alb@alice.UUCP (Adam L. Buchsbaum) (06/21/85)
Spartan-1 was deployed by the Discovery crew today. The satellite will scan the stars for sources of X-rays, concentrating on the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, where astronomers believe exists a black hole. The satellite will be retrieved in two days and returned to Earth. Meanwhile, NASA rescheduled the test of a low powered laser system for 0730 EDT Friday. The laser is to be fired from a mountaintop observatory and reflected by the shuttle. A measurement given to the shuttle's autopilot was in feet instead of nautical miles, so the shuttle thought the mountaintop was 9000 miles above the Earth instead of a little over a mile and a half; the result was that the mirror ended up on the wrong side of the ship.