[sci.space] Long Duration Exposure Facility

sealion@blake.acs.washington.edu (sealion) (05/13/89)

With the current backlog in payloads for the shuttle system, are 
there plans to recover the Long Duration Exposure Facility?

Thanks.


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"There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't
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henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (05/14/89)

In article <2020@blake.acs.washington.edu> sealion@blake.acs.washington.edu (sealion) writes:
>With the current backlog in payloads for the shuttle system, are 
>there plans to recover the Long Duration Exposure Facility?

Yes.  NASA is terrified of the public-relations impact of another Skylab,
and considers it quite urgent that LDEF not be allowed to reenter.
-- 
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2 failures; USA, 0 tries.      | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu

cdaf@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Charles Daffinger) (05/14/89)

In article <1989May13.202819.23389@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>Yes.  NASA is terrified of the public-relations impact of another Skylab,
>and considers it quite urgent that LDEF not be allowed to reenter.

Just a silly question...  How much different is the orbit of LDEF to that
which the shuttle took to launch Magellan?  Would it have been possible
to retrieve LDEF on the shuttle after it launched Magellan?

-charles

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spl@mcnc.org (Steve Lamont) (05/14/89)

In article <1989May13.202819.23389@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <2020@blake.acs.washington.edu> sealion@blake.acs.washington.edu (sealion) writes:
>>are there plans to recover the Long Duration Exposure Facility?
>
>Yes.  NASA is terrified of the public-relations impact of another Skylab,
                                                 ^^^^^^
Love your choice of words :-).

henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (05/15/89)

In article <20714@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> cdaf@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Charles Daffinger) writes:
>Just a silly question...  How much different is the orbit of LDEF to that
>which the shuttle took to launch Magellan?  Would it have been possible
>to retrieve LDEF on the shuttle after it launched Magellan?

I doubt it.  Magellan had to go into a very specific orbit; it would be
remarkable luck if it were similar to LDEF's.  Also, I suspect the IUS
cradle needed to carry Magellan up probably obstructs the payload bay
enough to interfere with retrieving LDEF (which fills most of the bay).
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