Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 9, 1990 TAG: 9004090177
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
But the $1.5 billion observatory was only out of sight, not out of mind, among the hordes of astronomers gathered to wish Godspeed to the long-delayed project.
"It's the astronomical happening of the 20th century," said astronomer John Bahcall, president of the American Astronomical Society and an early advocate of the space telescope.
The five astronauts who will deploy the telescope during the five-day STS-31 shuttle mission arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Saturday from Johnson Space Center near Houston.
They are commander Loren Shriver, an Air Force colonel; pilot Charles Bolden Jr., a Marine colonel; and mission specialists Kathryn Sullivan, Steven Hawley and Bruce McCandless II, a Navy captain.
The Air Force reported a 90 percent chance for favorable weather at launch time, 8:47 a.m. Tuesday.
Chances deteriorate to 40 percent if there is a 24-hour delay.
The daily launch opportunity is approximately four hours, although National Aeronautics and Space Administration rules would have to be waived for the astronauts to remain in Discovery for longer than 2 1/2 hours after the launch window opens.
"We're ready, there are no mosquitoes, no midges," joked NASA's Dr. Charles Pellerin Jr., referring to an infestation of bugs during telescope preparations last month.
As the countdown continued without a hitch Sunday, the scientists who developed and built the five instruments aboard the observatory were eagerly looking to the discoveries ahead.
"Some of us who have been on the project for a while wondered if we'd ever see this day or the days to come," said William Taylor, Space Telescope systems engineering manager at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
by CNB