NASA Test Damages $75 mln Satellite...03/24/00

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - A $75 million NASA spacecraft designed to study solar flares was heavily damaged when engineers mistakenly shook it 10 times harder than intended during a preflight test. The shaking cracked at least two of four solar panels on the High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager, and tests were planned to find internal damage. Launch, which had been scheduled for July, will be pushed back at least to January. It's the latest embarrassment for the space agency and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which last year lost two high-profile missions to Mars. The cause of the mishap was still under investigation, JPL spokeswoman Mary Beth Murrill said Thursday.

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