rjnoe@ihlts.UUCP (Roger Noe) (10/08/84)
Apparently there has been a malfunction of TDRS-A, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite deployed from Challenger in April, 1983. This may be due to a solar flare. Details are very sketchy at the moment. The problem this presents to the current mission is it makes transmission of data gathered by instruments aboard Challenger very difficult. A limited amount of tape remains on board, but if they cannot reestablish communications with TDRS, much Earth observation data will be lost. The fuel transfer EVA (space walk) is still planned for 11:00 a.m. EDT Thursday. -- Roger Noe ihnp4!ihlts!rjnoe