Word: cargos
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...looking forward to getting out. "There is no sense being here as sitting ducks," he said. "We are not serving any useful purpose." As he spoke, Army trucks loaded with diesel generators rumbled by. The convoy drove across the runway to the beach, where helicopters hoisted their cargo and ferried it out to ships on the horizon...
...himself to the ailing bird. Then he will use the force of the MMU'S jets to arrest the satellite's slow spin so that it can be grappled aboard the shuttle by the remote-controlled arm. The satellite will be overhauled inside the shuttle's cargo bay. If this first aid succeeds, Solar Max will go back out on orbital patrol and provide convincing evidence of a favorite NASA theme: that humans will be as important as robots in taking advantage of the growing scientific and industrial opportunities in space...
These orbital theatrics have a high purpose. In pushing off from Challenger's open cargo bay, Astronauts Bruce McCandless II, 46, and Robert Stewart, 41, both of whom are making their initial shuttle trips, will be rehearsing the first repair of a satellite in orbit. That is slated to take place in April, when astronauts attempt to retrieve and revive a $150 million robot scientific observatory nicknamed Solar Max, which has been spinning helplessly since it broke down three years ago. If this tinkering succeeds, it could pave the way for even more ambitious efforts, including the assembly...
...moment, however, NASA'S attention was more pressingly diverted. Just eight hours into the flight, Mission Specialist Ronald McNair, 33, a physicist making his first flight, successfully sent Western Union's $75 million Westar VI spinning out of Challenger's big cargo bay. But soon all contact with Westar, built by Hughes Aircraft, was lost. Its transmitters were silent. Ground-based trackers could not tell whether its booster, which was to have propelled it into a geostationary "parking place" 22,300 miles above the equator, had misfired or some onboard electronics had failed. Desperately trying to bring...
...flight plan calls for the astronauts to move up to 300 ft. away from the shuttle. Only one man will fly at a time; the other will remain tethered in the cargo bay. If the MMU'S thrusters fail, a stranded astronaut could be rescued by his partner or even the shuttle. No tethers are used during the lengthy, complex sorties because an astronaut might become tangled in a line. During the space walks, the astronauts will practice snaring Solar Max by hooking themselves onto the SPAS. But this is not as easy as it sounds. In zero...