Shuttle Flawlessly Launches 3rd Satellite
A carbon copy of the stranded satellite that the crew of the space shuttle Discovery will try to rescue Saturday was deployed successfully Thursday, delighting engineers at Hughes Communications Services Inc.
The flawless launching of Leasat 4 gives Hughes three of the four satellites it needs in orbit to begin fulfilling a Navy contract by next March. That fleet should be rounded out with either the rescue of Leasat 3 during this mission or the successful launching of a fifth satellite from the shuttle in December.
The satellite launched Thursday was the third and final one to be deployed by the Discovery crew.
Much Is Known of Craft
Leasat 3 has been stranded in orbit since April, when it failed to activate itself after it was released from the Discovery. Although it is in an elliptical orbit ranging from 195 to 278 miles above the Earth, engineers have surprisingly detailed information about it, testifying to the quality of space intelligence networks.
They have determined, for example, that the satellite is spinning much slower than when it was last seen by the Discovery four months ago. Because the satellite never activated itself, ground controllers have never been able to establish communication with it. Therefore, that information must have come from powerful Defense Department monitoring devices, sources said.
Commander Joe Engle, 53, and pilot Richard O. Covey, 39, will bring the Discovery alongside the disabled satellite early Saturday morning, close enough for astronaut James D. van Hoften to reach out and touch it.
Working at the end of the shuttle’s arm, Van Hoften, 41, will have to manhandle the 15,000-pound satellite into the shuttle’s cargo bay so that his co-worker, William F. Fisher, 39, can attempt to “hot wire” it. Ground controllers then would be able to activate it.
Faulty Robotic Arm
The repair originally was supposed to be completed in one six-hour space walk, but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration now believes that the task probably will take an additional day. Because of a faulty electronics circuit in the shuttle’s robotic arm, astronaut John M. Lounge, 39, will have to maneuver the arm by manual controls rather than with the aid of a computer.
That is expected to add hours to the task, meaning that the astronauts will probably have to go outside again Sunday to finish the job.
If the space walk takes two days, the shuttle will land at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California before dawn Tuesday. Depending on which orbit NASA selects, the Discovery should touch down at either 4:33 a.m. or 6:10 a.m. NASA engineers are trying to figure out how to adjust the orbit so that the spacecraft will land closer to sunrise, avoiding a night landing.
