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Article: The unkindest cut: tethered satellite lost. (space shuttle Columbia loses $440-million satellite when tether snaps)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- March 2, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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This time, it was supposed to work.
And for just under 5 hours, as the crew of the shuttle Columbia reeled out a satellite on the end of a 20-kilometer- long umbilical cord, the experiment in space went like clockwork. Designed to probe Earth's ionosphere and to test an innovative way of ge nerating electricity, the conducting tether swept through our planet's magnetic field at 8 km per second. The motion created an electric potential as great as 3,500 volts between the shuttle and the satellite. At times, when the satellite, the shuttle, an d the ionosphere formed a complete circuit, the tether generated as much as half an ampere of current.
Late on Feb. 25, ...