Jun 11 1984
From The Space Library
NASA announced that it had selected a team of scientists to observe Halley’s Comet in 1986 using a Space Shuttle-based astronomy observatory called Astro. The scientists were Dr. Michael A Hearn, University of Maryland, College Park, Md.; Drs. John Brandt, Bertram Donn, and Malcom Neidner, GSFC; Dr. Barry Lutz, Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Ariz.; Dr. Chet Opal, University of Texas, Austin; Dr. C. Robert O'Dell, Rice University, Houston; and Dr. Susan Wyckoff, Arizona State University, Tempe. These researchers, together with a scientist representing each of the three ultraviolet telescope teams, comprised the Astro Halley Science Team that would plan the overall program for observing the comet.
Astro consisted of three specially designed ultraviolet telescopes and two wide-field cameras that would be carried as a Spacelab payload in the Space Shuttle cargo bay.
The observatory was scheduled for assembly and integration into the Space Shuttle at KSC during 1985 for launch in early March 1986. The first seven-day Astro mission was scheduled at a time when several comet probes would intercept Halley, and it was intended to return important scientific data and photography of the comet. ESA, Japan, and the Soviet Union had each designed probes that would fly by the comet and through its tail in early March 1986. (NASA Release 8472)
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