NASA Contour Probe May Not Be Broken After All

RedPhoenix writes "A few friends & I got together this morning to visit the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Communication station open day, just outside of Canberra Australia. One of the NASA team mentioned that there have been indications early this morning (AESTime) of a contact with the 'Contour' probe, that has been reported to have broken in two. Perhaps some cause for optimism? The most interesting part of the day though, was probably the little old wooden crate out the back of one of the warehouses, stamped with 'NASA Voyager 1 Mission' ... Now that would look nice as a geek coffee-table."

Comments

I hope NASA are getting facts right

[Anonymous Coward]

This reminds me of the time North Korea launched the "satellite into orbit". It was a test of some missile delivery system. The americans tracked it and observed it going up, then finally crashing in the ocean. The North Koreans, not wanting to admit it was a missle test, claimed they were launching a satellite into orbit. They took the lie as far as to claim the satellite was *in* orbit and they were receiving telemetry from it.

Now we have NASA, and an observation post observing the contour spacecraft broken in two pieces along the original trajectory. Despite that, NASA claims to be hearing from it. This will not make NASA look any better in the public eye. If it's dead, it's dead, and $200million down the drain.