May 31, 2000
FIRST BURN FOR THE RE-ENTRY OF THE COMPTON GAMMA RAY
The first of four burns necessary for reentry of NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) was initiated at 9:51 p.m. EDT, May 30 by controllers at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Compton's Attitude Control thrusters and Orbit Adjust thrusters were fired for 23 minutes. The descent burn lowered the spacecraft's orbitís perigee from 316 miles (510 kilometers) to 226 miles (364 kilometers).
"I am thrilled, everything went as expected. All systems performed nominally," said Mansoor Ahmed, CGRO reentry mission manager from Goddard.
After the failure of one of Compton's three gyroscopes, NASA decided to bring the satellite back via a controlled reentry. NASA has determined that it is much safer to bring the satellite back now to safe guard against further system failures in the spacecraft which might hinder a controlled reentry. Compton is scheduled to reenter the Earth's atmosphere on June 4 in an isolated area of the Pacific Ocean, southeast of Hawaii.
The next scheduled burn is planned for Wednesday, May 31 at 10:41 p.m. EDT. A second status report will follow the conclusion of burn #2.
Nancy Neal, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. (Phone: 301-286-0039)
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