NASA's Lunar Trailblazer Mission Ends In Disappointment (engadget.com) 18
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission ended prematurely after losing contact with the satellite just one day post-launch, the agency announced today. Engadget reports: The NASA satellite was part of the IM-2 mission by Intuitive Machines, which took off from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center on February 26 at 7:16PM ET. The Lunar Trailblazer successfully separated from the rocket as planned about 48 minutes after launch. Operators in Pasadena, CA established communication with the satellite at 8:13PM ET, but two-way communication was lost the next day and the team was unable to recover the connection. From the limited data ground teams received before the satellite went dark, the craft's solar arrays were not correctly positioned toward the sun, which caused its batteries to drain. "While it was not the outcome we had hoped for, mission experiences like Lunar Trailblazer help us to learn and reduce the risk for future, low-cost small satellites to do innovative science as we prepare for a sustained human presence on the Moon," said Nicky Fox, associate administrator at NASA Headquarters' Science Mission Directorate. "Thank you to the Lunar Trailblazer team for their dedication in working on and learning from this mission through to the end."
Fitting (Score:5, Interesting)
The main Lunar lander part of the IM-2 mission also failed due to power loss resulting from the lander being in the incorrect orientation, and thus not generating sufficient power from its solar arrays. Cursed mission?
What as a nation, do we do pretty well these days? (Score:4, Interesting)
... but two-way communication was lost the next day and the team was unable to recover the connection. From the limited data ground teams received before the satellite went dark, the craft's solar arrays were not correctly positioned toward the sun, which caused its batteries to drain.
Just asking...
Re:What as a nation, do we do pretty well these da (Score:5, Insightful)
What as a nation, do we do pretty well these days?
Steering things in the wrong direction, apparently — solar panels, the country, etc.
Re: What as a nation, do we do pretty well these d (Score:1, Offtopic)
Not gonna do it. Wouldn't be prudent.
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Not gonna do it. Wouldn't be prudent.
Say what you will about Bush Sr., but that line has some staying power and makes me chuckle every damned time, even when the subject is serious. Dana Carvey talking about being invited to the White House during Sr.'s presidency and then being asked to prank call Gorbechev on the red phone pretending to be him was one of the most hilarious things I've ever heard of a sitting president doing.
Wow skills (Score:1)
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Your snark would hit harder if you could get the dates right.
Apollo 8 [wikipedia.org] was the first human mission to the moon. It flew in December 1968. The first landing (Apollo 11 [wikipedia.org]) was July 1969.
Turn in your nerd card. Or at least fact-check yourself before ranting.
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To be fair, the Apollo program had plenty of fails before it managed a successful landing.
Not in the least one where they burnt 3 astronauts alive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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"They" from 1967 are not the same people that built Lunar Trailblazer.
In the 1960s, NASA ran 29 unmanned missions to the moon. 17 of those failed. Every failure was analyzed and the results used to improve subsequent missions. This approach resulted in massive increases in mission success. Much of this could be distilled into documented procedures that have been followed by most spaceflight missions since. That collective experience was key to making Apollo successful. And continues to be part of why most m
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yeah, NASA really was the Department of Extraordinary Innovation back then!
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I'm not sure I understand.
From what I see, NASA gave them some money to come up with this. It didn't work. NASA didn't design it. NASA didn't build it. NASA didn't test it. They financed it. That was about it.
So why is it suddenly, "NASA sucks, man! They can't even send a satellite to the Moon. Where's the NASA of yesteryear?"
It makes me think of a launch that happened back in 2014. [wikipedia.org] Fox News loudly proclaimed how awesome it was that private industry was taking over these NASA launches because now w
I'm sure Trump can fix this... (Score:1)
Re: I'm sure Trump can fix this... (Score:1)
Because it couldn't possibly be someone's else's fault. It must be Trump's. You libs are pathetic