* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: DART

Blobrana · L

Citing sensitive information, NASA has said that they will not publicly release their official report on the failure of DART spacecraft during a mission to rendezvous with a Pentagon satellite.
During the mission, DART collided with MUBLCOMM (Multiple Beam Beyond Line-of-sight Communication) satellite.
According to Michael Braukus, a space agency spokesman, the 70-page document contains details protected by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

An initial analysis found that the 800-pound spacecraft suffered a fuel problem, but engineers did not detect a fuel leak.
NASA plans to release a summary of the report that will explain why DART did not complete its mission.

Blobrana · L

NASA's Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology spacecraft was launched from an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL vehicle on Friday, April 15 2005 during the 7-minute launch window (1721 - 17:28 GMT) at 1726 GMT.
the Pegasus was dropped from a L-1011 carrier aircraft over the Pacific Ocean approximately 100 miles offshore from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The DART spacecraft is about 1.8 metres long, and weighs approximately 800 pounds with fuel. It will be placed into a 760 km high circular polar orbit at an inclination of 97.7 degrees.
"DART will act as a proving ground for ever more ambitious missions that will require spacecraft to steer and dock with each other without human guidance" - Jim Snoddy, DART programme manager.

The spacecraft`s first mission was to rendezvous with the MULBCOM target satellite.

Unfortunately, after acquisition of the target spacecraft, and approaching to within approximately 300 feet, DART placed itself in the retirement phase, after detecting a fuel problem, before completing all planned proximity operations, ending the mission prematurely.
NASA is convening a mishap investigation board to determine the reason for the DART spacecraft anomaly, but it seems that the spacecraft may have accidentally hit the satellite that it was merely supposed to approach, knocking it into a higher orbit .

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