Space Capsule Crashes in Utah

[7/4]

September 8, 2004

Space Capsule Crashes in Utah

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 12:35 p.m. ET

DUGWAY PROVING GROUND, Utah (AP) -- The Genesis space capsule, which promised scientists potential clues to the origin of the solar system, crashed to Earth on Wednesday after its parachute failed to deploy.

It wasn't immediately known whether the cosmic samples had been destroyed. NASA officials believed the fragile disks that hold the atoms would shatter even if the capsule hit the ground with a parachute.

``We're going to get the pieces out,'' said Roger Wiens, a payload leader for Los Alamos National Laboratory. ``It's going to be a lot tougher to sort out the pieces of broken material.''

Hollywood stunt pilots had taken off to hook the capsule's parachute, but the refrigerator-sized capsule -- holding a set of fragile disks containing billions of atoms collected from solar wind -- hit the desert floor without the parachute opening.

The capsule was returning after three years in space as part of six-year project that cost $260 million.

[Bright Moments]

this is such a shame!

[Free For All]

Hollywood stunt pilots had taken off to hook the capsule's parachute

WTF?

[7/4]

Hollywood stunt pilots had taken off to hook the capsule's parachute

WTF?

Instead of a water landing, they were going to grab it while it was landing.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Thank goodness J Larsen wasn't walking by!

[7/4]

NY Times

September 8, 2004

Space Capsule Crashes in Utah

By MARIA NEWMAN and KENNETH CHANG

A NASA capsule bearing precious atomic specimens that Hollywood stunt pilots were prepared to catch as it came into earth's atmosphere crashed into the Utah desert this morning after a parachute that was to supposed to slow its fall failed to deploy.

It was not clear immediately whether the crash had destroyed the probe's cargo — bits of solar matter painstakingly collected over two years that could provide scientists with clues about the origin and evolution of the solar system. Television footage this morning showed the capsule, an inflated disc slightly smaller than a Volkswagen Beetle, hurtling through the air like a runaway hubcap, then crashing into the desert. In a few moments, as the probe lay half-emerged in the hot sand, its round casing cracked open, investigators approached gingerly, circling the probe before they began taking photographs.

The plans for a derring-do capture had enlisted the help of two Hollywood stunt pilots who had practiced their mission for five years after military pilots declined to attempt the rescue. The pilots of the two helicopters were prepared to use a giant hook to latch onto the probe's parachute as it slowly descended to earth.

The probe's cargo is the first extraterrestrial material that NASA has brought back to Earth since Apollo 17 astronauts collected rocks from the Moon in 1972. Scientists hope the material will tell them about the solar system's primordial building materials of gas and dust that later turned into planets.

First, though, scientists had to make sure the material was protected as it made its way to earth after the capsule detached from the probe, Genesis.

By Tuesday morning, Genesis had traveled to a spot within the orbit of the Moon. At 5:50 today the 450-pound capsule containing the solar wind samples was scheduled to detach from the rest of the spacecraft, which remained in space.

After the capsule entered the Earth's atmosphere, traveling at 25,000 miles an hour, an initial parachute was to deploy at a height of 21 miles. It was not clear yet if that took place. A few minutes later, at an altitude of four miles, the main parachute, a winglike parafoil, was to deploy, and the capsule was to glide over the Utah desert.

The two helicopters were waiting in the air over the landing target, an ellipse 23 miles long and 15 miles wide at the Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.

Cliff Fleming, the pilot of the lead helicopter, was to make the first attempt to snag the parafoil with a 20-foot hook in the back of the helicopter. Mr. Fleming said that except for one deliberate miss as a test for the other pilot, Dan Rudert, he successfully caught the parachute in every practice run.

"We did not ever miss one," Mr. Fleming said on Tuesday. "I feel quite confident."

If the parachutes had functioned properly, the pilots would have had enough time to make four attempts to capture the capsule before it hit the ground.

Dr. Donald S. Burnett, the mission's principal investigator, said on Tuesday, "By recovering that composition with Genesis, we will be able to compare the starting composition of all planetary materials with what they are today."

Launched in 2001, the probe traveled 930,000 miles to a point where gravitational forces of the Earth and the Sun cancel out. There, it deployed 55 hexagonal plates made of a variety of materials, including silicon, sapphire and diamond and waited as bits of solar wind — charged atoms, traveling about a million miles per hour, that the Sun continually spews out — embedded themselves in the plates.

After 850 days of collecting, Genesis packed up in April and headed back toward Earth. The mission cost $260 million.

[J Larsen]

Thank goodness J Larsen wasn't walking by!

I figure the chances of any large object falling from the sky and landing in my general vicinity again in my lifetime have to be pretty damn low.

