Word: endeavour
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...shuttle Endeavour's mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope is the 59th shuttle flight, and like so many before it, this one was delayed before getting started. On this occasion, high crosswinds caused a one-day postponement. Fortunately, the astronauts on Endeavour -- and all the other shuttles that have failed to go up on time -- are always offered free lodging for a couple of nights...
Just when NASA thought it had found a way to break through the clouds, it was hit by the last thing the beleaguered agency needs: a fresh scandal. Last Wednesday, while Endeavour was fueling up for its Thursday morning blast-off, two Houston TV stations and nbc Nightly News with Tom Brokaw reported that NASA had been targeted by an FBI sting operation -- code-named Lightning Strike -- that had snared agency employees and contractors...
...entirely as planned. "As we know when we do things for the first time in space, things can go wrong," says Swiss crew member Claude Nicollier, an astronaut from the European Space Agency who will be controlling a 50-ft.-long mechanical arm that will extend outward from Endeavour and move spacewalkers around the Hubble. Planners remain concerned about how fatigued the astronauts will become during their long stints working on the satellite. To be on the safe side, NASA added an extra day to the mission in case astronauts need a day off to rest. The agency also built...
Even the Hubble repair mission has already had glitches. Last week ground technicians discovered a faulty sensor in a control device on Endeavour's right wing. After mulling over the problem for a day, NASA officials decided not to delay the mission, because three other backup sensors could do the job of the malfunctioning one. Of course, given the shuttle's recent record, a Dec. 1 launch is not exactly a safe...
...four astronauts who will venture outside Endeavour to work on the Hubble -- Musgrave, Jeffrey Hoffman, Thomas Akers and Kathryn Thornton -- are all veteran spacewalkers. Thornton, a nuclear physicist and mother of five, went on the 1992 mission that repaired the Intelsat communications satellite. On that flight, the 5-ft. 4-in. K.T., as the other astronauts call her, wasn't involved in wrestling the three-ton satellite into the shuttle's payload bay. (It eventually took three men to do that job.) This time, though, she will play a key role: installing the Hubble's corrective lenses. They will...