(20 Nov 1996) Natural Sound
Two hundred miles above earth, astronauts from the Space Shuttle Columbia worked Wednesday to correct alignment problems in an ultraviolet telescope that had been set up hours before.
With the deployment, the astronauts completed the first major task of their 16-day mission.
The telescope -- known as Orfeus-Spas -- is designed to observe stars and interstellar gas.
Astronauts aboard Shuttle Columbia deployed the ultraviolet telescope on Tuesday night, about eight hours into their mission.
Part of a 93 (m) million U-S dollars project, the U-S/German Orfeus-Spas will spend two weeks looking at new-born and dying stars and the moon's atmosphere.
After being delayed by bad weather and a problem booster rocket for 11 days, Columbia lifted off Tuesday.
Columbia's five astronauts set loose the telescope Tuesday night, eight hours after the shuttle blasted off.
Scientists on the ground spent Wednesday morning trying to correct misalignments that kept the telescope's instruments from seeing what it was pointing at.
The telescope is supposed to fly free of Columbia more than 200 miles above Earth for nearly 14 days, making up to 300 observations of new-born and dying stars, interstellar gas, the atmosphere of the moon, and the northern and southern lights of Jupiter.
Scientists discovered the alignment problems when they aimed the telescope at the brightest ultraviolet object in the sky other than the sun, a star in the Constellation Puppis 1,000 to 1,500 light-years away.
The star wasn't where it was supposed to be.
NASA scientists said the problems are not a threat to the mission.
The experiment had technical problems on its first two shuttle flights, and the cost of the project so far is about 29 (m) million U-S dollars.
Later in the mission, two astronauts will venture outside to test new space-walking tools, including a crane for the future international space station.
The telescope trailed shuttle Columbia by more than 20 miles today, at heights of 200 miles above Earth.
The shuttle will pick up the telescope before its return to Earth 5 December.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
