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Lockheed Martin Drops NOAA Satellite

Posted by michael on from the all-the-king's-horses-being-mobilized dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Last Saturday, engineers at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale were rotating the NOAA-N spacecraft from vertical to horizontal when it slipped and fell - hard. SpaceRef has the story and a graphic photo of the damaged satellite."

1 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Can anybody explain the accident more clearly? by spitzak · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The first impression of the photo is that the satellite tipped completly over from vertical standing on that white framework on the right. You can see another satellite standing up in that position in the background.

    However the description does not match this, it says it fell only three feet, from an apparently horizontal position.

    What I can't see is what was holding it up in that position. Was that fixture (the "roll over cart") removed? Or is it hidden behind it, or attached to the "bottom" (now on the right edge) or what? How exactly did the missing 24 bolts not become noticed until it was in this horizontal position?

    Just curious for more details. Other people's expensive mistakes are always fascinating!