Weather may leave shuttle crew hanging

March 6, 1996
Web posted at: 4:45 P.M. EST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- NASA officials say bad weather may force them to postpone Friday morning's scheduled landing of the space shuttle Columbia. The two-week mission had already been extended one day to fit in more experiments.

A cold front is bringing clouds and showers to central Florida Thursday evening and may force NASA officials to move the landing at Kennedy Space Center to Saturday or even Sunday.

"Conditions for landing are marginal at best for Friday, worse for Saturday," said George Diller, NASA spokesman at the Kennedy Space Center.

The astronauts Wednesday worked on the microgravity experiment that led to the mission's extension. Scientists said the experiment, which examines the chemical xenon, can provide clues to changing states of matter.

On Earth, NASA officials were examining burns to booster- rocket O-rings that occurred during Columbia's launch. The O-rings are ones used during assembly to keep glue away from two other, more critical O-rings designed to keep hot gasses inside the rocket boosters.

Officials said the problem did not endanger the crew, but members of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, which acts as a watchdog group for NASA safety, said they are concerned and are monitoring NASA's investigation.

On Tuesday, Columbia's astronauts maneuvered the space shuttle within 65 miles of its escaped satellite-on-a-leash. But the light of the moon prevented the crew from getting a good look at the satellite, and the view they got from farther away was of little use.

"Basically all we really see are pinpoints of light real close together," shuttle commander Andrew Allen said.

Columbia's maneuvering Tuesday was in all likelihood the closest the shuttle will ever come to the wayward satellite.

U.S. and Italian researchers had hoped to find details of the damage to the dangling cable and to determine if it's still attached to the satellite. There is a chance the copper, nylon and Teflon cord was sliced by a small meteorite and is floating in space.

The shoelace-thin cord broke free from Columbia a-week-and-a- half ago while being unreeled with the half-ton satellite attached to it. Before breaking, the tethered satellite system generated electricity while sweeping through Earth's magnetic field.

The satellite is expected to re-enter the atmosphere and burn up within three weeks.

Wednesday morning, astronaut Allen chatted with the commander of NASA's next shuttle flight, Kevin Chilton. Chilton and his crew were aboard Atlantis for a practice countdown; Atlantis is scheduled to fly to the Russian space station Mir later this month.

"When you get up here," Allen joked, "if you see anything we left, bring it home for us."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related Stories

• Shuttle Columbia catches up with lost satellite - March 1
• Failed satellite experiment a devastating blow - February 26
• Shuttle astronauts lament loss of satellite - February 26
• Shuttle tether test begins without a hitch - February 25

Related Sites

• Spacecraft: POLAR Brief Description
• Space Exploration Page
• STS-75 NASA Shuttle Web
• Satellite Passes Predictions
• Johnson Space Center
• Kennedy Space Center
• Langley Research Center
• Lewis Research Center
• Marshall Space Flight Center
• Stennis Space Center
• Ames Research Center
• Lewis Research Center
• Public Use of Remote Sensing Data
• NASA Homepage

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