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Ann Marie

Ann Marie Menting

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USA Today

9/9/04

SPACE CAPSULE CRASHES TO EARTH AFTER CHUTE FAILURE
By Dan Vergano and Traci Watson

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.

NASA had employed Hollywood stunt pilots to snag the capsule's parachute and guide the fragile samples to a safe landing.

Instead, the only Hollywood touch was the saucer-shaped capsule protruding from the desert floor like an image in a UFO movie.

"The capsule was clearly not designed to withstand this kind of impact," said Chris Jones of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA estimates the capsule hit at 193 mph after an electronic failure to trigger the capsule's parachutes.

Launched in 2001, Genesis spent 26 months in deep space collecting dust from the sun. The $264 million mission was NASA's first retrieval of space samples since 1972's final lunar landing.

Scientists hope to study Genesis' solar samples to understand the sun's chemistry, and some science results should still be recoverable from the cracked capsule, says NASA's Andrew Dantzler.

A braking chute was supposed to slow the capsule after it entered Earth's atmosphere. Instead, mission controllers watched the capsule tumble and punch into the desert floor at 11:59 a.m. ET.

Recovery of the capsule was delayed several hours as workers dealt with still-unexploded mortars that were supposed to have fired the parachutes.

"This has implications beyond Genesis," says spacecraft landing expert Paul Withers of Boston University, because parachutes figure prominently in a retrieval of comet dust planned for 2006 and future Mars missions. NASA plans to name a mishap review board.

NASA has not had a fun week:

•Hurricane Frances damaged Cape Canaveral facilities, possibly slowing the space shuttles' return to flight status.

•A Congressional Budget Office report cast doubt on NASA's $95 billion cost estimate for manned and robotic flights through 2020, estimating the cost at $32 billion to $61 billion higher.

•Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., Wednesday called for fewer shuttle flights to the international space station.

NASA will recover, predicted National Air and Space Museum historian Roger Launius. But "people don't necessarily believe ... the way they once did" in NASA's can-do ability, he said. "You wonder at what point" the public will lose faith in the agency.