Tim Furniss/LONDON
THE SPACE SHUTTLE Endeavour/STS67 is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 01.27 local time on 2 March to attempt a 16-day mission, the longest by the Space Shuttle.
Carrying the Astro 2 payload of three ultraviolet astronomy telescopes, the Endeavour will be operated on a 24h basis, with a split crew of seven, including two professional astronomers, Ron Parise and Sam Durrance. They will work in two shifts to operate the telescopes, which are mounted on a computer-controlled Instrument Pointing System, from the aft flight deck.
The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope will be used to study faint astronomical objects, such as quasars and supernova remnants, as well as the outer planets of the solar system. The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope will acquire images in the broad ultraviolet waveband, while the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment will study celestial objects such as hot stars, galactic nuclei and quasars.
Each telescope, which will be co-aligned to view simultaneously the same astronomical object, was flown aboard the first Astro mission, the STS35/Columbia in December 1990, the crew of which included Parise and Durrance. Although this mission generated considerable data, it was thwarted largely by several technical problems. Further planned Astro missions have been cancelled because of budget cuts.
The Endeavour's payload bay is also equipped with an Extended Duration Orbiter kit with additional cryogenic fuel cells to complement the electrical-generation system. This allows missions to last longer than 10-11 days, the maximum duration of the standard orbiter configuration.
The STS67 will take off 19 days after the landing of the Discovery after its STS63 mission. This included a space walk, which posed more questions than it answered about the Alpha space station astronauts' ability to construct and maintain it regularly.
About 450h of space walking will be required to construct the station over three years, plus about 170h a year for maintenance.
The USA has accumulated only 295h of space walk time in 60 missions, dating back to the Gemini 4 in 1965 and including moonwalks. Twenty-four Space Shuttle walks, since the first in 1983, have accumulated 165h. Russia - which will also assist in space station assembly and maintenance - has 235h experience from 58 space walks.
Source: Flight International
