Arabsat 4A reported deliberately downed

[Analoguesat]

There are unconfirmed reports that Arabsat 4A as was crashed into the Pacific yesterday. A lad on one of the other forums says he works for the company that made it, and the story was circulating at his workplace. More info as we find it.

[Analoguesat]

Destruction of the unfortunate satellite now confirmed:

HOUSTON - An off-course communications satellite that a private team wanted to rescue and resell has instead been steered to its destruction in Earth's atmosphere, according to the Defense Department and amateur satellite watchers.

The satellite, ArabSat 4A, was launched by a Russian rocket on Feb. 28 but wound up stuck in an orbit lower than its operational altitude.

ArabSat's situation was similar to that of Eight years ago, Asiasat 3, a communications satellite that was launched eight years ago toward a standard geosynchronous orbit over Earth's equator — only to be similarly stuck halfway due to a Russian rocket failure. In that earlier case, engineers came up with a bold scheme to steer Asiasat 3 deep into space and use the moon's gravity to change its orbit into a useful one.

This time, however, the hopes for space magic were dashed by the satellite's deliberate demise.

"We are disappointed," said Dennis Wingo of Orbital Recovery, whose group had coordinated the development of a rescue plan. "But we understand the operators' concerns."

Other participants in Wingo's group included Cesar Ocampo from the University of Texas at Austin, Mike Loucks from Space Exploration Engineering, John Carrico from Applied Defense Solutions Inc. , Rex Ridenoure from Ecliptic Enterprises Corp. and veteran space engineer Gordon Woodcock.

Robotic tug nixed
As soon as ArabSat's predicament became known a month ago, Wingo and the other experts* began working on plan similar to that used in 1998. They found that while there was not quite enough fuel on board for such a rescue mission, they could park the satellite in a convenient location where a robotic space tug, already under development by Orbital Recovery, could push it to a money-making orbit.

Neither the satellite's original owners nor the European insurance team — who assumed ownership once their client declared a "total loss" of the vehicle — turned out to be interested in attempting such a rescue. The satellite builder, EADS Astrium Aerospace in Germany, was told to send the destruct commands to the satellite on Thursday.

Maj. Jeff Jones, a spokesman for the U.S. Strategic Command, told MSNBC.com that ArabSat re-entered the atmosphere over the South Pacific at 9:07 p.m. ET Thursday. "Re-entry was confirmed by infrared sensors," he said.

Even before Jones' report, the absence of the satellite was noted by an informal network of highly skilled amateur satellite watchers who had been monitoring ArabSat since its launch. Texas observers Mike McCants and Ed Cannon reported that they missed spotting ArabSat under conditions that should have yielded a clear sighting.

Variety of proposals
During the month that ArabSat 4A circled Earth in its intermediate orbit, planners on Earth came up with a variety of proposals for salvaging a useful mission even if it could not reach the intended geosynchronous orbit. Since the spacecraft contained a significant amount of rocket fuel, it had more than enough to reach the moon, or even head for interplanetary space.

The problem was, as a communications satellite it had no scientific instrumentation, and its communication system was not designed for lunar distances. Nevertheless, imaginative orbital designers studied flight paths that would place the satellite into lunar orbit — or even into one of the "gravity-neutral zones" in the Earth-moon system. One orbit that would have ranged behind the moon was suggested for a stationkeeping demonstration, to obtain experience in operating a communications relay to support future human missions to the moon.

ArabSat was also considered for a close flyby over the lunar surface, where its radio transmitter could function as a makeshift radar sounder to seek hints of ice in the bottoms of lunar polar craters. Alternately, the 3-ton spacecraft could have been aimed to impact directly inside one of the suspect craters, allowing other spacecraft to look for water vapor in the ejected debris.

None of these missions interested the satellite owners, however, and their urgent cash-flow requirements frustrated several attempts to obtain private transition funding for operations.

Would-be rescuer Wingo was philosophical: "Every time a satellite is left in a stranded orbit," he told MSNBC.com, "an opportunity is lost to save it" for its original purpose or an alternate aim.

Perhaps, he speculated, the next time a communications satellite is stranded — and there will be a next time — a well-defined menu of alternate missions and alternate emergency funding will be available.

source - MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11999597/

[Dogsbelly]

Great story. Shame money or bad nerves got in the way of someone having a play with it.

[BGonaSTICK]

Yes, what a terrible waste. I take it that they crashed it to get the insurance money quicker. They should have been compensated and made to leave it alone until a suitable use could have been decided upon.

[Dogsbelly]

I took it that as soon as the original owners claimed it as a total loss it became the property of the insurance company. Expecting an insurance company to do other than the safest thing would be, well, unexpected

The more I think about it the more annoying it becomes - you spend ages and a fortune getting things in space then have a panic attack because it might land on London or somewhere

[Analoguesat]

More info on the deorbit:

The Arabsat 4A satellite burnt up during controlled re-entry in the
atmosphere on 24 March at 02:07 GMT. It was necessary to de-orbit the
satellite following the failure of the launch vehicle to place it into the
proper orbit.

24 March 2006 - The Arabsat 4A satellite was commanded last night into a
controlled re-entry by EADS Astrium mission control in Toulouse, supported
by a worldwide tracking network. The de-orbit manoeuvre operation
proceeded as planned and was completed successfully. Less than three hours after the final command, the spacecraft was to enter the atmosphere and burn up. Visibility was lost at 01:57. Preliminary data from ground
tracking confirmed the re-entry occurred at 02:07 GMT at the location
predicted.
The Arabsat 4A satellite was declared lost earlier this month after the
Proton Breeze M rocket launched from Baikonur on 1 March failed to reach
the proper orbit. As a result, the satellite could not serve any useful
purpose.

Prior to the de-orbit operation, engineering teams at EADS Astrium, the
prime industrial contractor for Arabsat 4A, on behalf of Arabsat, the
satellite owner, carried out extensive analysis to identify the most
appropriate way to dispose of the satellite. In compliance with space
agencies' guidelines, they determined the best solution was to proceed
with a controlled atmospheric re-entry. In coordination with the French
Space Agency CNES, they carefully calculated the optimal trajectory,
flight path angle and time slot for re-entry over an uninhabited zone of
the Pacific Ocean around 147° West longitude and 40° South latitude. As a
precaution, air traffic and maritime authorities were alerted.

Following the failure of the launch vehicle to place the satellite into
its geo-transfer orbit the Arabsat 4A spacecraft was stranded in far too
low an orbit: 14,676 km altitude apogee; 505 km perigee; inclined at
51.56° to the Equatorial plane, instead of the intended orbit: 35,786 km
apogee; 3,150 km perigee; inclined at 14.2°. The satellite could not reach
a useful orbit, however sufficient fuel was available to perform de-orbit
manoeuvres to dispose of it safely.