Space Shuttle Gets Green Light for 10-Day Astronomy Mission

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The repaired space shuttle Columbia, grounded since May by crippling hydrogen fuel leaks, was cleared Tuesday for a launch attempt this weekend to begin a 10-day astronomy mission.

Columbia is to carry four major astronomical instruments, including a telescope designed to investigate the content of stars and the history of their formation.

“The shuttle team has worked very hard to get Columbia ready to fly,” shuttle director Robert Crippen said. “With the hydrogen leak resolved, we’re ready to end the year with the Astro-1 mission which will extend our knowledge of the universe.”

Columbia is scheduled to lift off between 10:28 p.m. Saturday and 12:58 a.m. Sunday PST.

The astronomy mission was originally planned for March 6, 1986, but the Challenger explosion on Jan. 28 that year grounded all space shuttles.

After flights resumed, Astro-1 was rescheduled for launch on March 1 of this year. The mission slipped to May 9, then to May 30. Six hours before launch, a liquid hydrogen leak was found, and the launch was scrubbed. Three more launch attempts failed, two of them because of hydrogen leaks.

Columbia will be commanded by astronaut Vance Brand. The others in the crew are Air Force Col. Guy Gardner, the pilot; mission specialists John Mike Lounge, Jeffrey Hoffman and Robert Parker; and payload specialists Ronald Parise and Samuel Durrance.