Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 1, 1994 TAG: 9410130026
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. LENGTH: Short
The crew of six lifted off at sunrise on a mission that was delayed 11/2 months because of a last-second engine shutdown on the launch pad.
NASA plans to survey nearly 600 sites with the $366 million radar, including the Silk Road traveled by Marco Polo 700 years ago and the area in Rwanda where Dian Fossey worked to save Africa's imperiled mountain gorillas.
One of the toughest radar tasks will be the search for 2,000-year-old mud walls beneath the drifting sand of the Taklamakan Desert in northwestern China. Finding the walls could enable archaeologists to unearth pottery, jewelry and other treasures left by traders traveling the Silk Road.Other targets during the 10-day flight include the habitat of endangered pandas in China; stagnant pools in countries with malaria outbreaks; sand-covered archaeological sites in Israel, Egypt and Oman; and the radiation-contaminated land around the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.
There also are the more traditional radar uses, which constitute most of the work: surveying volcanoes, forests, oceans and rivers for clues about global change.
The radar is flying in space for the second time in six months.
There were some bugs after the launch - the kind that buzz.
Minutes after blastoff, shuttle commander Michael Baker noticed streaks on two cockpit windows and what appeared to be big, squashed bugs on the outside. He then discovered a stowaway.
by CNB