Discovery Does Cartwheels for Delayed ‘Star Wars’ Test

Discovery’s astronauts guided the shuttle through a series of fancy flips and twists high above Earth on Wednesday in a critical “Star Wars” experiment delayed by an errant satellite.

“It’s quite a light show,” astronaut Richard J. Hieb said.

The scientific satellite was improperly positioned shortly after being released from the shuttle earlier in the day. NASA delayed its first observation of shuttle engine exhaust plumes until the satellite could be aligned properly.

The acrobatics began Wednesday evening, nine hours late, as the satellite orbited 6.2 miles ahead of Discovery.

Commander Michael L. Coats fired Discovery’s right maneuvering engine, shaking the ship with a roar and sending out a long exhaust plume. His six-member crew, working via remote control, captured the sight with the satellite’s infrared sensors and television cameras.

The firing pushed Discovery almost a mile out of its orbital plane. Coats then ignited the steering jets, causing the shuttle’s nose to flip 180 degrees from north to south. Another engine firing, also scrutinized by the satellite, served as a brake.

After another cartwheel, Discovery was back behind the satellite, whizzing around the world once again at 17,500 m.p.h.

The entire sequence took 27 minutes.

“It looked spectacular on the TV,” Coats said.

“Well, that’s good news,” said Mission Control’s Kathy Thornton.

The astronauts began repeating the procedure several minutes later. Four sets of observations were conducted Wednesday evening as part of a missile-detecting experiment for the Pentagon. Three involved engine exhaust plumes, and the other involved plumes from the smaller steering jets.

In addition to the plume observations, which were to continue today, the satellite was to analyze chemicals and gases sprayed into space during its 36 hours in orbit.

The astronauts have been dealing with equipment problems since they got into space Sunday. Two data recorders for three instruments failed hours into the flight, causing six experiments to be scrapped and putting others in jeopardy. The recorder trouble remained unresolved Wednesday.

The satellite trouble began a few hours after the crew successfully released the $94-million spacecraft 161 miles above Earth. Deployment had been delayed a day so the crew could make more observations of the aurora, or atmospheric light.