Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 17, 1994 TAG: 9404170021
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: D-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Endeavour, orbiting about 130 miles above Earth, aimed its $366 million worth of imaging equipment at forests, fields, deserts and oceans, while the six shuttle astronauts took matching photographs with a battery of cameras.
The astronauts reported sighting oil field fires in Argentina, a distinct line where the spring thaw has melted snow in Canada, and lightning flashes in violent thunderstorms over the Gulf of Mexico.
Since Endeavour's launch April 9 on a nine-day mission, instruments it is carrying have filled more than half of the 183 data-recording tapes on board, in addition to sending data to a science control center at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"The data quality has been superb," Ed Caro, a NASA engineer on one of the radar instruments, told the astronauts early Saturday. "You guys don't get the high-resolution pictures that we're seeing here; but by the time you land, I think it'll really impress you."
Another instrument, designed to measure atmospheric carbon monoxide, has worked "almost flawlessly," said Vickie Connors, a NASA scientist.
"Our science has been beyond our wildest dreams," she said at a briefing.
Data from the mission is expected to give new understanding of how human activities are affecting the global environment. The instruments will fly again on Endeavour later this year.
Early Saturday, the radar captured views of the Gulf Stream for a study on how that major current distributes warm water into the Atlantic Ocean. For environmental studies, the shuttle got images of the Yucatan Peninsula, a North Carolina forest and an area of Brazil.
Endeavour is scheduled to land Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center.
by CNB