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Re: MCO



At 01:04 PM 9/25/99 EDT, you wrote:
>>Somebody just told me that they had heard that MCO was lost yesterday.
>>Is this true? I have not heard anything of it, and usually this list is an
>>excellent source of JPL information.
>  
>Hello Gene,
>
>Yes, it is true.  Due to a navigational (i.e., human) error it dipped down 
>too low into the Martian atmosphere when it went behind the planet and most 
>likely broke up.  The signal was not aquired at the time it was expected to 
>come out from around the planet's limb and engineers believe this is what 
>happened.

   I heard it could have been a software issue too maybe. 

>Reminds me of what happend to Mars Observer of a few years ago.

  Well, the Mars observer blew some plumbing if I remember right. 

>Out of around 20 missions to Mars about a dozen have been failures. 

  Are you sure? That many? Sounds too high. Ron you out there?

>-Walter Branch

Regards,
Tom Randall

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