Word: aussat
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Dates: during 1985-1985
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Once safely in a 219-mile-high orbit, Discovery's crew members set about inspecting the condition of its cargo, three communications satellites, and promptly ran into trouble. As they were attempting to temporarily open the sunshield on AUSSAT, an Australian satellite, the shield snagged on AUSSAT's antenna and stuck. Although the astronauts managed to nudge the sunshield completely open with Discovery's 50-ft. robot arm, NASA decided it was too risky to close the screen again; if it could not be reopened, the satellite would be useless in orbit...
...astronauts were immediately faced with another dilemma. With its screen open, AUSSAT, which was scheduled to be deployed the next day, would probably be disabled by solar radiation while it sat unprotected in Discovery's open payload bay. The solution: AUSSAT was launched only 6 1/2 hours later, shortly before ASC1, a commercial satellite, was successfully deployed as planned, both on the first day in orbit. LEASAT 4, another orbiting link in the Navy's communications system, followed on schedule two days later...
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