Telescope Problem Forces Delay of Satellite Launch : Space: Instrument is using up coolant too fast. Shuttle crew will employ it for more auroral observations related to ‘Star Wars’ tests.

The Discovery astronauts were ordered Monday to delay today’s launching of a “Star Wars” satellite to gather as much data as possible about Earth’s missile-hiding aurora before a critical telescope runs out of coolant.

Officials said the heat-sensitive CIRRIS telescope was using twice as much liquid helium coolant as expected, but by continuing round-the-clock observations and delaying the satellite launching until Wednesday, scientists should still complete up to 90% of their planned auroral observations.

“We just had a great day,” said Ron Dittemore, flight director. “We’re just very pleased things are working out so well. We’re ecstatic about what we’ve seen so far.”

The data from CIRRIS and a host of other experiments aboard Discovery is expected to help engineers with the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as “Star Wars,” determine how to detect incoming missiles against a variety of backdrops ranging from the blackness of space to the brighter hues of the aurora and Earth itself.

Taking a handful of minor problems in stride, Discovery’s crew of seven used CIRRIS all day Monday to photograph the aurora australis, or southern lights, to help “Star Wars” scientists find out how the gossamer curtains of light might mask enemy missiles.

“We’re looking at a long, long curtain of aurora here,” shuttle commander Michael L. Coats radioed Mission Control as Discovery approached the southern edge of Australia. “It’s just like flying through a curtain of light. This is spectacular!”

Amid work to fix two balky data recorders needed by three minor experiments, the astronauts had planned to launch a small satellite called SPAS-2 before dawn today to photograph about 60 shuttle rocket firings from up to 6 miles away in research critical to the “Star Wars” missile-defense plan.

But late Monday, flight controllers noticed that CIRRIS, the most important of five instruments making up the Air Force Project 675 payload, was using liquid helium coolant faster than expected.

“We’re losing about 60 milligrams per second,” said Air Force Capt. Lindley Johnson, AFP-675 project manager. “Since we’re losing that faster than we predicted, we wanted to get in the operations up front here so that CIRRIS would be able to complete its overall mission.”

Of 17 major observation runs planned before Discovery’s launching Sunday, Johnson said that scientists hoped to squeeze in at least 15 such observations before the telescope ran out of coolant.

Ground controllers continued to struggle Monday with the data recorders.

Six experiments were canceled as a result of the recorder trouble, and the Defense Department expected to lose more data if the problem were not resolved by the end of the eight-day flight.

NASA flight directors and Pentagon officials insisted that the mission would not be harmed by the loss of what they termed “secondary experiments.” Nonetheless, there was disappointment and one space policy analyst said it points out the likelihood of trouble on the seven previous military shuttle flights, all secret.

Television images beamed down from the CIRRIS instrument Monday showed the aurora australis snaking like a curtain across Earth’s horizon. The rippling bands of light are generated by atomic particles from the sun that spiral down magnetic field lines and smash into the atmosphere.

“There’s so much out here, I don’t know what to point at,” astronaut C. Lacy Veach said by radio. “Congratulations to all you guys who built this thing.”

Joining Veach, 46, and Navy Capt. Coats, 45, aboard Discovery are Air Force Maj. L. Blaine Hammond, 39, the pilot; Air Force Lt. Col. Guion Bluford, 48; Air Force Lt. Col. Don McMonagle, 38; Richard J. Hieb, 35, and Gregory J. Harbaugh, 35.

The shuttle is scheduled to land at 11:57 a.m. PDT on May 6 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.