Heating Halts Endeavour’s Satellite Experiment

A saucer-shaped satellite trailing space shuttle Endeavour was shut down by ground controllers Tuesday after it overheated and began tilting.

It was the latest in a series of problems with the $25-million Wake Shield Facility, a giant steel disk on which scientists are trying to produce ultra-thin semiconductor film in a pure vacuum.

The five astronauts were supposed to recapture the satellite today, two days after they released it, but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration postponed the retrieval until Thursday.

Ground controllers had just finished producing the third of seven planned wafers of semiconductor film when they were forced to halt the experiment. The satellite, 12 feet in diameter, began overheating and had pitched forward at least 15 degrees.

Nearly all the instruments on the Wake Shield were turned off to cool the spacecraft, which was orbiting about 40 miles behind Endeavour. The increased temperature was by far the more serious problem and, in fact, caused the slight tilting, said project director Alex Ignatiev.

Ground controllers waited anxiously for the spacecraft to cool enough for operations to resume.

Scientists hope to produce semiconductor film of unprecedented quality in the satellite’s wake.

The experiment started late Monday because of a bad radio link.

Each wafer is three inches in diameter and only 1/100 the thickness of a human hair. If the film proves purer than anything made on Earth, it could lead to faster computers and phones.