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February 27, 1996
Web posted at: 5:15 p.m. EST
(CNN) -- The electricity-making tethered satellite may be lost in space, but it will be visible to the naked eye from some points on Earth, astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman told CNN Tuesday from aboard space shuttle Columbia.
"We have a satellite up there with 20 kilometers (12 miles) of tether on it and it will be visible from the ground. It should be an absolutely awesome sight." (196K AIFF sound or 196K WAV sound)
The slender cable linking the shuttle and its half-ton, $400 million satellite broke Sunday night.
"Assuming that it's all strung out," the satellite and the tether will be visible from the southern United States, Hoffman said during an interview with CNN's John Holliman.
It was not immediately known how many viewing opportunities there would be or when they would occur. The satellite and tether are expected to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere within a month.
Putting a positive spin on a disappointing situation, Hoffman said the sighting would be "the only time most people would be able to see something in Earth orbit other than a point of light."
In a development that surprised ground controllers, a radio signal sent Tuesday from the lost satellite showed that its computer and two of its four gyroscopes had stopped working. In addition, both thrusters mysteriously had opened and spewed out nitrogen gas.
Ground controllers looking for clues into why the spacecraft had broken away from space shuttle Columbia could not say whether there was any connection between these problems and Sunday's break of the tether.
The U.S.-Italian satellite has enough battery power to allow communication for another one or two days.
On Tuesday, the shuttle's disappointed crew members turned to the other half of their cargo -- a slew of science studies. Experiments with protein crystals, metals, fire and other materials will take up most of their time until they return to Earth late next week.
The combustion experiments are "going to be valuable if we are ever going to have a reliable fire-detection system" on the planned international space station, astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz said. (204K AIFF sound or 204K WAV sound)
Responding to questions submitted to Holliman by sixth graders from West Virginia, Hoffman said there was little time to be scared when the tether broke.
"The tether is stretched ... like a huge rubber band, and if it breaks away from the shuttle, then we've got that huge rubber band coming at us. ... You really have to act (fast) and if you are scared, you can't do anything."
Scientists had hoped the tethered satellite would yield valuable electricity when dragged by a spaceship through Earth's magnetic field. Before the break, part of the theory had proved true. The metal ball and tether generated up to 3,500 volts.
Astronauts said the frayed tether end remaining aboard Columbia appeared burned, but NASA is refusing to speculate on what went wrong. An investigative board has been set up to find answers.
Italian scientist Marino Dobrowolny said the cord's insulation may have been stripped away, exposing the copper wire. Data on the ground showed the equivalent of a spark or discharge, which may have occurred as the copper passed near metal on the deploying equipment, he said.
Dobrowolny said at least some valuable information was collected in the five hours before the tether broke. In the satellite's first flight, four years ago, the tether jammed only 840 feet out.
Still, some scientists sounded bitter.
"Frankly, an agency that put a man on the moon, in my view, could make engineering a little more reliable," said Mario Grossi, a tether expert and staff scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
"The Italian-made satellite, nobody found the smallest flaw in the satellite. All that is failing is the equipment on board the shuttle, which is NASA."
Associated Press contributed to this report.
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