Posted on 07/27/2006 5:47:21 AM PDT by Kurt_Hectic
The second student-built satellite in the NCube project has likely met an even worse fate than the first.
A Russian launch rocket carrying the Norwegian project and a dozen others from around the world most likely crashed into a desert in Kazakhstan on Wednesday evening.
"Rudolf" was launched from rocket base Baikonour in Kazakhstan at 9:43 p.m. Norwegian time on Wednesday evening. Oslo engineer Eystein Sæther, technical coordinator of the NCube project, believes that the second attempt to get the special satellite into orbit is now buried in the sand.
"Something went wrong during the launch. For 110 seconds all was well but the second stage did not function as it should have," Sæther said on the Norwegian Space Center web site.
A commission will now investigate what went wrong. The failed rocket was also carrying satellite projects from the USA, South Korea and Japan.
"Rudolf" was built by over 80 students from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Narvik University College, the University of Oslo and the Norwegian University of ife Sciences (UMB) in Ås.
The first version of "Rudolf" was launched successfully last year but no signal was ever received from it. The satellite is designed to monitor ship traffic along the Norwegian coast and to follow the movements of a reindeer herd on the Hardangervidda.
My question would be, with a population so small what does Norway need with a Space Agency anyways?
Ya think?
Unless NASA secretly managed to relocate all those turkey buzzards to Baikonour...
But heck, I used to use the Brief editor from Underware.
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