Two of the German Military's New Spy Satellites Appear To Have Failed In Orbit (arstechnica.com) 34
Ars Technica's Eric Berger writes: On the day before Christmas last year, a Falcon 9 rocket launched from California and put two spy satellites into low-Earth orbit for the armed forces of Germany, which are collectively called the Bundeswehr. Initially, the mission appeared successful. The German satellite manufacturer, OHB, declared that the two satellites were "safely in orbit." The addition of the two SARah satellites completed a next-generation constellation of three reconnaissance satellites, the company said. However, six months later, the two satellites have yet to become operational. According to the German publication Der Spiegel, the antennas on the satellites cannot be unfolded. Engineers with OHB have tried to resolve the issue by resetting the flight software, performing maneuvers to vibrate or shake the antennas loose, and more to no avail. As a result, last week, German lawmakers were informed that the two new satellites will probably not go into operation as planned.
The three-satellite constellation known as SARah -- the SAR is a reference to the synthetic aperture radar capability of the satellites -- was ordered in 2013 at a cost of $800 million. The first of the three satellites, SARah 1, launched in June 2022 on a Falcon 9 rocket. This satellite was built by Airbus in southern Germany, and it has since gone into operation without any problems. The two smaller satellites built by OHB, flying with passive synthetic aperture radar reflectors, were intended to complement the SARah 1 satellite, which carries an active phased-array radar antenna. [...] According to the Der Spiegel report, the Bundeswehr says the two SARah satellites built by OHB remain the property of the German company and would only be turned over to the military once they were operational. As a result, the military says OHB will be responsible for building two replacement satellites. Shockingly, the German publication says that its sources indicated OBH did not fully test the functionality and deployment of the satellite antennas on the ground. This could not be confirmed.
The three-satellite constellation known as SARah -- the SAR is a reference to the synthetic aperture radar capability of the satellites -- was ordered in 2013 at a cost of $800 million. The first of the three satellites, SARah 1, launched in June 2022 on a Falcon 9 rocket. This satellite was built by Airbus in southern Germany, and it has since gone into operation without any problems. The two smaller satellites built by OHB, flying with passive synthetic aperture radar reflectors, were intended to complement the SARah 1 satellite, which carries an active phased-array radar antenna. [...] According to the Der Spiegel report, the Bundeswehr says the two SARah satellites built by OHB remain the property of the German company and would only be turned over to the military once they were operational. As a result, the military says OHB will be responsible for building two replacement satellites. Shockingly, the German publication says that its sources indicated OBH did not fully test the functionality and deployment of the satellite antennas on the ground. This could not be confirmed.
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If I had some fancy new spy satellites... (Score:5, Interesting)
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I'd like to return these satellites.
What seems to be the problem?
They don't work. Could I get a refund?
I'm sorry, we can't do that. Would you like a replacement?
Not long, only a few years.
Re:If I had some fancy new spy satellites... (Score:4, Funny)
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... came from Norway. Now that they're in orbit, they're pining for the fjords.
Or the Fnords if they're spy birds playing possum.
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... came from Norway. Now that they're in orbit, they're pining for the fjords.
Or the Fnords if they're spy birds playing possum.
Not sure what programming metasyntactic variables have to do specifically with Norway but maybe it's just me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Exactly. This is the way you buy your oil from the same asshole you want to die. Just lie and spy until you can give him a Havana headache and he falls off his pony.
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Talking about deception, the picture in Der Spiegel article is definitely not how a SAR antenna looks like. In reality it's very likely an elongated structure that's supposed to unfold or extend to 10s of meters in total length.
Also in the public press they don't mention they are likely shooting for cm range precision, with good one pass 3d performance and with some underground seeing capability.
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cause? (Score:2)
cold welding maybe? Things work fine on the ground, not so much in the vacuum of space
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ViaSat3 NA didn't get their high gain antenna fully deployed either.
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German Engineering (Score:2, Funny)
Examine a Porsche cupholder for an explanation of why a German foldy thingy won't unfold.
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the porsche cup holder is designed to mock the Americans that use it.
mission accomplished.
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the porsche cup holder is designed to mock the Americans that use it.
mission accomplished.
That's like the cup holder on my old Dell...
Re: German Engineering (Score:1)
uh... you may be on to something...
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Re: Probably Good (Score:2)
And they say Joe Biden is incoherent... you running for president?
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He'd probably be better than the two (well, three I suppose) front-runners. But then, so would my dog.
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Re: Probably Good (Score:2)
No, he just wants to use my tax dollars to help pay for a genocide. A pox on both their houses.
Not the first failure from OHB (Score:2)
Not the first failure from OHB. That happens to them regularly.
Fully test? (Score:5, Insightful)
The transmitting antenna is likely a huge light weight structure designed for zero G. You are not getting that into a plane for a free fall zero g test, best you could do is put air capsules on segments at the center of gravity and do a neutral buoyancy test in a pool if it would fit, or maybe a lake. The test itself would be a huge engineering effort. Probably best to just pray, the problem was too many atheists.
Europe pauses (Score:2)
And the whole of Europe passed, trying to figure out what that sudden sound was.
And then recognized it: all of Poland sighing in relief!