Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Sunday

NASA Spacecraft From Failed 1996 Mission Returns to Earth

Aired April 07, 2002 - 18:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: After six years in space, a NASA spacecraft from a failed 1996 mission has returned to earth. U.S. Space Command says parts of the satellite fell to earth somewhere near China last night. Ann Kellan reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It all looked so good six years ago. NASA's high energy transit experiment, nicknamed HETE, piggybacked to a Pegasus rocket, aiming to learn more about how the universe started.

The first and second stages of separation went off without a hitch. Once out of sight, the third stage didn't detach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we appear to have a problem in the electrical system.

KELLAN: HETE never reached its proper orbit, never did its intended job, to study gamma ray bursts, mysterious bursts of energy that occur throughout space. Scientists think they will one day help explain the origin of the universe.

It's not the only spacecraft to fall uncontrollably to earth. Remember Sky Lab, July 1979? It made its final plunge. Much bigger than HETE, the 200,000-pound Sky Lab was a giant worry.

DICK SMITH, NASA: People were talking about Chicken Little, the sky is falling.

KELLAN: Sky Lab had no engines to steer its reentry. Despite NASA's efforts to get it to tumble, it overshot the Atlantic Ocean and scattered in pieces over the outback of Western Australia. No one was hurt.

Since then, engines have been added to guide large spacecrafts to more controlled reentries, like the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory two years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do not predict we'll survive another orbit.

KELLAN: Mission controllers fired the thrusters on board, pushing it to a fatally low orbit, with pieces breaking apart, eventually falling into the Pacific Ocean. And the Russian Space Station Mir, despite its last days orbiting above populated areas of the world, it hit its landing mark right on, into the Pacific, with a fiery light show to boot.

Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com