(1 Dec 1997) English/Nat
NASA decided on Sunday against setting loose the satellite dramatically rescued by "Columbia" astronauts during a four-hour spacewalk last week.
The shuttle doesn't have enough fuel to release and retrieve the Spartan a second time.
NASA's missions control reviewed a variety of options but finally concluded - a day earlier than expected - that it was unfeasible to release the Spartan satellite a second time and attempt to salvage its sun-studying mission.
Mission operations director Lee Briscoe said the shuttle simply does not have enough fuel to support another satellite retrieval.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"If you were deploying a brand new, fresh spacecraft, you wouldn't do it under those circumstances. So here's a case where we have the Spartan in the bay. We have it. It's a healthy spacecraft. We can bring it back. If you were to deploy it under these kinds of propellant margins, you could stand a 40 or 50 percent chance of not bringing it back."
SUPER CAPTION: Lee Briscoe, Space Shuttle Columbia's Mission Operations Director
Columbia's six astronauts were asleep when the decision was made. They received the disappointing news when they woke up on Monday morning.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Spartan, we believe, is in good shape. We'll bring it back, see if there's anything we can learn from it. I think the guys were even talking today about if we bring it back, they may not even have to disassemble it or take the instruments apart. They think they could be ready to fly very quickly."
SUPER CAPTION: Lee Briscoe, Space Shuttle Columbia's Mission Operations Director
NASA had hoped to release the $10 (m) million dollar Spartan satellite for 18 hours, less than half the time it was supposed to fly free of Columbia and observe the sun's charged outer atmosphere.
The agency has no firm plans, as of yet, to send Spartan back up on another shuttle mission.
Since last Monday's spacewalk, Columbia's U-S, Ukrainian and Japanese crew has conducted a variety of scientific experiments.
The 16-day mission is scheduled to end Friday.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
