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NASA may give captured satellite second chance

Web posted June 3, 1998

By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Like a fisherman landing a giant marlin only to toss it right back, space shuttle Columbia's astronauts may set free again the satellite they captured in a dramatic spacewalk rescue.

That would be scientists' only hope of salvaging the satellite's botched mission to observe the sun's charged outer atmosphere.

The $10 million Spartan satellite malfunctioned moments after its release from Columbia last week and had to be brought back aboard by two astronauts in a spacewalk that ended early Tuesday.

The satellite appeared to be in good shape and simply did not receive a critical computer command before it was dropped into orbit, apparently because of a software problem or crew error, said mission manager Craig Tooley.

``All indications are we have a healthy spacecraft,'' Tooley said. ``Although we don't know how much battery we have left, we are optimistic we do have enough energy on board to carry out some form of a shortened mission should that be possible.''

Engineers believe the Spartan satellite was in a so-called idle mode when astronaut Kalpana Chawla released it Friday for what was supposed to be two days of solar observations.

As a result, the pointing system still was warming up and not ready to kick into action as planned, Tooley said. The satellite failed to twist 90 seconds after its release -- it wouldn't budge, in fact -- and so Chawla quickly tried to retrieve it with Columbia's robot arm.

Not only did the robot arm fail to latch onto Spartan, it inadvertently sent the 1´-ton satellite into a slow spin.

By the time the crew returned to it Monday evening, the satellite was spinning more slowly than the original two degrees per second and spacewalkers Winston Scott and Takao Doi had no problem grabbing it with their gloved hands.

Mission operations director Lee Briscoe said flight controllers will have to monitor Columbia's fuel supply over the next several days before deciding whether to give Spartan a second chance.

If Spartan is cleared for flight and if Columbia has enough fuel, Spartan will be released for only six to 20 hours of solar observations -- not even half of what was planned originally.

The satellite rescue took up less than half of the seven-hour, 43-minute spacewalk. Most of the spacewalkers' time was devoted to space-station tests, including the successful demonstration of a 17´-foot, extendible crane. Such a crane is supposed to be launched in another year to the soon-to-be-built international space station.

Columbia's crew of six spent Tuesday evening cleaning up from the spacewalk and conducting science experiments.