Word: max
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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NASA'S carefully detailed script for the mission was showy but simple. Its highlight was to be a free-floating walk in space to retrieve the ailing Solar Maximum Mission satellite (Solar Max). Sent aloft to monitor the sun's activity, Max broke down three years ago, after only ten months in orbit. Challenger's mission last week was to stop the rotation of Max, use the spacecraft's 50-ft. remote-controlled arm to lift the satellite into the ship's cargo bay, and set it back in orbit after repairs were made...
Once controllers at the Goddard Space Flight Center in suburban Washington are convinced that Max is functioning, it will be lifted out of the cargo area with the mechanical arm and set afloat in space. (If the tinkering fails, the astronauts will strip Solar Max of its cumbersome solar panels, lay it on its side in the cargo bay and carry it back down to the ground for an overhaul.) By then, Challenger will have climbed to an altitude of 270 miles. The higher orbit will reduce the effect of atmospheric braking and extend the satellite's lifetime until...
...spectacular walk to the satellite should take about ten minutes. The most breathtaking moment will occur when Nelson threads his way past Solar Max's 7-ft.-long solar panels, which are slicing through space like slow-motion helicopter blades (the satellite rotates once every 6 min.). If Nelson can dodge this orbital buzz saw without incident, he will try to halt Solar Max's spin...
...anticipation of just such a rescue, Solar Max's creators equipped the satellite with a pin, or trunnion, near its midriff. It forms a perfect mate with a gadget to be carried by Nelson that looks like a fat belly button. NASA calls that protrusion TPAD (for trunnion pin attachment device). Nelson will attach the TPAD to the pin and then fire some of the MMU'S thrusters to brake Solar Max's rotation...
...that point, Challenger will edge to within 30 ft. of the satellite. Then the shuttle's 50-ft.-long, remote-controlled mechanical arm, operated from inside the cockpit by Electrical Engineer Terry Hart, 37, will lock onto a grappling device on Solar Max. (Challenger's fifth astronaut is Dick Scobee, 44, a onetime airplane mechanic who will be Crippen's copilot.) With helpful nudges from Nelson and Van Hoften, Solar Max will be eased into a special cradle in the cargo bay for the repair. The astronauts' task in the bay will be to remove...