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Ooops huge/expensive accident (pic)

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cybil

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A friend of mine is a rocket scientist and works on spy satellites. One of the teams that works at the facility forgot to put some bolts in a spy satellite and it tipped over. The cost is 200 million dollars. The damage is unknown but most likely its totalled.

 
Wow!! 200 million dollars down the drain just like that??? I watched a show on satellite construction once and realize how much time and cost goes into building these things with all their "systems."

This picture of $200 million laying on its' side is amazing. Too bad we don't have pictures of the employees facial expressions when they watched this crash to the floor!

John
cybil said:
A friend of mine is a rocket scientist and works on spy satellites.
One of the teams that works at the facility forgot to put some
bolts in a spy satellite and it tipped over. The cost is 200
million dollars. The damage is unknown but most likely its totalled.

Click to expand...
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I figure this is being built by a contracter under contract to the government.

How do you, as the contractor, buy insurance to cover this or a natural disaster? $200 million coverage can't be cheap!

Thanks for the nice shot of a bad situation.

Brian
cybil said:
A friend of mine is a rocket scientist and works on spy satellites.
One of the teams that works at the facility forgot to put some
bolts in a spy satellite and it tipped over. The cost is 200
million dollars. The damage is unknown but most likely its totalled.

Click to expand...
 
It's not a spy satellite. It's the NOAA-N weather satellite. My company have the contract to operate and maintain the constellation once the satellite launches and they were preparing for the workups for the N. Now that part of the project will probably be delayed and the existing satellites will probably be taxed to work harder. A shame. I always knew Lockheed sucked, this proves it ;-)
 
They probanly do have insurance, but, it would be interesting to know if it covers negligence? Fire, natural disaster, blowing up in transit. Only someone like Lloyds would insure this. But under what tyopes of loss?

I can hear the conversation with the insurance company now; "Well sir, we need to file a loss claim for that fancy spy satellite we were building, you see, a team of employees forgot to put the bolts back in and, gosh geeze, well, the whole thing fell over and now we can't sell it!"

John
BSell said:
How do you, as the contractor, buy insurance to cover this or a
natural disaster? $200 million coverage can't be cheap!

Thanks for the nice shot of a bad situation.

Brian
cybil said:
A friend of mine is a rocket scientist and works on spy satellites.
One of the teams that works at the facility forgot to put some
bolts in a spy satellite and it tipped over. The cost is 200
million dollars. The damage is unknown but most likely its totalled.

Click to expand...
Click to expand...
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It's not a total loss. Lockheed Martin (the builder) will probably inspect the satellite thoroughly and replace any damaged parts. Satellites are not that fragile. They are constantly bombarded with micro-meteors when in orbit so the contrustion takes that into account. The launch will however be pushed back at least a year.
 
cybil said:
A friend of mine is a rocket scientist and works on spy satellites.
One of the teams that works at the facility forgot to put some
bolts in a spy satellite and it tipped over. The cost is 200
million dollars. The damage is unknown but most likely its totalled.

Click to expand...
 
Well I think we will still get weather forecasts in the meantime :) Would this one make the idiot TV weather people any more accurate?

John
Tom@JHU said:
It's not a total loss. Lockheed Martin (the builder) will probably
inspect the satellite thoroughly and replace any damaged parts.
Satellites are not that fragile. They are constantly bombarded
with micro-meteors when in orbit so the contrustion takes that into
account. The launch will however be pushed back at least a year.
Click to expand...
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There are three operational NOAA satellites in orbit right now (one "lent" to the Japanese space agency), so we should be ok with weather coverage. Those TV weatherman need all the help they can get ;-)
John Pinches said:
John
Tom@JHU said:
It's not a total loss. Lockheed Martin (the builder) will probably
inspect the satellite thoroughly and replace any damaged parts.
Satellites are not that fragile. They are constantly bombarded
with micro-meteors when in orbit so the contrustion takes that into
account. The launch will however be pushed back at least a year.
Click to expand...
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http://www.jbp-photography.net
Equipment List In Profile
Click to expand...
--

I never learn. I should know better by now that these forums only make me spend more money, but I'm too dumb to stay away =)
 
cybil said:
A friend of mine is a rocket scientist and works on spy satellites.
One of the teams that works at the facility forgot to put some
bolts in a spy satellite and it tipped over. The cost is 200
million dollars. The damage is unknown but most likely its totalled.

