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posted by janrinok on Saturday January 27 2018, @01:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the all-things-come-to-those-who-wait dept.

NASA's Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) instrument, which will study how solar activity affects Earth's upper atmosphere, was launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket and is attached to a commercial satellite. However, GOLD was briefly feared lost along with the two satellites that were launched, until communications were established and it was found that the satellites had been deployed in lower-than-expected orbits:

A brief tracking failure led to fears that the satellite meant to host NASA's new mission to better understand space weather had been lost, according to SpaceFlightNow. Though the European Ariane 5 rocket carrying the satellite lifted off uneventfully, none of the customers with spacecraft on the rocket could reach their probes for some time.

The satellites are in orbit now and have communicated with their control centers, Arianespace announced, but it looks like the rocket deployed the satellites into less than ideal orbits. "The mission experienced some challenges during the launch stages which resulted in the Al Yah 3 satellite being inserted into an orbit that differed from the flight plan," Yahsat, a satellite communications company whose Al Yah 3 vehicle was on the rocket, said in a statement. "However, the satellite is healthy and operating nominally."

The other customer, Luxembourg-based operator SES, also confirmed that its satellite, SES-14, went into a lower orbit than planned but is operating just fine. SES-14 is hosting an instrument called GOLD, which is the first NASA mission to consist of an instrument living on a commercial company's satellite. Both SES and Yahsat say they will figure out a way for the satellites to course-correct in order to get to their originally planned orbits and do their jobs.

An Ariane 5 rocket is scheduled to launch the James Webb Space Telescope in 2019.

Also at the University of Colorado Boulder and Newsweek.

Previously: NASA's GOLD Mission to Study the Upper Atmosphere Using a Commercial Satellite


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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday January 28 2018, @12:36PM (2 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Sunday January 28 2018, @12:36PM (#629420) Homepage
    For the countries of which I'm intimately familiar with their internal politics, I'd describe the other three as "stupid" (UK), "retarded" (Finland), and "dumb" (Estonia). I can proffer "broken" for Latvia, but I'm not familiar enough with the internals to know exactly why the corruptness I see in the results of their decisions come about.

    But yes, with a bell-curve so centred, there will be plenty more, ahem, outliars.
    --
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  • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday January 29 2018, @06:54PM (1 child)

    by isostatic (365) on Monday January 29 2018, @06:54PM (#629948) Journal

    I wouldn't put Theresa May as rich. Nor Brown, Major or Thatcher.

    Blair and Cameron were from rich families, but not excessively rich.

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday January 29 2018, @08:47PM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday January 29 2018, @08:47PM (#630017) Homepage
      Good point - I'd forgotten that I'd included that other predicate. Thanks for the correction. However...

      > Blair and Cameron were cunts

      IFYPFY.
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      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves