NATION IN BRIEF : FLORIDA : Astronauts Chase After Solar Satellite

Discovery’s astronauts chased a solar science satellite through space, intent on capturing the craft they released a day earlier and bringing back its valuable data. As Discovery soared past the midway point of its eight-day atmospheric research mission, the crew fired the shuttle jets to catch up to the $6-million Spartan satellite, about 200 miles away. NASA officials at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida said they expected Discovery to close to within 35 feet early today, when astronaut Ellen Ochoa would use the shuttle’s 50-foot robot arm to grab Spartan and lower it into the cargo bay.