Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

NASA Satellite Un-stranded

Posted by michael on from the get-out-and-push dept.

Ronnie Coote writes "In March, a previous article mentioned that NASA's latest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (used for communications between Shuttle, Space Station, ground, etc) had been stranded in a low orbit due to fuel leaking from its tanks. Well, thanks to the hard work of Boeing and NASA boffins, it's now reached geostationary orbit and "expected to fulfill its contractually required 15-year service life". More details from Boeing."

3 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. I would have gotton first post by isorox · · Score: 5, Funny

    unfortunatly my first post was routed through this satelite, and got stranded inbetween the tv and 802.11b antennas

  2. RTF Press Release, damn it! by Observer · · Score: 5, Informative
    The problem was not a leaking fuel tank. The Boeing press release linked in the /. story (it's only a few hundred words, for pity's sake) says clearly that the problem was that the pressurant (that is, the thing that pushes the fuel out of the tank to the motor) didn't get to the tank, because of a blockage in a valve.

    But all kudos to the engineers from Boeing and NASA who worked out what the problem was - quite possibly from fairly subtle clues in the telemetry information or some very careful trial and error experiments - and how to get around it and coax the satellite up to its intended orbit.

  3. Treknobabble by Psion · · Score: 5, Funny

    I suspect they rerouted the EPS conduit from the primary pressure manifold to the secondary navigationdal deflector array and used the resulting graviton flux to trigger a rapid nadion cascade and thereby providing just enough kick to get the whole system back into spec. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought the satellite was named "Voyager."