Westar 6
E179326
Westar 6 was an American commercial communications satellite that infamously ended up in an unusable orbit after a launch failure and was later retrieved and returned to Earth by a Space Shuttle mission.
All labels observed (2)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1583770 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Westar 6 Context triple: [STS-41B, deployedSatellite, Westar 6]
-
A.
Turbostar
Turbostar is a family of modern British diesel multiple-unit trains widely used for regional and commuter services across the UK rail network.
-
B.
Winchester Star
The Winchester Star is a longstanding local newspaper based in Winchester, Virginia, known for covering regional news and community affairs.
-
C.
Westy
Westy was the widely used nickname of General William Westmoreland, the U.S. Army officer who commanded American forces during the Vietnam War.
-
D.
Hoyte
Hoyte is the first name of Hoyte van Hoytema, a renowned Dutch-Swedish cinematographer known for his work on major films such as "Interstellar" and "Dunkirk."
-
E.
Elster
Elster is a river in central Europe, primarily flowing through the German state of Saxony and its surrounding regions.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Westar 6 Target entity description: Westar 6 was an American commercial communications satellite that infamously ended up in an unusable orbit after a launch failure and was later retrieved and returned to Earth by a Space Shuttle mission.
-
A.
Turbostar
Turbostar is a family of modern British diesel multiple-unit trains widely used for regional and commuter services across the UK rail network.
-
B.
Winchester Star
The Winchester Star is a longstanding local newspaper based in Winchester, Virginia, known for covering regional news and community affairs.
-
C.
Westy
Westy was the widely used nickname of General William Westmoreland, the U.S. Army officer who commanded American forces during the Vietnam War.
-
D.
Hoyte
Hoyte is the first name of Hoyte van Hoytema, a renowned Dutch-Swedish cinematographer known for his work on major films such as "Interstellar" and "Dunkirk."
-
E.
Elster
Elster is a river in central Europe, primarily flowing through the German state of Saxony and its surrounding regions.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
American satellite
ⓘ
commercial satellite ⓘ communications satellite ⓘ |
| apogee | approximately 36,000 km (after PAM-D failure) ⓘ |
| associatedAstronaut |
Anna L. Fisher
ⓘ
Dale A. Gardner NERFINISHED ⓘ David M. Walker ⓘ Frederick H. Hauck ⓘ Jon A. McBride ⓘ Joseph P. Allen ⓘ |
| contractPurpose | domestic U.S. telecommunications services ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| followedBy |
Westar 6
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Westar 6R
|
| frequencyBand | C-band ⓘ |
| inclination | about 22 degrees (after PAM-D failure) ⓘ |
| insuranceStatus | insured as a commercial satellite ⓘ |
| laterOwner | AsiaSat (after refurbishment and resale) ⓘ |
| launchDate | 1984-02-03 ⓘ |
| launchFailureCause | PAM-D upper stage malfunction ⓘ |
| launchMass | approximately 650 kg ⓘ |
| launchMission |
STS-41B
ⓘ
surface form:
STS-41-B
|
| launchOutcome | partial failure ⓘ |
| launchSite |
Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A
ⓘ
surface form:
Kennedy Space Center LC-39A
|
| launchVehicle | Space Shuttle Challenger ⓘ |
| manufacturer | Hughes Aircraft Company ⓘ |
| missionStatus | retired ⓘ |
| missionType | commercial communications ⓘ |
| notableFor |
being one of the first satellites retrieved from orbit by the Space Shuttle
ⓘ
launch anomaly leaving it in unusable orbit ⓘ |
| operator | Western Union ⓘ |
| orbitType |
geostationary communications orbit (planned)
ⓘ
improper low Earth orbit (achieved after failure) ⓘ |
| owner | Western Union ⓘ |
| perigee | approximately 300 km (after PAM-D failure) ⓘ |
| powerSource | solar cells ⓘ |
| precededBy | Westar 5 ⓘ |
| program | Westar ⓘ |
| reentry | returned to Earth in Space Shuttle payload bay ⓘ |
| retrievalDate | 1984-11-14 ⓘ |
| retrievalMethod | spacewalk capture with manned maneuvering unit ⓘ |
| retrievalMission |
STS-51A
ⓘ
surface form:
STS-51-A
|
| retrievalOutcome | successfully returned to Earth ⓘ |
| retrievalSpaceShuttle | Space Shuttle Discovery ⓘ |
| salvageOperation | NASA retrieval and resale after insurance payout ⓘ |
| satelliteBus | HS-376 ⓘ |
| spacecraftType | spin-stabilized communications satellite ⓘ |
| upperStage | PAM-D ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Westar 6 Description of subject: Westar 6 was an American commercial communications satellite that infamously ended up in an unusable orbit after a launch failure and was later retrieved and returned to Earth by a Space Shuttle mission.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Westar 6R