Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 2, 1993 TAG: 9312020149
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: San Francisco Examiner
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO LENGTH: Medium
The space shuttle Endeavour was scheduled to launch in the predawn Florida darkness at 4:27 a.m. today. High winds prevented an expected Wednesday launch. Its seven-member crew bound for the Dan Quayle of satellites: the much-ridiculed Hubble Space Telescope.
The $630 million mission's goal is to correct the primary mirror's flawed optics and other errant instruments - as well as NASA's reputation - during an unprecedented five spacewalks. Repairing the huge and delicate device may be the most complicated and exhausting task ever attempted in space.
"This project is going to be in the history books, whether we like it or not, whether as a national disgrace or as a triumph," Hubble scientist Edward J. Weiler has said.
The tiniest screw-up - say, a bolt dropped into the telescope mirror - could all but wreck the $2 billion-plus space telescope, which was launched in April 1990.
Hubble's flawed optics prevent it from seeing as deeply and clearly into the universe as promised. If the 11-day mission flops, Hubble will remain a punching bag for comedians and, to NASA critics, a symbol of decline from the agency's Apollo-era greatness. NASA's face grew redder in recent months, after the mysterious loss of the $1 billion Mars Observer and the death (from battery failure) of the Earth-orbiting NOAA-13 weather satellite.
For months the astronauts have rehearsed the mission in underwater tanks and with "floating" models supported by jets of air.
But the simulations can't match the eerie physics of outer space. If the 12-ton, 43-foot-high telescope is accidentally knocked, it won't be slowed by atmospheric friction; space is airless, and objects can fly in any direction because there is no "up" or "down." The glittering behemoth will continue moving until it hits - or crushes - something.
But a flawless mission could save the space agency's neck next year. Its crown jewel is the proposed international manned space station, a controversial, $100 billion-plus project that critics hope to kill in next year's congressional budget fight.
The mission's main challenges:
Replacing Hubble's main imaging device, the Wide-Field and Planetary Camera, with mirrors to correct its "vision."
Sacrificing one mini-telescope, the High-Speed Photometer, to make room for a device to correct the vision of three other mini-telescopes. The new instrument, the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, is as big as a phone booth and contains corrective mirrors so polished that "if you ground Colorado down to the same level, the largest mountain would be reduced to 1 inch," Weiler told Space News.
Performing numerous lesser but vital repairs, such as replacing solar-electric cells that power Hubble and magnetometers that orient it to Earth's magnetic field.
A successful mission could also partly salvage the reputation of the space shuttle fleet, which never recovered from the explosion of the Challenger in January 1986. Originally, the shuttle was billed partly as a vehicle for quickly fixing or replacing troubled satellites. NASA hopes this mission will justify the billing.
Keywords:
INFOLINE
by CNB