To the dismay of astronomers, NASA is planning to scuttle one of its three
orbiting “great observatories”. The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory could be
deliberately burnt up in the atmosphere as early as March, even though its
instruments are expected to keep working for up to six more years.
After Skylab scattered debris over the Australian outback in 1979, NASA vowed
to prevent uncontrolled descents of massive spacecraft. One of Compton’s
gyroscopes failed last year, and loss of a second could prevent NASA from
bringing the craft down over an uninhabited area.
