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From: gsh7w@astsun.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Hennessy)
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space,sci.space.shuttle
Subject: ASTRO update
Message-ID: <1990Dec2.071514.29253@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 2 Dec 90 07:15:14 GMT
Sender: news@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU
Organization: University of Virginia
Lines: 51


The shuttle is currently in a hold at T minus nine minutes. The
hardware is fine, the only hold up is the weather. A helicopter is
trying to get more data. The last estimate I heard was a 50 percent
chance of launching tonight. The visibility is currently 7,000 ft, and
8,000 feet is needed. If the weather does not cooperate, there will be
two more attemts in the next 48 hours (plus a few). If a launch is not
sucessfull by approx 4 am Tuesday Dec 4th, the orbiter will be drained
and a another launch attempt will be seven days after the 4th. 

If a launch is sucessful, here are some interesting info from the
early schedule, listed in Accumulated Mission Elapsed Time (AMET).

T-9 min GLS auto seq start
T-5 min orb apu start
T-3 min 30 sec MPS gimbal
T-2 min 55 sec LO2 prepressurazations
T-1 min 57 sec LH2 prepressurization
T-21 sec SRB gimbal profile
T-6.6 sec SSME 3 start
T-6.5 sec SSME2 start
T-6.4 sec SSME1 start
T-0 sec SRB iginition/Liftoff [NASA declares mission a sucess :^)]
T+29.7 sec SSME throttle down to 69%
T+50.1 sec MAX q start
T+1 min 6.2 sec ssme throttle up to 104
T+2 min 4.6 sec srb seperation
T+8 min 31.5 sec Main engine cutoff
T+8 min 57.5 sec ET separation [ET go home.]
T+22 min On station Debrief.
T+2 hour (hereafter written 0/02:00) BBXRT activation
0/03:10 Image pointing system activation
0/03:20 Payload activation
0/04:25 WUPPE activation
0/04:30 HUT activation
0/06:00 UIT activation
0/14:10 Joint Focus and alignment test
0/19:30 Focus test on Orion

First observatons are HUT observations of SS-CYG at 22.1 AMET,
adn BBXRT secondary observation of SSCYG also. WUPPE's first
observations as primary  instrument is HD37903 at 22.7 AMET. UIT's
first observation as primary is at 46.17 when it observes NGC 5139. 



--
-Greg Hennessy, University of Virginia
 USPS Mail:     Astronomy Department, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 USA
 Internet:      gsh7w@virginia.edu  
 UUCP:		...!uunet!virginia!gsh7w


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