RSF%SU-AI@sri-unix.UUCP (02/09/84)
From: Ross Finlayson <RSF@SU-AI>
a018 2330 07 Feb 84
PM-Space Shuttle, Bjt,600
Today's Shuttle Highlight: Movie Stars in the Stars
By HOWARD BENEDICT
AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Challenger's astronauts star in a
panoramic movie being shot by colleague ''Cecil B.'' McNair as their
schedule called for rest and experiments today before the next
tetherless space walk.
The set was the biggest ever, the world below, the stars above.
The space travelers, after five bittersweet, busy days in orbit,
welcomed some relaxation before winding down the journey with more
outside tests of their jet-pack on Thursday, a news conference from
space Friday and the shuttle's first landing in Florida on Saturday.
Today's filming sessions, with a special Cinema-360 camera, were to
capture footage for a half-hour documentary, ''The Space Shuttle: An
American Adventure.''
The finished film, which will put audiences in the center of the
360-degree action, is designed for projection onto the domes of
specially-equipped planetariums. It is to be completed after two more
shuttle missions.
Mission specialist Ronald McNair is the man behind the lens,
prompting his colleagues to call him ''Cecil B. McNair'' after famed
movie director Cecil B. de Mille.
Most of today's footage will be of activities inside the cabin. Some
of the most spectacular film was made Tuesday by a second Cinema-360
camera, located in the open cargo bay and operated remotely from
inside the shuttle.
That captured man's first free flights in space, as astronauts Bruce
McCandless and Robert Stewart unhooked their lifelines and maneuvered
away from Challenger, propelled by a $10 million jet-powered backpack
to a distance greater than the length of a football field.
McCandless flew the jet-pack for 90 minutes, calling it a ''nice
flying machine.'' Stewart glided around for 65 minutes and said it
operated ''beautifully.''
When the space-walkers re-entered the cabin after 5 hours, 55
minutes outside, mission control congratulated them on a super job.
''It was a real thrill,'' responded McCandless. ''A real honor to be
up there.''
McCandless and Stewart are scheduled to be back outside Thursday for
five more hours.
The backpack will be used for a satellite repair mission planned on
the next shuttle flight in April.
On that flight astronaut George Nelson is to use the jet-pack to
retrieve a 4-year-old satellite named Solar Max, bringing it into the
cargo bay for replacement of a defective electronics box.
McCandless and Stewart on Thursday will use a spinning device to
perfect techniques for securing the slowly rotating Solar Max and will
test tools needed for the repair job.
The rescue of the Solar Max satellite also will be filmed by the
Cinema-360 cameras.
The successful space walks erased some of the disappointment the
astronauts felt at the failure of the two communications satellites
they launched for Western Union and the Indonesian government earlier
in the flight.
The astronauts deployed the payloads properly, but the satellites
did not reach the desired orbits because rockets aboard each misfired.
ap-ny-02-08 0229EDT
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