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Mission Milestones
April 27, 1999
NASA decided to postpone mating the Chandra X-ray Observatory with its Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) booster, pending additional progress in the U.S. Air Force investigation into IUS problems with the April 9 launch of a Department of Defense satellite.
The DOD satellite failed to achieve a proper orbit because of an as yet undetermined problem with its IUS booster. The IUS is a two-stage solid rocket that will be used to help propel the Chandra observatory from low Earth orbit to its operating altitude nearly a third of the way to the moon.
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