Word: payloads
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Last week's launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base ended the string of failures. The rocket carried into orbit a secret military payload that independent experts believe to be a KH-11 photo-reconnaissance satellite, enabling the U.S. to monitor Soviet compliance with arms agreements...
...first stage separated and dropped to earth as planned. At nearly 14,000 m.p.h. and 60 miles up, the second stage fell away and splashed into the Pacific Ocean "in strict conformity with the flight mission," as the official report put it. Then, unexpectedly, there was a glitch: the payload, a full-size dummy satellite, crashed into the sea because of a "faulty operation of its onboard systems," instead of propelling itself into orbit...
...rare failure. Less than a minute after lift-off from Pad 36B at Cape Canaveral in threatening weather, a $78 million, 137-ft. rocket disappeared into rain- swollen thunderheads and went out of control. A range safety officer hit the destruct button, and the rocket exploded along with its payload, an $83 million communications satellite. For NASA, struggling to recover from the loss of the Challenger shuttle 14 months ago, the aborted flight broke a string of seven successful launches since September. The cause was not immediately known, although a leading suspect was lightning...
Next year Great Wall plans to launch its first commercial payload, a Westar 6-S communications satellite for New York-based Terasat. It will transmit television programming and business data for Western Union and other users. The Chinese have also signed an agreement to launch a Swedish satellite, and are holding talks with 17 other nations. For customers who are concerned that China may copy the technology in satellites, Great Wall suggests that they package the payload in a sealed container and send along representatives to escort the cargo to the launch site...
Settling were the families of Mission Commander Francis Scobee, High School Teacher Christa McAuliffe, Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka and Payload Specialist Gregory Jarvis. The families, who initiated the talks in August, are expected to receive at least $750,000 each, paid out over several years. In exchange, they have waived their rights to future claims against NASA and its personnel and contractors, including Morton Thiokol, the company that built Challenger's solid-fuel rocket boosters. Last year a Government commission concluded that a failure in one of the boosters caused the orbiter to explode...