gsh7w@astsun.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Hennessy) (12/02/90)
The shuttle is currently in a hold at T minus nine minutes. The hardware is fine, the only hold up is the weather. A helicopter is trying to get more data. The last estimate I heard was a 50 percent chance of launching tonight. The visibility is currently 7,000 ft, and 8,000 feet is needed. If the weather does not cooperate, there will be two more attemts in the next 48 hours (plus a few). If a launch is not sucessfull by approx 4 am Tuesday Dec 4th, the orbiter will be drained and a another launch attempt will be seven days after the 4th. If a launch is sucessful, here are some interesting info from the early schedule, listed in Accumulated Mission Elapsed Time (AMET). T-9 min GLS auto seq start T-5 min orb apu start T-3 min 30 sec MPS gimbal T-2 min 55 sec LO2 prepressurazations T-1 min 57 sec LH2 prepressurization T-21 sec SRB gimbal profile T-6.6 sec SSME 3 start T-6.5 sec SSME2 start T-6.4 sec SSME1 start T-0 sec SRB iginition/Liftoff [NASA declares mission a sucess :^)] T+29.7 sec SSME throttle down to 69% T+50.1 sec MAX q start T+1 min 6.2 sec ssme throttle up to 104 T+2 min 4.6 sec srb seperation T+8 min 31.5 sec Main engine cutoff T+8 min 57.5 sec ET separation [ET go home.] T+22 min On station Debrief. T+2 hour (hereafter written 0/02:00) BBXRT activation 0/03:10 Image pointing system activation 0/03:20 Payload activation 0/04:25 WUPPE activation 0/04:30 HUT activation 0/06:00 UIT activation 0/14:10 Joint Focus and alignment test 0/19:30 Focus test on Orion First observatons are HUT observations of SS-CYG at 22.1 AMET, adn BBXRT secondary observation of SSCYG also. WUPPE's first observations as primary instrument is HD37903 at 22.7 AMET. UIT's first observation as primary is at 46.17 when it observes NGC 5139. -- -Greg Hennessy, University of Virginia USPS Mail: Astronomy Department, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 USA Internet: gsh7w@virginia.edu UUCP: ...!uunet!virginia!gsh7w