Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/26/express_rm4_satellite_allowed_to_die/
Russia trashes wounded comms satellite
Rescue plans ignored
Posted in Science, 26th March 2012 04:45 GMT
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Despite being the subject of numerous rescue plans, Russia's failed Express-AM4 satellite has been nudged into the atmosphere for a fiery end.
The Express-AM4 satellite launched on August 18th 2011, but failed to reach it's intended orbit and ended up in an unwelcome elipse. Several proposals suggested placing the satellite in a different orbit in which it could be useful even if it did not fulfil the original mission.
Russian Satellite Communications Company's (RSCC) Chief Financial Officer, Dennis Pivnyuk, told a recent conference that the bird was beyond hope. But a late bid by Polar Broadband, a company co-founded by former senior NASA personnel, asked for a stay of execution and suggested the satellite could beam broadband to remote parts of Antarctica where coverage is currently sporadic.
That idea fell on deaf ears, as Spaceflight Now [1] reports the satellite “ was guided on a controlled descent by engineers [and] plummeted into Earth's atmosphere, burning up and spreading debris over the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii.”
Penguins deprived of better broadband were too upset to comment. ®