MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Contact: Don Savage
NASA Headquarters
(202) 358-1727
Lynn Jenner
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
(301) 286-0045

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMarch 5, 1999

NASA WORKING TO CORRECT SPIN RATE OF WIRE SPACECRAFT

       Ground controllers are attempting to recover a NASA spacecraft that was unable to maintain a stable position in orbit after launch Thursday.

       The Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) spacecraft began to experience a problem during its second pass over a ground station, following a successful launch at 6:57 p.m. PST from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA. The Poker Flats, AK, ground station determined that WIRE was still spinning instead of maintaining a stable position in orbit and was warmer than expected. The WIRE team has declared a spacecraft emergency and is communicating with the spacecraft while attempting to slow the spin rate and cool the WIRE spacecraft.

       "Recovery of the spacecraft is our top priority," said Ken Ledbetter, director of the Mission and Payload Development Division in the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. "The spacecraft carries frozen hydrogen to cool its instrument, and we believe that the hydrogen is venting as it warms up, causing the spacecraft to spin. However, at this time, spacecraft controllers do not know what specifically caused the situation."

       A spacecraft recovery team has been formed, headed by David Everett of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. In addition to the recovery team, an anomaly investigation board is being formed.

       Further updates will be released as information concerning WIRE's anomaly is obtained.

       The WIRE observatory consists of a three-axis-stabilized spacecraft designed, built and tested by the Small Explorer Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and a cryogenically cooled infrared telescope provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

#####