Westar 6 stranded in improper orbit
E179328
Westar 6 stranded in improper orbit refers to the communications satellite that failed to reach its intended geosynchronous orbit after deployment from Space Shuttle mission STS-41B, requiring a later rescue and reboost mission.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Westar 6 stranded in improper orbit canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1583772 — 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 stranded in improper orbit Context triple: [STS-41B, satelliteDeploymentOutcome, Westar 6 stranded in improper orbit]
-
A.
Orbit
Orbit is a publishing imprint best known for releasing science fiction and fantasy books.
-
B.
Orbit
Orbit is the fuzzy green alien mascot of the Houston Astros, known for his playful antics and fan-friendly entertainment at the team’s baseball games.
-
C.
Columbia disaster
The Columbia disaster was the 2003 Space Shuttle tragedy in which the orbiter Columbia broke apart during reentry, killing all seven astronauts aboard and leading to major changes in NASA’s human spaceflight program.
-
D.
Cygnus spacecraft
The Cygnus spacecraft is an uncrewed commercial cargo vehicle developed by Northrop Grumman to deliver supplies and scientific equipment to the International Space Station.
-
E.
Vanguard 1 satellite
Vanguard 1 satellite is an early American artificial Earth satellite launched in 1958 that became the fourth human-made object in space and the oldest still in orbit, used primarily for geophysical and atmospheric research.
- 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 stranded in improper orbit Target entity description: Westar 6 stranded in improper orbit refers to the communications satellite that failed to reach its intended geosynchronous orbit after deployment from Space Shuttle mission STS-41B, requiring a later rescue and reboost mission.
-
A.
Orbit
Orbit is a publishing imprint best known for releasing science fiction and fantasy books.
-
B.
Orbit
Orbit is the fuzzy green alien mascot of the Houston Astros, known for his playful antics and fan-friendly entertainment at the team’s baseball games.
-
C.
Columbia disaster
The Columbia disaster was the 2003 Space Shuttle tragedy in which the orbiter Columbia broke apart during reentry, killing all seven astronauts aboard and leading to major changes in NASA’s human spaceflight program.
-
D.
Cygnus spacecraft
The Cygnus spacecraft is an uncrewed commercial cargo vehicle developed by Northrop Grumman to deliver supplies and scientific equipment to the International Space Station.
-
E.
Vanguard 1 satellite
Vanguard 1 satellite is an early American artificial Earth satellite launched in 1958 that became the fourth human-made object in space and the oldest still in orbit, used primarily for geophysical and atmospheric research.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (42)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
satellite deployment anomaly
ⓘ
spaceflight incident ⓘ |
| actualOrbit | improper low Earth orbit ⓘ |
| bothRescuedOnMission | STS-51A ⓘ |
| cause | PAM-D stage failed to provide required velocity ⓘ |
| commercialCustomer | Western Union ⓘ |
| countryOfLaunch |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| deploymentFrom | Space Shuttle payload bay ⓘ |
| era | early 1980s ⓘ |
| failurePhase | post-deployment from Shuttle ⓘ |
| failureType |
incomplete orbit insertion
ⓘ
upper stage underperformance ⓘ |
| impactOnPolicy |
contributed to reassessment of commercial satellite launches on Shuttle
ⓘ
highlighted risks of PAM-D upper stages ⓘ |
| insuranceClaim | triggered insurance payout for lost satellite ⓘ |
| intendedOrbit |
geostationary transfer orbit as intermediate
ⓘ
geosynchronous orbit ⓘ |
| launchDate | 1984-02-03 ⓘ |
| launchedOnMission | STS-41B ⓘ |
| launchSite |
Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A
ⓘ
surface form:
Kennedy Space Center LC-39A
|
| launchVehicle | Space Shuttle Challenger ⓘ |
| operator | Western Union ⓘ |
| payloadClass | commercial communications payload ⓘ |
| program |
NASA Space Shuttle program
ⓘ
surface form:
Space Shuttle program
|
| relatedIncident | Palapa B2 stranded in improper orbit ⓘ |
| relatedMission | STS-41B ⓘ |
| relatedSatellite | Palapa B2 ⓘ |
| rescueDate | 1984-11-14 ⓘ |
| rescuedBy | Space Shuttle Discovery ⓘ |
| rescueMethod |
satellite retrieval and return to Earth
ⓘ
use of astronaut-operated jetpacks (MMUs) ⓘ |
| rescueMission | STS-51A ⓘ |
| rescueOutcome | satellite captured and brought back to Earth ⓘ |
| result | satellite stranded in low orbit ⓘ |
| significance |
demonstrated on-orbit satellite rescue capability
ⓘ
first commercial communications satellite retrieved from orbit by Space Shuttle ⓘ |
| spacecraftType | communications satellite ⓘ |
| subject | Westar 6 ⓘ |
| subsequentDisposition | sold to AsiaSat ⓘ |
| subsequentName | AsiaSat 1 ⓘ |
| technologyUsedInRescue | Manned Maneuvering Unit ⓘ |
| upperStageUsed | 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 stranded in improper orbit Description of subject: Westar 6 stranded in improper orbit refers to the communications satellite that failed to reach its intended geosynchronous orbit after deployment from Space Shuttle mission STS-41B, requiring a later rescue and reboost mission.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.