two commercial communication satellites and a private Earth-imaging satellite. The cost of these failures runs into billions of dollars.

Terriers, carrying instruments to produce 3-D images of the ionosphere, cost $6.1 million. Its share of launch costs amounted to $6.2 million.

All seemed well when the 274-pound Terriers made its first pass over the Boston University ground station at 7:07 a.m. EDT Tuesday. On the second pass about 1-1/2 hours later controllers noticed it was not properly oriented and tried to reorient it with commands on the next pass. Terriers passed over silently 10 hours later.