Starship Asterisk*

[quote="APOD Robot"]Westar 6 was subsequently refurbished and sold[/quote]
Why would anyone want to buy it? What good is it if you cant get it into it's orbit? :? Aw well at least selling it gave some loot back into Uncle Sam's pocket. :mrgreen:

What a nice laugh I had when I followed the "sold" link (last one in the text).

I can imagine that such technology is worth recovering. Gotta be a bit tough to take for people who worked for months (years?) to build it though, just to see it not achieve its goal.

-Noel

Cash for Clunkers?

Does anybody else think of Slim Pickens when seeing this picture??

[url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100111.html][img]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_100111.jpg[/img] [size=150]The Astronaut Who Captured a Satellite[/size][/url]

[b] Explanation: [/b] In 1984, high above the Earth's surface, an astronaut captured a satellite. It was the second satellite captured that mission. [url=http://www.nasaimages.org/luna/servlet/detail/NVA2~32~32~65686~128547:Space-Shuttle----November-1984]Pictured above[/url], astronaut [url=http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/gardner-da.html]Dale A. Gardner[/url] [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090927.html]flies free[/url] using the Manned Maneuvering Unit and begins to [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR6jlWBeHvY]attach a control device[/url] dubbed the Stinger to the rotating Westar 6 satellite. Communications satellite [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westar]Westar[/url] 6 had suffered a rocket malfunction that left it unable to reach its intended high [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_orbit]geosynchronous[/url] orbit. Both the previously caught [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palapa_B2]Palapa B-2[/url] satellite and the [url=http://www.fogonazos.es/2009/12/is-this-man-bravest-astronaut-ever.html]Westar 6 satellite[/url] were guided into the cargo bay of the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-51-A]Space Shuttle Discovery[/url] and returned to Earth. [url=http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/programs/westar.html]Westar 6[/url] was subsequently refurbished and [url=http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/luceneweb/fullimage.jsp?from_month=1&from_day=1&from_year=1900&to_month=12&to_day=31&to_year=3000&datesearch=Go&pageno=989&captionpage=true&photoId=STS51A-104-050&hitsperpage=5]sold[/url].

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