mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) (02/07/86)
In article <998@psivax.UUCP> friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) writes: >>I have a question concerning the Challenger's last payload. I >>have heard from an uncertain source that the Hubble telescope was >>aboard. Is this true? If so, why no mention of this great loss? > False, it did have the only device the US was sending up to >view Halley's Comet though. So that is the end of *that*. Actually, I don't think that's true either. What was lost was some sort of UV 'scope. The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (known also as HUT-- it is accompanied by T-shirts showing a certain Star Wars character lounging in the cargo bay) was, if I remember this correctly, not scheduled to fly until March, when *it* would look at Halley (among other things). I don't think it wat the payload that was lost. In any case, it cannot be adapted to fly in anything but the shuttle, so it goes on the shelf for a while. C. Wingate
lmc@cisden.UUCP (Lyle McElhaney) (02/09/86)
> >>I have a question concerning the Challenger's last payload. I > >>have heard from an uncertain source that the Hubble telescope was > >>aboard. Is this true? If so, why no mention of this great loss? > > > False, it did have the only device the US was sending up to > >view Halley's Comet though. So that is the end of *that*. > > Actually, I don't think that's true either. What was lost was some sort of > UV 'scope. The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (known also as HUT-- it is > accompanied by T-shirts showing a certain Star Wars character lounging in > the cargo bay) was, if I remember this correctly, not scheduled to fly until > March, when *it* would look at Halley (among other things). I don't think > it wat the payload that was lost. In any case, it cannot be adapted to fly Nope. What was lost was the TDRS-II satellite and the Spartan (that's an acronym for something, but I don't have it here) Halley observer that was to be deployed and (I think) recaptured before re-entry, to be reflown several more times later. It was built at Colorado University, so there was a lot of publicity about it (and Onazuka, a CU grad) hereabouts. The company that I work for, ConTel, owns Spacecom (a separate division from us) who owned the TDRS - as a result, the company published the press releases from NASA about this flight. I had just picked up my copy and was walking down the hall reading it when someone popped out of their office and yelled that Challenger had blown up..... Lyle McElhaney ...hao!cisden!lmc