Forwarded from the Mars Observer Project

                       MARS OBSERVER STATUS REPORT
                             April 30, 1993
                              11:30 AM PDT

DSS-65 (Madrid 34 meter antenna) did not acquire the expected Mars Observer
Spacecraft signal at the scheduled beginning of track yesterday morning (4/29)
at approximately 6:00 AM.  Indications were that the spacecraft had entered a
Fault Protection mode sometime between that time and receipt of normal
telemetry at the end of the previous station pass (DSS-15 - Goldstone 34
meter antenna) at approximately 8:00 PM the evening before.  Entry into
Contingency Mode was verified when signal was reacquired and telemetry
indicated that the spacecraft was sun coning.  After subsystem engineers
reported all systems performing nominally, fault protection telemetry modes
were reconfigured and memory readouts of command system Audit Queue and
AACS (Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem) Starex performed.  These
readouts verified that Contingency Mode entry occurred shortly after 1:30 AM
yesterday, 4/29/93.  Preliminary indications are that a Sun Ephemeris Check
failure triggered fault protection.  However, the Flight Team will be
determining the precise cause over the next few days.

As of last evening, the spacecraft had been commanded back to Inertial
Reference and was stable in that mode.  The Flight Team is planning to
command the spacecraft back to Array Normal Spin state today.