Subj:[MOTU] Discovery Releases Satellite Date: 98-11-01 21:08:11 EST From: Ndunlks@aol.com Reply-to: mysteries@egroups.com To: mysteries@egroups.com From:"Ndunlks@aol.com">Ndunlks@aol.com (Researcher Steven L. Wilson, Discovery Releases Satellite .c The Associated Press By MARCIA DUNN SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) -- Space shuttle Discovery's astronauts set loose a sun-gazing satellite Sunday for two days of scientific flight, accomplishing what another crew failed to do last year. Two tense minutes passed before the crew radioed down the good news: The Spartan satellite was free of Discovery and twirling exactly as planned. ``Spartan is in the maneuver,'' said Discovery's commander, Curtis Brown Jr. John Glenn did not have an active role in the Spartan release; the schedule had him wrapping up a workout on the stationary cycle right about then. NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin praised the 77-year-old senator's performance aboard Discovery and, for the upteenth time, insisted the first American to orbit the Earth was back in space not for publicity purposes but rather for valuable geriatric research. ``America owed him a second flight,'' he added. Goldin promised to send more seniors into space, but only if the research warrants it. ``We've asked the physicians in the aging community to evaluate this flight and see if there are significant differences'' between Glenn and space travelers in their 40s, 50s and early 60s, Goldin told NBC's ``Meet the Press.'' ``Within a year or two, we expect to get results and if they recommend that it's scientifically meritorious to send aging people into space, we're going to do it.'' Goldin said ``some very, very important people that are getting up there in age'' have contacted him in the past week, begging to go. He didn't say who. The astronaut overseeing the research aboard Discovery, Stephen Robinson, used Discovery's 50-foot robot arm to drop Spartan overboard, with help from Dr. Scott Parazynski on the computers. The 3,000-pound satellite did a pirouette as the two spacecraft soared in formation 340 miles above Baja California -- an indication that everything was working. The commander then slowly backed the shuttle away. They'll retrieve the satellite Tuesday after it's collected images of the sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, and the charged particles streaming from the sun out into space. The $11 million satellite was supposed to conduct these observations last November. The astronauts on that mission, however, failed to send a crucial command to Spartan before releasing it. When they tried to latch back onto it with the shuttle robot arm, they sent the craft into a wild tumble. Two astronauts then had to go out on a risky spacewalk to catch it. To make sure that didn't happen again, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration improved the computer software used to operate Spartan, arranged better views of the satellite release for the astronauts, and spent more time training them for the job. AP-NY-11-01-98 1452EST Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.