09-08-2017, 09:46 PM
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Freeform rocketry advocate.
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Claremont, CA "The intellectual capitol of the world."-WSJ
Posts: 3,780
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
Even Surveyor 1, launched on Memorial Day, 1966, was given only a 1-in-10 chance of succeeding (NASA would have been satisfied if its radar had simply detected the Moon and triggered the spacecraft's descent sequence). This small hope diminished even more when one of its two low-gain antenna booms failed to extend after launch, as some engineers feared that its off-center mass might prevent the lander's control system from keeping the spacecraft stable during powered descent. JPL was very pleasantly surprised
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And that's the point.
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