Click to expand...
According to what I read elsewhere, what happened is something like this:

1) The team working on this satellite had in fact properly fastened it to the rig.

2) Another team working on a similar satellite borrowed the bolts from this rig but did not document this fact or tell anyone on the first team.

3) The first team didn't check to make sure the satellite was properly attached to the rig before rotating it, because, after all, they'd just fastened it a couple days ago and they knew it was attached properly!
 
The first is very obvious - a couple of lose bolts and then look what happens a every expensive piece of equipment damaged. Though if it is going to be shot in to space it has to be tougher then that. Just falling over will damage it but it should be able to be repaired.

The second is what kind of security does this place have? I can understand how they might want photographs to document the accident what I can't understand is how those photographs were allowed to leave the premises and then ended up being posted on the Internet.

We can't take pictures of bridges or buildings anymore but hey want a photo of one of our satellites being built - no problem.

Inconceivable!

It doesn't even make a difference if it is a spy satellite or not, I'm pretty sure there if not classified technology it is at least proprietary technology on display here. I wouldn't want to be the person who didn't put the bolts in and I wouldn't want to be the person who took photos like this and then allowed them end up on the Internet.
 
ikzook said:
The first is very obvious - a couple of lose bolts and then look
what happens a every expensive piece of equipment damaged. Though
if it is going to be shot in to space it has to be tougher then
that. Just falling over will damage it but it should be able to be
repaired.

The second is what kind of security does this place have? I can
understand how they might want photographs to document the accident
what I can't understand is how those photographs were allowed to
leave the premises and then ended up being posted on the Internet.

We can't take pictures of bridges or buildings anymore but hey want
a photo of one of our satellites being built - no problem.

Inconceivable!

It doesn't even make a difference if it is a spy satellite or not,
I'm pretty sure there if not classified technology it is at least
proprietary technology on display here. I wouldn't want to be the
person who didn't put the bolts in and I wouldn't want to be the
person who took photos like this and then allowed them end up on
the Internet.
Click to expand...
The pictures are not a big deal. It's published in the official Anomaly Report. See here: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=10299 . Obviously, NASA/Lockheed Martin doesn't feel there is anything to hide.

--

I never learn. I should know better by now that these forums only make me spend more money, but I'm too dumb to stay away =)
 
Don't worry. I'm sure Bush will have no problem spending our tax dollars on the repair. :0)
 
In reality, wouldn't the actual cost be the cost of the unit PLUS the cost to replace it? I'd figure the replacement cost to be closer to $500 million.
John Pinches said:
This picture of $200 million laying on its' side is amazing. Too
bad we don't have pictures of the employees facial expressions when
they watched this crash to the floor!

John
cybil said:
A friend of mine is a rocket scientist and works on spy satellites.
One of the teams that works at the facility forgot to put some
bolts in a spy satellite and it tipped over. The cost is 200
million dollars. The damage is unknown but most likely its totalled.

Click to expand...
--
http://www.jbp-photography.net
Equipment List In Profile
Click to expand...
--
Bob Lindabury
 
....that a "spy" satellite would not have photos floating around the web.
cybil said:
A friend of mine is a rocket scientist and works on spy satellites.
One of the teams that works at the facility forgot to put some
bolts in a spy satellite and it tipped over. The cost is 200
million dollars. The damage is unknown but most likely its totalled.

Click to expand...
--
Jamie W.
Kindness. Compassion. Understanding. Respect. Courtesy.
I try to live up to these words. Do you?

Colossians 3:8 --> But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as: anger, rage, malice, slander, and foul language.

PLEASE keep in mind that I am not saying that I am perfect and never do such things. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, I do my best to live by this, and encourage you to do the same! =)
 
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