‘Fly Swatters’ Fashioned to Save Satellite : Space Walk Planned to Attach Makeshift Tools to Shuttle Arm

Astronauts ripped plastic covers off flight plans and tore up aluminum window shades aboard the space shuttle Discovery on Monday to scavenge supplies for an impromptu attempt to save a disabled satellite.

Two astronauts were scheduled to climb out of the shuttle early today in the first unrehearsed space walk in the history of the U.S. space program. They were to attach their homemade tools to the end of the Discovery’s robotic arm in preparation for Wednesday’s rescue attempt.

The tools, resembling plastic fly swatters with large holes, are designed to gently snag a four-inch lever on the side of the seven-ton Leasat communications satellite, now revolving twice a minute about 40 miles from the Discovery.

Switch for Power

The lever is the on-off switch for electrical power to the satellite. It was supposed to open automatically when Leasat was rolled out of the Discovery’s cargo bay on Saturday. By pulling it, NASA hopes to activate Leasat and send the satellite rocketing to its stationary orbit 22,300 miles above the Equator.

As the astronauts used scissors, a Swiss army knife and other devices to fashion the fly swatter-like tools according to NASA instructions, astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman, 40, began referring to the Discovery crew as “the Swat team.”

The effort is less daring than one initially considered by NASA, which involved having an astronaut ride the tip of the arm out to the satellite, where he would be close enough to grab the lever. The plan to do the job with the arm, using makeshift tools, is far safer but more difficult to achieve, NASA officials said.

Engineers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston designed the tools after extensive experimentation by other astronauts using mock-ups of the disabled satellite.

The idea was to design a flexible piece of equipment that could be held gently against the side of the spinning satellite and hook the lever as it spins past, sort of like grabbing the brass ring on a merry-go-round.

The fly swatters were made from plastic covers from flight plans, rubber tubes from emergency water kits, pieces of aluminum from window shades and assorted odds and ends. Engineers had determined that the fly swatters could be strong enough to pull the lever, but weak enough to break after the lever opened fully, thus reducing the chances of jarring the satellite out of position.

The lever should be sticking out of the side of the satellite about an inch and a half, according to John Cox, a flight director at Mission Control in Houston, but no one will know if that is the case until the Discovery pulls alongside the satellite Wednesday.

Dr. M. Rhea Seddon, 37, the only woman in the seven-member crew, showed the swatters on television to engineers in Houston, and Robert Springer in Mission Control said: “That’s exactly it.”

‘A Lot More Fun’

“Jake’s helping us,” Seddon said of Sen. Jake Garn (R-Utah). “He says it’s a lot more fun than listening to bowel sounds.” Garn is wired to an experiment studying the digestive tract in weightlessness.

Astronauts Hoffman and S. David Griggs, 45, were to attach two fly swatters to the end of the robotic arm this morning and then retreat to the safety of the shuttle cabin.

Discovery commander Karol J. Bobko, 47, and pilot Donald E. Williams, 42, will maneuver the spacecraft alongside the satellite sometime early Wednesday, and Seddon will then operate the arm, gently laying the plastic device against the edge of the satellite to snare the lever. If she is successful, the Discovery will have 45 minutes to get at least 20 miles away before the satellite’s rocket fires to send it on to its permanent orbit.

The separation move is critically important, because no one is certain what the satellite will do when the rocket fires.

“We worry about two things,” flight director Cox said in an interview. “One: the whole thing exploding. Two: being hit with the plume (from the rocket). The plume could act like a sandstorm on the windows or the tiles.” The tiles protect the shuttle from extreme heat during descent.

10-Minute Period

The lever must be flipped within about a 10-minute period each orbit, just as the satellite passes over the Equator, or its rocket will send it into the wrong location.

Cox said that Hughes Aircraft Co., which built and owns the satellite, is not paying the National Aeronautics and Space Administration anything to salvage the $80-million communications satellite, which is covered by insurance.

“We’ve taken it on just to do what we can to help the customer,” Cox said.

He said it was impossible to retrieve the satellite, because it has no grappling hooks. And the fact that the satellite still has its rocket attached probably precludes any effort to retrieve it on future flights. That left NASA with only two options, either leave the satellite stranded and useless, or try to trip the lever using crude devices made aboard the spaceship.