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A vibration-testing system at NASA’s JPL lab in Pasadena ran amok last week,
shaking a $40-million satellite 10 times harder than it was supposed to,
breaking two solar panels and damaging the craft. Designed to test the
satellite’s fortitude under launch stresses, the system shook it with a force of
20 g. An investigation is under way. The High Energy Solar
Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI), built to study solar flares, was to launch in
July, but will now be delayed at least until January 2001.