Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 8, 1994 TAG: 9402080022
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. LENGTH: Short
Astronaut Ronald Sega, who is in charge of the trouble-plagued satellite, had little to say when Mission Control informed him that flight directors were calling it quits and that the craft would remain aboard Discovery. But the tone of his voice said it all.
"Yeah, we copy," Sega said quietly.
Later in the day, President Clinton, who was in Houston to deliver a budget speech, visited Mission Control. He told Discovery's five American astronauts and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev that he was proud and pleased to see the two countries working together in space. Krikalev is the first Russian to fly on a U.S. shuttle.
"I think this is the first step in what will become the norm of global cooperation in space," Clinton said, referring to the planned international space station.
The astronauts and cosmonaut had been trying since Saturday to deploy the Wake Shield Facility, a $13.5 million steel disk on which physicists hoped to grow pure semiconductor film. Researchers said high-quality samples, if obtained, could have led to more advanced electronics, including faster computers.
The crew encountered one problem after another: glare from the sun, radio interference and, finally, a failed guidance sensor. After hours of debate by flight controllers over whether to release the Wake Shield as is, time ran out. Monday afternoon was NASA's last chance; the shuttle mission is scheduled to end Friday.
by CNB