Word: endeavour
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Endeavour shuttle astronauts performed the most complicated space repair ever attempted. And doing so, they proved at last that man (meaning men and women, of course; please don't write) can do real work in space, and do it efficiently. They not only saved Hubble. They saved NASA, which with failures stretching back to Challenger has rapidly been losing public favor and political support. Just as it was coming to be seen as yet another wasteful government bureaucracy, NASA does the Hubble rescue and shows that man in space can be useful...
Ground controllers at nasa began two months of long-distance testing to determine whether the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope will now work as advertised. In five space walks, astronauts from the shuttle Endeavour replaced solar panels and gyroscopes, upgraded computer components and installed a set of corrective lenses designed to help the nearsighted telescope peer to the edge of the universe...
...week's end the mission was going flawlessly. After closing the 6,700-mile gap between the two spacecraft, Endeavour caught up with Hubble on Saturday morning. As shuttle commander Richard Covey steered his spacecraft to within 35 ft. of the telescope, astronaut Claude Nicollier used a robot arm to grab the 43-ft.-long, 25,000-lb. device and lowered it into the shuttle's cargo bay, where some repairs will be done. "Houston, Endeavour has a firm handshake with Mr. Hubble's telescope," Covey told Mission Control. "It's quite a sight." The crew also found that...
That is why the space station's advocates will be rooting so hard this week for the Endeavour astronauts. If they fail to fix the Hubble, Congress will have less confidence that NASA can carry out even tougher missions -- with or without Russian help...
Whether or not the repairs work -- and that won't be fully known for several weeks -- it is becoming clear that big, risky, expensive projects like the Hubble have become too much for one country to handle. Even as Endeavour was being readied for launch, the Clinton Administration announced a major shift in plans for an orbiting space station, a project complex enough to make the Hubble mission's space walks seem like cakewalks. Formalizing a proposal first floated last spring, the White House confirmed that the space station will be a multinational venture, with a starring role reserved...