[meteorite-list] Contour Loss Viewed By U.S. Military Sensors

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:08:23 2004
Message-ID: <200209100418.VAA02387_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/contour_update_020909.html

Contour Loss Viewed By U.S. Military Sensors
By Leonard David
space.com
09 September 2002

U.S. military space assets were likely looking in on the now
lost-to-space Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) probe when it fired
its solid-propellant rocket motor on August 15.

The Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland -- maker
of the NASA comet surveying spacecraft -- made the request via the
JPL CONTOUR navigation team two weeks prior to the 50-second burn.
APL wanted to alert military officials that the solid rocket motor
burn would occur as scheduled. The request was primarily to alert
U.S. military organizations so they would not be surprised by the
probe's engine firing, according to an APL source.

Space Command spokesman, Major Barry Venable, told SPACE.com that
"fairly unique capabilities" were used to help NASA find and
determine what happened to CONTOUR. "We made our data available to
them," he said.

U.S. military information gleaned about the seemingly failed probe
would be made available to a newly appointed CONTOUR Mishap
Investigation Board by request, given the proper security
clearances appropriate to the data and a "need to know," Venable
said.

The U.S. Space Command maintains several sensors utilized to conduct
space surveillance in support of military missions. "For reasons of
operational security, I cannot address whether or not any of those
sensors observed the CONTOUR motor burn," Venable said .

Meanwhile, the full CONTOUR 15-person investigation board has been
named. A list made available to SPACE.com includes members, advisors,
and observers. Chaired by Theron Bradley, chief engineer of NASA, the
mishap study group includes experts from Marshall Space Flight Center,
Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as the
Aerospace Corporation.
Received on Tue 10 Sep 2002 12:18:04 AM PDT