Dec 17 1985
From The Space Library
NASA announced it had signed with the International Space Corp. (ISC) an agreement for development of the Normal Freezing Furnace, a high-temperature furnace for producing several types of infrared semiconductor crystals in the microgravity environment of spaceflight. The furnace would produce materials through a directional solidification crystal growth process.
The agreement call for NASA to fly the furnace aboard six to eight Space Shuttle missions to perfect the proposed crystal production process, and ISC would make the experimental equipment available to NASA for the agency's exploratory space processing operations.
NASA anticipated that the experiments would lead to new space manufacturing techniques for producing crystal materials, thus enhancing the U.S. electronic industry's position in the highly competitive worldwide semiconductor market. (NASA Release 85-173)
NASA announced that its Comet Halley Active Monitoring Program (CHAMP), a middeck payload to obtain wide field visible and ultraviolet data on Comet Halley using handheld equipment, would have its primary flight January 1986 on the Space Shuttle (STS) mission 51-L. It was during that time that the comet would be most active but viewing from earth would be most difficult due to the narrow viewing angle between the comet and the sun.
The first flight of CHAMP would be on STS mission 61-C in December 1985; the third, on STS mission 61-E March 1986. The December and March flights would provide important pre- and post-perihelion baseline data that would assist with the interpretation of the January flight data.
NASA considered CHAMP data supplemental to the extensive and detailed space-based data to be obtained from the flight of the ASTRO payload on STS mission 61-E, the Spartan-Halley payload on STS mission 51-L, the UVX payload on STS mission 61-C, and the International Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft. However, the CHAMP data would be unique in its nature and ability to provide a single context for all of these activities, because it would make observations on three Space Shuttle missions.
Before each observation, the assigned mission specialist would set up the experiment by mounting the CHAMP equipment in the appropriate window. On the January flight, the mission specialist would use the orbiter Challenger's UV transmissive side hatch quartz window. On the other two flights, data probably would be acquired through the aft flight deck windows. During observations, the orbiter would be oriented so the appropriate window was pointed to within 5° of the celestial coordinates of the comet, with attitude drift rates of less than 1.002° maintained.
Each observation required exposing a series of one to four calibration shots plus six to eight frames of film for images or spectra during the approximately five-minute period occurring in each orbit when the comet was in view and the sun was at least 8° below the earth's horizon.
NASA hoped there would be an observation for each flight day during the seven-day December and March missions, and up to 20 observations during the January flight. However, conflicts with other operational requirements might reduce the actual number of observations, although unusual cometary behavior could require additional time allocated to the experiment. (NASA MOR E-420-61-C-20 [prelaunch], Dec 17/85)
NASA said today it postponed the December 18 launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia on mission 61-C for 24 hours because tired workers had fallen behind in countdown tasks, the Washington Post reported. “Essentially there were too many tasks to complete and too little time to complete them,” NASA spokesman George Diller said. “We felt it was more prudent to delay than to take a chance on making a mistake.” Diller added that crews used up more than eight hours of contingency time built into the countdown as they worked through the night December 16 to complete checkout of the engine compartment.
NASA rescheduled the launch for 7 a.m. December 19. (W Post, Dec 128/ 85, A17)
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