Dec 2 1990
From The Space Library
Space Shuttle Columbia (flight STS-35) was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the $150 million Astro-l for a 10-day astronomy mission. The payload consisted of one x-ray telescope and three ultraviolet telescopes that would supplement and spot targets for the Hubble Space Telescope. The project originally had been scheduled for a May 30 liftoff, but subsequent hydrogen leaks grounded the entire fleet. The Astro-1 crew had the longest wait for this mission in Space Shuttle history. It was to have observed Halley’s Comet in 1986, but the mission was postponed after the Challenger accident. The x-ray telescope was controlled from Goddard and the three ultraviolet instruments from Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California on December 11, one day earlier than planned to avoid a rain forecast. The Astro-1 mission did not achieve all of its objectives because of a failed computer that over-head from lint in the cooling system. Because astronomers on board were forced to aim the telescopes manually at predetermined objects, only 135 of the slated 250 targets were observed. (NY Times, Dec 3/90; Dec 7/90; Dec 12/90; W Post, Dec 3/90; Dec 7/90; Dec 12/90)
A Soviet rocket carrying a TM-11 space capsule was launched into orbit from Kazakhstan Republic in Central Asia on this date. Accompanying the two cosmonauts on board was a Japanese television reporter, making him the first journalist in space. Japan's biggest private television company, TBS, as well as other Japanese companies, had their slogans emblazoned on the rocket (B Sun, Dec 3/90; LA Times, Dec 3/90)
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