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To: jim black who wrote (5734)	4/11/1999 4:27:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 10852

U.S. Missile-Warning Satellite In Wrong Orbit Sunday April 11 1:33 AM ET By Steven Young CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A $250 million missile-warning satellite launched Friday was stranded in the wrong orbit in what could be another multimillion dollar failure for the U.S. Air Force, officials said late Saturday. ''The satellite was not placed in its required geosynchronous orbit,'' said Patsy Bomhoff, a spokeswoman at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado, where the satellite is controlled. The Defense Support Program satellite was lofted into a low Earth orbit by a U.S. Air Force Titan 4 rocket Friday in the first launch for the booster since a spectacular mid-air explosion last August. A two-stage Inertial Upper Stage, built by Boeing Co ., was then to have raised the satellite into a 22,300 mile (35,887 kms) orbit above the equator, with two separate boosts. Although the two rocket firings appeared to have occurred, the satellite ended up in an egg-shaped orbit, Bomhoff said. ''It was not able to get it into the required orbit.'' Air Force Space Command, based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, ordered an investigation into the failure, which follows the $1 billion loss of a top secret spy satellite in August's launch explosion. If Friday's launch is also deemed a complete loss it will be another costly setback for the U.S. military. The Titan 4 and its upper stage, used in Friday's mission, was valued at $432 million and the satellite cost a further $250 million. Ground controllers at Schriever Air Force Base were in contact with the missile warning satellite and were trying to determine if it could be raised into its correct orbit using its onboard fuel. ''They're looking at every angle possible to see what can be done to salvage the satellite,'' Bomhoff said. The U.S. military employs a constellation of Defense Support Program satellites like the one launched Friday to detect and pinpoint missile launches and nuclear detonations. At least one of the satellites already in orbit was watching over the Balkans, where NATO is conducting air strikes against Yugoslavia, said Craig Lowery, chief of the Air Force's Warning Operations Branch. The satellites were also used extensively during the Gulf war to spot Iraqi Scud missile launches. Another Titan 4 is scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral on April 30, but it will use a different upper stage rocket to position a military communications satellite in orbit. A top secret Titan 4 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is also planned for May 4. It was not known if those missions would now be delayed. NASA officials will also be alarmed by the apparent failure of the Titan's upper stage rocket. They plan to use the same type of rocket this July to boost a $1.5 billion X-ray observatory from the space shuttle Columbia into a high altitude orbit. Copyright © 1999 Reuters Limited.