alb@alice.UUCP (Adam L. Buchsbaum) (02/05/84)
NORAD radar said yesterday that two of the seventeen chunks of debris orbiting above and behind the Challenger were big enough to be the remains of Westar VI and its rocket. Yesterday, ground stations received faint signals on the Westar frequency, too faint to lock on to. Western Union has said that if it is indeed the satellite, which it looks like it is, it is useless anyway, since there is now way to move it to geosynchronous orbit. There are speculations that the PAM malfunction, sending the satellite pinwheeling instead of soraing up. Meanwhile, Indonesia gave NASA permission to deploy its satellite Monday morning at around 1100 EST.
mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) (02/06/84)
What are the chances of the shuttle picking up one or two large pieces of the Westar from orbit and either repairing it or bringing it back down to Earth for repairs by WU? I seem to recall that this was one of the purposes of the shuttle - repair of faulty satellites. Since the remains are a few hundred miles behind the shuttle, is it possible to slow down briefly to wait for it, or would this destroy the orbit? Or could they pick it up on the next mission?
alb@alice.UUCP (02/06/84)
Westar VI, being a geosynchronous satellite that was supposed to be in an orbit inaccessible to the shuttle, was not designed to be rescued in space. Satellites, such as solar max, which are to be picked up by the shuttle, have special hardware (such as things for the RMS to grasp) for that purpose. As for moving the shuttle to Westar VI this mission, NASA said that would take too much fuel.
murray@t4test.UUCP (Murray Lane) (02/16/84)
Regarding not being able to pick up Westar because it has no RMS handle. One of the plans that was discussed a year or two ago (and I thought approved) was to send out an astronaut in a jet backpack, have him grab the handle-less satelite and 'glue' a handle on it. If this is true (I think it is) then the only reason not to pickup errant satelites is because they are in the wrong orbit (too high or too North-South). From what the news reports have said, both of the lost satelites are low enough, does anybody know about their inclination? Murray at Intel-t4test