-Caveat Lector- (These guys are costing us a Fortune!!) Prez: Rocket Failures Must Stop Reuters 5:50 p.m. 19.May.99.PDT President Clinton wants to get to the bottom of the recent rash of rocket misfires. He directed Defense Secretary William Cohen Wednesday to provide a report on why a string of six US space launches has failed. "It is vitally important that we fully understand the root causes behind the recent launch vehicle failures and take corrective action," Clinton said in a memo to Cohen. Over the past nine months, six US space launches using expendable rockets have ended either in destruction or with satellites stranded in useless orbits. Three of the incidents involved military payloads atop the heavy-lift Titan 4 rockets while the other three were commercial payloads on small Delta III and Athena vehicles. The losses generated by the failures have totaled about US$3.5 billion, $3 billion of which represents lost government flight hardware. More than $500 million was lost in commercial satellites and rockets. Clinton asked Cohen to coordinate his investigation with CIA director George Tenet and NASA administrator Dan Goldin. He asked for an interim report in 90 days and a final report in six months on the causes and "actions required to ensure our future access to space." Titan 4 maker Lockheed Martin and the Air Force have already announced investigations. Boeing is also convening a team of government and industry experts headed by the former chief engineer of the Delta II program, Dr. Russ Beck, to look into the problem with the Delta III stage. On 30 April, a giant Titan 4 rocket put an $800 million military satellite into the wrong orbit. That came three weeks after another Titan placed a smaller missile-warning satellite into the wrong orbit. On 12 August 1998, another Titan and its $1 billion, classified military satellite blew up after launch due to a power supply malfunction caused by an electrical short circuit. In addition to those three military launch failures, contact was lost last week with a remote-sensing Ikonos satellite shortly after it was launched on a Lockheed Athena rocket for a private firm. That failure at least temporarily delayed hopes by the private company to begin selling commercial high-resolution satellite imagery previously available only to the military. http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/19780.html --------------- See also: Titan Misfire Caused by Software http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/19611.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Bard Visit me at: The Center for Exposing Corruption in the Federal Government http://www.xld.com/public/center/center.htm Federal Government defined: ....a benefit/subsidy protection racket! DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
