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- CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Corrupted computer software loaded into a Titan
4 rocket is being blamed for wrecking a $1.2 billion military space mission,
the most costly in a string of six U.S. launch failures, a respected trade
magazine reported Monday.
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- A Centaur upper stage booster on the
Lockheed Martin Titan 4 rocket veered off course about nine minutes after
blasting off from Cape Canaveral on April 30, leaving a sophisticated $800
million military communications satellite in the wrong orbit.
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- ``The Centaur upper stage was launched
carrying an inaccurate software load from Lockheed Martin that went undetected
in the company's software verification process,'' the May 10 edition of
Aviation Week and Space Technology reported.
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- After starting to malfunction, the incorrectly
programmed booster went haywire, firing its twin engines at the wrong times
and releasing its costly cargo three hours early into an orbit thousands
of miles too low.
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- Workers at the Lockheed Martin, Littleton,
Colorado, plant that prepared and tested the software were ``emotionally
devastated'' the magazine said. Employees there were already struggling
to cope with the murders of students at Columbine High School, where many
of their children attended class, and the recent announcement of 900 job
cuts.
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- The Titan 4 failure was the costliest
in a string of U.S. space misfortunes. In the last nine months two satellites
were blown apart in midair explosions, three marooned in the wrong orbits
and another vaporized in the atmosphere. Over $3.5 billion of space hardware
has been lost.
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- Lockheed Martin, which suffered three
launch failures in April alone, and the U.S. Department of Defense last
week announced separate inquiries into the rash of space mishaps.
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