karn@eagle.UUCP (07/09/83)
The first apogee burn scheduled for 21:37 UTC today (about a half hour ago) did not take place. The onboard software detected that the attitude was slightly out of tolerance, so the computer aborted the burn sequence. We in the US had a good "fire drill", however. The satellite was right on the horizon, with enough signal to tell that the beacons had switched, as they were supposed to for the burn, but not enough signal to decode the beacons to determine if the burn had actually taken place! Word that the burn had not actually taken place came shortly afterwards from Germany. We'll keep you posted on a new burn schedule... Phil Karn, KA9Q