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The WIRE Satellite Tragedy
 Lockheed Martin
Cryostat to Fly On NASA's Wide Field Explorer
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"The cryostat for WIRE is one of the smallest we've
ever built, and it runs solid hydrogen colder than it has ever been run before -- just 6.5
degrees Kelvin above absolute zero."
NASA
Fact Sheet
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Orbital's
Pegasus Rocket Successfully Launches Astronomy Satellite for NASA
The purpose of the WIRE mission is to study the history of star formation
in the early universe. To accomplish this mission, the WIRE satellite carries a telescope
with no moving parts and a field of view about the size of the full Moon. The telescope is
supercooled to -436 degrees Fahrenheit (-260 degrees Centigrade) using solid frozen
hydrogen so that its own heat emission will not interfere with the light it is trying to
detect from space
Orbital Sciences Corporation
March 5, 1999
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Research Satellite Out
of Control
WIRE
Science Instrument
Runs Out of Hydrogen
Ground controllers are slowly gaining control of
NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE), but the entire supply of frozen hydrogen
needed to cool its primary scientific instrument has been released into space, ending the
scientific mission of the spacecraft.
NASA March 8, 1999
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USU Takes the Blame
for Failure Of $80 Million Satellite Mission |
Three months after a NASA
satellite carrying a Utah-built telescope spun out of control, Utah State University
engineers have found why the $80 million mission failed: An unexpected power surge from a
$2,000 electronic circuit made the telescope cover pop off prematurely.
Harry Ames of USU's Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) said Thursday the
integrated circuit -- essentially an inch-square computer chip made by Actel Corp. of
Sunnyvale, Calif. -- was not defective, but simply behaved in a way never before
detected.... Ames said
USU's investigation found that when the circuit first turned on, it put out a brief
electronic signal -- the power surge -- that made the explosive bolts detonate
prematurely. Engineers believed turning on the circuit would not create an output signal,
although that was not a specification given to Actel, he said.
June 4, 1999
by Lee Siegel The Salt Lake Tribune |
Spacecraft
Failure Cause Revealed
An investigation board
determined that an unexpected electric signal set off explosive fasteners that were
designed to eject a cover over the telescope. The cover was ejected prematurely, exposing
the supercold hydrogen to sunlight. Solar heat caused the hydrogen to convert to gas and
vent into space.
June 25, 1999 Washington Post/AP |
Satellite's Eye Still on Sky
Smaller Scope Functional on Defunct WIRE
Buzasi
approached NASA about using the telescope, which has a camera attached, and got permission
to start recording data with the help of the scientists who worked on the WIRE satellite.
Since then, he’s been able to observe a nearby cool star (a star with a temperature
of about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit) and record starquakes — the first time anyone has
observed such vibrations on a normal, cool star other than our sun.
August 23, 1999 by Michelle Locke
AP/ABC |
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