Chantilly, USA – August 28, 1997 – NASA flight controllers in Chantilly, Va. report that the Lewis remote sensing satellite launched last Friday is tumbling out of control and the mission possibly lost. Space engineers reported that at 6 am Tuesday data sent down from Lewis indicated the satellite had started spinning rapidly, up to two revolutions per minute. As a result of the spinning, the spacecraft’s power-producing solar panels were unable to generate full electrical power. With the satellite dependent upon its onboard batteries to make up the difference, the batteries were drained down below their minimum critical levels. NASA tried and failed four additional times to communicate with the satellite.
The space agency has about three weeks to ‘rescue’ the crippled craft by some means of commanding its control system before atmospheric drag sends the craft hurtling back through the atmosphere and destruction. While officials emphasized that the cause for the malfunction is not yet known, one strong possibility is a misfiring thruster onboard the satellite. Lewis rode a Lockheed Martin LMLV-1 i to orbit late Friday from Vandenberg Air Force Base’s Commercial Spaceport, following months of delay. The $71 million dollar mission is a research flight, testing new hyperspectral imagers and low cost advanced technologies for small space vehicles.
