Re: Wwas then never heard from again
But not enough to melt the frozen airbag enough for it to inflate.
This is a serious post. They reused the test article airbags because there was no money for actual flight ones (until it was too late to make them) and water vapour was still coming out of the things in dangerously high amounts when they had to be pulled out of the vacuum chambers and packed for launch.
Knowledgeable cow-orkers were predicting that the thing would crater even before the launcher left the tower, but the choices were "include the thing as is" or "launch with a block of lead replacing Beagle's mass". Delaying the launch was not an option.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