[BFrank]

I thought the the headlines and photos today were classic tabloid "UFO" fare.

If I didn't already know about this, I would have thought that the aliens had landed!

[Jazzmoose]

If I didn't already know about this, I would have thought that the aliens had landed!

Check out Telegraph Avenue on a summer day...

[BFrank]

If I didn't already know about this, I would have thought that the aliens had landed! 

Check out Telegraph Avenue on a summer day...

That's OK.......I work on Market Street - close enough.

[catesta]

Thank goodness J Larsen wasn't walking by!

You're killing me.

[Shrdlu]

Another appalling waste of millions that could have been spent on something useful, such as food or hospitals. Capsule schmapsule. We don't need to know about that stuff anyway.

Some nut was saying the other day that we should park a DNA bank on the Moon in case the Earth is entirely wiped out in a nuclear war. No, really, someone actually said that, apparently. I won't insult your intelligence by listing the obvious objections that could be made.

[jazzbo]

Biggest objection: we should duplicate this mistake? (warmongering homo sapiens)

Edited September 9, 2004 by jazzbo

[Upright Bill]

Another appalling waste of millions that could have been spent on something useful, such as food or hospitals. Capsule schmapsule. We don't need to know about that stuff anyway.

Some nut was saying the other day that we should park a DNA bank on the Moon in case the Earth is entirely wiped out in a nuclear war. No, really, someone actually said that, apparently. I won't insult your intelligence by listing the obvious objections that could be made.

Other famous quotes:

"Look at the damn fool making a wheel, he could have spent that time carrying food."

"What a waste of time looking through that telescope, everyone knows the world is flat."

"Look at those guys wasting time studying mold, what a waste of money!"

[catesta]

Another appalling waste of millions that could have been spent on something useful, such as food or hospitals. Capsule schmapsule. We don't need to know about that stuff anyway.

Some nut was saying the other day that we should park a DNA bank on the Moon in case the Earth is entirely wiped out in a nuclear war. No, really, someone actually said that, apparently. I won't insult your intelligence by listing the obvious objections that could be made.

Other famous quotes:

"Look at the damn fool making a wheel, he could have spent that time carrying food."

"What a waste of time looking through that telescope, everyone knows the world is flat."

"Look at those guys wasting time studying mold, what a waste of money!"

Word.

[Jazzmoose]

Aw, it's been all downhill ever since we climbed down from the trees anyway...

[catesta]

Some of us have yet to climb down.

I was just about to give Johnny a wake up call....

[Shrdlu]

Another appalling waste of millions that could have been spent on something useful, such as food or hospitals. Capsule schmapsule. We don't need to know about that stuff anyway.

Some nut was saying the other day that we should park a DNA bank on the Moon in case the Earth is entirely wiped out in a nuclear war. No, really, someone actually said that, apparently. I won't insult your intelligence by listing the obvious objections that could be made.

Other famous quotes:

"Look at the damn fool making a wheel, he could have spent that time carrying food."

"What a waste of time looking through that telescope, everyone knows the world is flat."

"Look at those guys wasting time studying mold, what a waste of money!"

Oh, come off it! What a shallow response. It totally misses the point.

[Jazzmoose]

I'd say that's exactly the point, Shrdlu, whether you realize it or not.

(Though I must admit, the DNA on the moon thing had me laughing out loud! )

[BFrank]

I don't have a problem with the space program in general.

I do have a problem with hairbrained schemes like Bush's proposal to send humans to Mars. Now THAT'S a monumental waste of time, research and money. It's been often proven that using robotics to explore space is much less costly and infinitely more productive on any number of levels.

[Upright Bill]

Another appalling waste of millions that could have been spent on something useful, such as food or hospitals. Capsule schmapsule. We don't need to know about that stuff anyway.

Some nut was saying the other day that we should park a DNA bank on the Moon in case the Earth is entirely wiped out in a nuclear war. No, really, someone actually said that, apparently. I won't insult your intelligence by listing the obvious objections that could be made.

Other famous quotes:

"Look at the damn fool making a wheel, he could have spent that time carrying food."

"What a waste of time looking through that telescope, everyone knows the world is flat."

"Look at those guys wasting time studying mold, what a waste of money!"

Oh, come off it! What a shallow response. It totally misses the point.

Interesting you phrase it that way. That's exactly what I thought when I read your post.

[robviti]

Another appalling waste of millions that could have been spent on something useful, such as food or hospitals. Capsule schmapsule. We don't need to know about that stuff anyway.

can't say i'm surprised by arguments like this, as it comes from someone who believes this:

That's why all this unscientific evolution nonsense was trumped up. You need that if you don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

when i read such things, i can't help but think about this golden oldie:

"Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." Matthew 15:14