- A US missile warning satellite launched
by the troubled Titan rocket programme is in the wrong orbit, according
to the US Air Force.
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- The $250m Defence Support Programme satellite
went up without a hitch from Cape Canaveral on Friday on board the unmanned
Titan 4B rocket.
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- But a spokeswoman for the satellite's
control centre at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado said: "The
satellite was not placed in its required geosynchronous orbit."
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- She said two rocket firings required
to position the satellite did occur but it had still failed to find its
correct orbit 19,320 miles above the equator.
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- It is now travelling on an egg-shaped
loop around Earth.
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- The spy satellite and its rocket together
are estimated to have cost about $682m.
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- The latest mishap follows an explosion
that destroyed the latest rocket's predecessor, Titan 4A, and its satellite
cargo shortly after launch last August.
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- Archive of last August's explosion
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- That accident was estimated to be one
of the most expensive space disasters yet, costing approximately $1bn.
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- Schriever Air Force Base said it was
"looking at every angle possible to see what can be done to salvage
the satellite".
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- Similar satellites have been watching
over the Balkans as Nato conducts air strikes against Yugoslavia. The network
was also used extensively during the Gulf War to spot Iraqi Scud missile
launches.
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- They are designed to detect missile launches
and nuclear detonations by using an infrared sensor to detect heat from
missile and booster plumes against the Earth's background.
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