> >The New York Times via DowVision > >Photography Satellite Disappears After Liftoff >The New York Times via DowVision via Newscast Today [Rcvd:Apr 28,05:00:00 >EDT] > >Publication Date: Wednesday April 28, 1999 > >National Desk; Section A; Page 20, Column 2 > >c. 1999 New York Times Company > >AP > >LOS ANGELES, April 27 -- A civilian satellite that can take highly detailed > photographs disappeared shortly after liftoff today. > >An Athena 2 rocket carrying the Ikonos 1 satellite took off from a >launching pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base at 11:22 >A.M., bound for an orbit 400 miles high. > >Communications with the spacecraft ended about eight minutes after liftoff, > as planned, but it failed to re-establish contact as >expected later in the flight. > >Officials could not say whether the spacecraft remained in orbit but said >that Federal agencies that tracked orbiting objects >should be able to answer the question in a few days. > >Ikonos 1 is the second such American commercial satellite to fail right >after launching. Officials of the company that >commissioned it, Space Imaging, a privately held Denver company that was >going to operate the satellite, held out a slim hope >that communications might be established with the craft. > >The satellite was built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems. The >Raytheon Company built the communications, >image processing and other elements of the system. Eastman Kodak built the >digital camera system. > >Lockheed Martin said it was investigating. The Athena 2 is a small, >solid-fuel rocket. The Athena program began in 1993, and >the first Athena 2 was successfully launched in January 1998. > >If the 1,600-pound satellite and the fourth stage of its rocket fell from >orbit, there would be little if any risk that they could >survive re-entry of the atmosphere and hit the ground, said Evan McCollum, >a spokesman for Lockheed Martin Astronautics. > >John Copple, chief executive officer of Space Imaging, would not reveal the > satellite's cost, but said it was insured. Space >Imaging has already built a spare satellite. Mr. Copple said he expected it > to be launched before the end of the year. > >The camera of Ikonos 1, whose name means image in Greek, is able to capture > objects of about 10 square feet. That means >the satellite would be able to distinguish between a car and a truck, >officials at Space Imaging said. > >The digital camera system could not distinguish individual people but could > identify a large crowd if the context, like as a >stadium, was in the image. > >Until now, only military satellites have been able to photograph Earth in >such detail. Some experts said they worried that images >from Ikonos 1 could be used by terrorists or foreign governments to plan >attacks or spot troop mobilizations. > >The Federal Government approved the satellite in 1994. Space Imaging said >it expected its clients to use the images for urban >planning, oil and gas exploration, mapping, monitoring natural disasters, >the environment and farmland and planning >communication networks. > >John Pike, an authority on space reconnaissance with the private Federation > of American Scientists in Washington, pointed out >that the Government would not allow images of some places to be sold. > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put "unsubscribe MAPINFO-L" in the message body, or contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
