Corsham Viton
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On Tuesday, 6 January 1998 at 08:00:00 UTC, Nathan Hull wrote:
> MARS MISSION DELAYED, SABOTAGE SUSPECTED Copyright 1992 by the Phoenix Foundation. All rights reserved. 1992, August 28-(Charlotte Observer) Mars launch faces delay, NASA says A U.S. spacecraft being prepared for launching to Mars is seriously contaminated with metal filings, paint chips and other trash and will not be able to begin its journey on schedule, NASA said Thursday. The contamination may have been introduced when technicians were trying to protect the spacecraft from Hurricane Andrew. The problem with the Mars Observer was discovered in a routine inspection Tuesday night at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. NASA officials said the spacecraft would be removed from its Titan 3 rocket, now on the launching pad, and returned to a hangar for cleaning. The mission, the first to Mars by a U.S. craft since 1975, had been scheduled for launching on Sept. 16. If the spacecraft is not launched by Oct. 13, it faces a 26-month delay, until the Earth and Mars are again properly aligned. This just in to us from Alan Shawn Feinstein, Alhambra Circle, Cranston, RI 02905: "Richard Hoagland has just called to tell me that his NASA contacts have assured him that the launch date is now all set for September 25th!... "But there was a very puzzling occurrence you should know about... Richard says that while cleaning the contamination, NASA unexpectedly found additional contamination in the Observer camera that will be taking the pictures of Mars - contamination that was NOT related to Hurricane Andrew... If it was not for the other contamination resulting from Hurricane Andrew, this unscheduled cleaning would not have taken place and the contamination on the camera would not have been found until it was too late to do anything about it - the photos we've been waiting for (of the Mars Face) could not have been taken!... "So - if it wasn't for Hurricane Andrew, that camera contamination would never have been found and corrected. How this contamination on the camera occurred - on a project so carefully monitored, nobody knows at this time. But an investigation is underway... I'll keep you informed of any further developments." Nathan Hull