NATION IN BRIEF : FLORIDA : Shuttle Launching Cleared for Monday
The shuttle Columbia was cleared for launching Monday on a 10-day flight, with the countdown scheduled to begin today. It is to put a Navy communications satellite in orbit and retrieve a school bus-size satellite used to test the durability of potential spacecraft materials. That satellite will drop back into the atmosphere soon if it is not retrieved. Liftoff had been scheduled for Dec. 18, but the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., that Columbia is using has been out of service for years, and refurbishing took longer than expected.
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