Word: missioners
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...main engines seemed to be heating up to a dangerous 1,950 °F. That sensor alerted the onboard computer, and for the first time in the 24-year history of the U.S. manned space, an engine was shut down in flight. But as the craft hobbled bravely heavenward, mission control decided that the seven crew members should proceed with the flight at a stunted orbit of 197 miles above earth (the planned orbit was 242 miles). Challenger carried a $73 million array of sophisticated astronomical and scientific instruments, and researchers hoped that a series of 14 experiments, some painstakingly...
...watch it wobble off target. Conceded Henize: "That hallelujah was a bit too quick, wasn't it?" Later the astronauts jerry-rigged an arrangement to aim the three solar telescopes toward the sun in time to photograph a spectacular cascade of flares and nuclear eruptions. Four days into the mission, the crew and ground control had the IPS working as well...
...shuttle causes in the earth's ionosphere. At several points, the shuttle fired its thrusters to poke temporary "holes" in the ionosphere, allowing radio astronomers based around the world to aim their telescopes through the gaps. Indeed, the experiments hummed along so well that NASA decided to extend the mission an extra...
NASA officials, with their normal tumble of superlatives, deemed the mission a "great success." Said the chief mission scientist, Eugene Urban: "Scientists will be busy for years working with these data." Yet a few gremlins still lurk. Three times in the past year, the launch procedures have resulted in near disaster. And though Discovery waits eagerly on deck, ready for a late August launch, NASA remains way behind schedule. --By Natalie Angier. Reported by Jerry Hannifin/Kennedy Space Center
...have offered to supply buttons spanning two centuries. "This gives us samples from many different periods of time," says Poths, "and all manufactured in one place." Some efforts, however, have been disappointing. The researchers had high hopes for a collection of ancient cremation vessels from a Buddhist mission in Hawaii, only to find that the lids were loose. Sighs Ogard: "Most things that can be opened have been...