Word: endeavoured
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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...
When the shuttle Endeavour blasted into space last Thursday morning, its near flawless lift-off lighting up Florida's predawn skies and dazzling onlookers in and around the Kennedy Space Center, NASA officials felt a mix of relief and tense anticipation. Though the launch was delayed a day by bad weather, the countdown was free of the technical glitches that had grounded shuttles so many times before. But the really hard part was yet to come: a week of dangerous and delicate maneuvers performed more than 300 miles up in space. The challenge facing Endeavour's seven-member crew...
...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...