alb@brunix.UUCP (Adam L. Buchsbaum) (04/17/85)
In just 90 minutes today, a half hour ahead of scheduled, spacewalking astronauts succeeded in attaching two fly swatter like devices to the end of the RMS. That done, Discovery is now ready to rendezvous with an errant Leasat satellite tomorrow morning. At around 0730 EST, Discovery will have closed to within 50 feet of the satellite (the shuttle is now 40 miles distant). The first snagging attempt (dubbed Swat-1) is to occur at 0900 EST. Each attempt must be made within a six minute window, when the satellite is over the equator (necessary to ensure it gets into the right orbit); there will be twelve chances to pull a lever on its side in order to start its automatic sequencer (assuming, of course, it is in fact the lever that did not operate correctly). The opportunities come once each orbit, approximately 90 minutes apart.