Twenty-five Years After ERBS and SAGE II: The Life, Data and Death of a Satellite Mission

What makes a successful Earth observing satellite mission: flawless launch?During its October 1984 deployment from the Space Shuttle Challenger by astronaut Sally Ride, the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite Experiment (ERBS) solar panel stuck. Ride had to shake the satellite with the Shuttle's robotic arm for the panel to extend. embedFlashVideoV2("/389950main_sage2.flv","center","/