Myriad of woes doomed Nasa test craft

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - Inexperience, mismanagement and technical problems caused a spacecraft to smash into its target during an automated test flight last year, the head of Nasa's investigation team said today.

The DART satellite -- short for Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology -- was considered important to Nasa's future human missions to the moon and Mars in which robotics and automated navigation are essential.

Launched on April 15, 2005, it was supposed to spend about 24 hours making precise maneuvers around a communications satellite, but it shut down after 11 hours when it ran out of fuel.

DART repeatedly fired its steering thrusters in a futile attempt to correct bad navigation data, then butted into the communications satellite before shutting down.

The impact made the spacecraft rise in altitude but didn't damage it, Scott Croomes, the head of the DART investigation team, said in teleconference with reporters.

"There was not one single cause, it was a combination of causes," Croomes said.

DART's prime contractor, Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp was singled out by investigators for not taking advantage of in-house expertise that could have helped mission designers avoid what ultimately turned out to be fatal flaws.

- REUTERS