No Flight Date for Triana


SEARCH:


	No Flight Date for Triana By Brian Berger Space News Staff Writer posted: 11:19 am ET 20 March 2001

WASHINGTON - NASA's Triana Earth-observing satellite is the first casualty of the Bush administration's plan to limit the U

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Triana Earth-observing satellite is the first casualty of the Bush administration's plan to limit the U.S. space agency to a half-dozen space shuttle launches per year.

"The constrained shuttle flight rate requires that NASA give priority to [International Space Station] payloads, Hubble Space Telescope reboost, and microgravity payloads," said NASA spokesman David Steitz. "Consequently it's not possible to identify a definitive launch date for Triana."

The Triana team has been told to finish the spacecraft and prepare it for storage, Steitz said. NASA hopes to find a shuttle flight for the spacecraft "within the next several years," he said.

More Stories

Triana Wins Green Light From Panel

Congress Puts Triana on Hold

NASA Watchdog Barks at Triana

Future of Triana Earth Image Satellite in Doubt

Related Links

Triana

The $75 million mission was first suggested by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and is designed to take images of Earth that would be posted on the World Wide Web and updated on a near-continuous basis.

NASA had planned to launch Triana during an upcoming shuttle research flight dubbed STS-107, but scrapped those plans last year after satellite assembly fell behind schedule.