3 ms·

What researcher launches a new project every 5 years? NASA does, but each mission is unique to some new academic or research group. The team from U of C isn't l

What researcher launches a new project every 5 years? NASA does, but each mission is unique to some new academic or research group. The team from U of C isn't launching in 4 years or probably ever. Its heartbreaking for them. They fought for this mission, somehow pulled it off, and lost it. NASA has other missions to launch. There's no going back. This is also why critical missions like spy satellites are often built in pairs. One to launch, and if blown up, the mission gets a second chance with another rocket at a later date. Science missions don't often have this luxury. You get one shot and if it fails, too bad. edit: note I wrote 'often' not always. You don't know if your mission will get a second chance and that's the stressful part. If this was a mission to study Earth's climate change would it have gotten a second chance under the current administration? Probably not.

gus_massa 10y ago
At the end of the article: > Lindbergh and her team rebuilt their experiment—again—and put it on another rocket last April, a Falcon 9 launching from Cape Canaveral. She watched as the engines ignited, the smoke billowed out, and the rocket rose.
mturmon 10y ago
I agree with what you're saying. I can give some examples. When the CO2 monitoring satellite OCO failed to reach orbit in 2009, a replacement was built, partly from flight spares, called OCO-2. It was launched about 4 years later and continues to operate. Most of the team remained intact throughout the interim period. Due to the same launch vehicle problem, in a separate launch attempt, the Glory satellite failed to reach orbit. But I don't believe it was replaced in the same way. Some missions are highly successful, and they tend to have successor missions. I suppose most mission teams aspire to this status. The JPL Mars program is an example. A succession of more-capable solar monitoring satellites has been launched by a team including Stanford and Lockheed, which has remained stable over 2 decades now.

gus_massa 10y ago

At the end of the article: > Lindbergh and her team rebuilt their experiment—again—and put it on another rocket last April, a Falcon 9 launching from Cape Canaveral. She watched as the engines ignited, the smoke billowed out, and the rocket rose.

mturmon 10y ago

I agree with what you're saying. I can give some examples. When the CO2 monitoring satellite OCO failed to reach orbit in 2009, a replacement was built, partly from flight spares, called OCO-2. It was launched about 4 years later and continues to operate. Most of the team remained intact throughout the interim period. Due to the same launch vehicle problem, in a separate launch attempt, the Glory satellite failed to reach orbit. But I don't believe it was replaced in the same way. Some missions are highly successful, and they tend to have successor missions. I suppose most mission teams aspire to this status. The JPL Mars program is an example. A succession of more-capable solar monitoring satellites has been launched by a team including Stanford and Lockheed, which has remained stable over 2 decades now.