THE SPACE SHUTTLE STS 70/Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 22 July after an 8 days 22h mission. It had been launched on 13 July, a record six days after the end of the last mission, the STS71/Atlantis.
The Discovery crew deployed the final TRW-built first-generation NASA tracking and data-relay satellite into orbit. The Shuttle launch marked the first use of a Space Shuttle main engine fitted with the Pratt & Whitney liquid-oxygen turbo-pump (Flight International, 3-9 May), and the first use of a new mission control centre at Houston, Texas.
The STS69/Endeavour is due for launch on 5 August. The purpose of the mission is to deploy the Wake Shield spacecraft and to conduct a range of experiments, including a space walk to practise Alpha Space Station operations.
Its launch may be delayed while studies are made of a solid-rocket booster used on the 27 June STS71/Atlantis mission which showed that exhaust had slightly impinged on an O ring in a booster seal. NASA says that the crew was in no added danger.
Source: Flight International
