For more information contact:

Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1753)

Nancy Neal
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/286-0039)

Background info on HETE I

HETE II website












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April 04, 2002- (date of web publication)


Current HETE-SAC-B re-entry prediction:
April 7 at 4:41 a.m. Eastern. Re-entry times will be updated as new 
information becomes available.


PARTIAL LAUNCH VEHICLE AND SPACECRAFT TO RE-ENTER EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE




Image 1


The upper stage of a Pegasus launch vehicle with NASA's first High Energy 
Transient Experiment (HETE-1) and the Argentine SAC-B spacecraft still 
attached is predicted to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere at approximately 
4:41 a.m. EDT Sunday, April 7. This prediction is uncertain to within plus 
or minus two days.

The total weight of the upper stage and combined spacecraft is 535 kilograms 
(1,177 pounds). Initial analysis indicates that only four small 
stainless-steel batteries, weighing a total of 15 kilograms (33 pounds) will 
survive re-entry.

"The re-entry is uncontrolled, and due to potential solar flux variations, 
time and location predictions will not be reliable until only a few hours 
before the re-entry event," said Scott Hull, Spacecraft Engineering Lead for 
Space Systems Mission Operations at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, 
Greenbelt, Md.

The U.S. Space Command will track HETE-1/SAC-B and the
launch-vehicle third stage until re-entry. NASA will monitor the orbital 
parameters based on Space Command data and will supply updates and technical 
information as needed.

The HETE-1 satellite was launched Nov. 4, 1996, along with SAC-B, on a 
Pegasus rocket from Wallops Island, Va. The Pegasus rocket achieved a good 
orbit, but the third stage failed to release the two satellites. As a 
result, SAC-B and HETE-1 were unable to function as designed and both died 
due to power failure within days of launch.

SAC-B is connected to a Dual Payload Attach Fitting canister containing 
HETE, which is in turn connected to the Pegasus third stage. The combined 
stack is just over three and a half meters (11.6 feet) long with a diameter 
of one meter (3.3 feet).

The HETE mission was rebuilt and re-flown as HETE-2, with a successful 
Pegasus launch Oct. 9, 2000.


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