杏吧原创

Astronomers last week lost their battle to keep the Compton Gamma Ray
Observatory aloft when NASA decided to dump the telescope in the Pacific on 3
June. The nine-year-old spacecraft lost one gyroscope in December. Although the
two remaining gyros can safely control the telescope鈥檚 descent into a remote
piece of ocean, if another one fails NASA is worried that it could not determine
the 15-tonne observatory鈥檚 landing place. Some astronomers are angry that their
proposal for a safe no-gyro re-entry was ignored. 鈥淒isgust is a word that comes
to mind,鈥� says William Paciesas of NASA鈥檚 Marshall Space Flight Center.