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	Brazilian Satellite May Have Lost Power By Andrew Bridges Chief Pasadena Correspondent posted: 03:27 pm ET 21 October 1999

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A recently launched Brazilian research satellite has been unable to point its solar panels toward the sun and has likely drained its onboard battery, the mission's project manager said Thursday.

"We think the satellite cannot point to the sun and its battery is exhausted," said Jose Angelo Neri, the SACI-1 project manager.

In a telephone interview from Brazil, Neri said the flight control center has been unable to establish contact with the $4.6 million satellite since it was launched Oct. 14.

Neri said engineers at Brazil's National Institute of Space Science (INPE) initially were unable to even locate the satellite, which they eventually tracked down with the help of the United States Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo.

"We have seen it and basically gave them the information that it is orbiting," said Space Command spokesman Major Perry Nouis.

The only hope for the probe now, Neri said, was for the sun to strike one of its solar panels to recharge its battery, allowing it to reestablish contact.

Without disclosing how, Nouis said that Space Command was able to detect that SACI-1 was carrying an "active payload," meaning the satellite is operational.

"I don't understand why they can't establish contact," he said.

The Scientific Application Satellite Project was designed to conduct experiments with plasma and cosmic rays, as well as study the Earth's own atmospheric emissions.

SACI-1 was launched from Taiyuan, China on Oct. 14 aboard a Long March 4B rocket. Launched with it was CBERS-1, a joint Brazil-China satellite. The satellite, part of the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellites remote-sensing project, will study the effects of pollution, deforestation and other environmental phenomena.

Neri said CBERS-1, which took 11 years to develop, has already acquired some images and is working properly.