THE 11-DAY Space Shuttle STS69/Endeavour mission ended at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 18 September, while preparations were being made to launch the STS73/Columbia on 28 September for the 16-day US Micro-gravity Laboratory 2 mission.
The STS69 was one of the most troubled Shuttle missions, although a 6h space walk by two astronauts was successful. This tested space-station assembly procedures and modified spacesuits which enable astronauts to work for long periods in shadow where temperatures can fall to minus 91°C. The repairs to the nozzle O rings on the solid-rocket boosters also proved to be successful.
The Spartan free-flying solar-wind observatory, deployed from the Endeavour, was spinning with its instrument face pointing the wrong way, when it was retrieved later. It is not known, whether any successful observations were made.
The second flight of the $25 million saucer-shaped Wake Shield craft, to grow ultra-thin, semiconductor films in the pure vacuum created in the wake of the flight path, was troubled by control problems and overheating. The first Wake Shield could not be deployed during the STS60 mission in 1994.
A smaller amount of material than planned was produced during the second Wake Shield mission. Analysis will reveal whether much purer materials can be made this way in space, rather than on Earth.
NASA hopes that by 1998, purer, faster, semiconductors made in space, will be used by the electronics industry for digital telephones, high-definition televisions and wristwatches.
Source: Flight International
