Why Does a Spacecraft Crash?

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Mission Operations Center staff watched with excitement as a dot on the screen gradually expanded into an unmistakably spherical, boulder-covered space rock. Engineers quickly announced “this is nominal”, an aerospace engineering term meaning everything had gone as planned. DART was built for this momentous occasion – to demonstrate technology that could one day shield Earth…

Spacecraft Crash Risks

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Dead satellites and rocket bodies that linger in low Earth orbit can present risks of collision to active satellites. As the ship flies around a planet to use gravity as an aid, something goes awry, deviating from its intended path and striking instead a collision course with that planet – not ideal. Mechanics NASA engineers…