Oct 1 1994
From The Space Library
The media continued to give extensive coverage to the flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. One of the natural phenomena on which the radar photography concentrated was volcanoes. On October 1, it photographed Russia's Klyuchevsky Volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula, which had erupted the previous day. Endeavour also scanned Hawaiian volcanoes and dormant Mt. Rainier and the Rwandan volcanoes where endangered gorillas lived. In addition, it sought traces of ancient river tributaries buried by the Sahara, forest fires and thunderstorms in various areas of the globe, and an earthquake that had occurred in Japan. Another goal was to map Earth's appearance in early autumn and note seasonal environmental changes between photographs taken in April and those in October. If the radar could determine small changes on Earth it could eventually be used to predict earthquakes or volcano eruptions. On October 6, German oceanographers dumped 106 gallons of diesel oil and 26 gallons of algae products into the North Sea to determine how well Endeavour's radar could detect oil slicks and differentiate them from algae. Workers on two oil-recovery ships started to clean up the mess as soon as Endeavour passed and expected to finish within two hours. To gather as much data as possible, the astronauts worked in two 12-hour shifts.
The failure of a Space Shuttle steering jet on October 5 forced NASA to suspend Endeavour's radar survey of Earth. The astronauts had been engaged most recently in hydrology studies of such regions as the rain forests of Brazil, the mountains of California, and the deserts of Australia. By using manual controls when the steering jet failed, the astronauts were able to trace both the oil and the algae. NASA ground personnel put together a computer program to bypass the sensor and restore use of the jets. NASA also added an 11th day to the mission to allow for more radar observations. On October 7, NASA scientist Henry Reichle said that the air pollution monitor on board Endeavour showed an increase in carbon monoxide above South America, southern Africa, across the Atlantic Ocean between the two continents, and north of Australia. On October 10, the astronauts began to stow scientific gear in preparation for a return on October 11. Bad weather in Florida on October 11 forced Endeavour to land at Edwards Air Force Base in California instead. (W Post, Oct 1/94; AP, Oct 1/94; LA Times, Oct 2/94; UP, Oct 2/94; AP, Oct 3/94; W Post, Oct 4/94; W Times, Oct 4/94; USA Today, Oct 4/94; AP, Oct 4/94; Reuters, Oct 4/94; UP, Oct 4/94; AP, Oct 5/94; Reuters, Oct 5/96; UPI, Oct 5/96; AP, Oct 6/94; UPI, Oct 6/94; Reuters, Oct 6/94; NY Times, Oct 7/94; H Post, Oct 7/94; H Chron, Oct 7/94; AP, Oct 7/94; NY Times, Oct 8/94; W Times, Oct 9/94; NY Times, Oct 9/94; W Times, Oct 10/94; NY Times, Oct 10/94; W Post, Oct 10/94; Av WK, Oct 10/94; AP, Oct 10/94; UPI, Oct 10/94; Reuters, Oct 10/94; NY Times, Oct 11/94; W Post, Oct 11/94; W Times, Oct 11/94; AP, Oct 11/94; Reuters, Oct 11/94; NY Tames, Oct 12/94; W Post, Oct 12/94; W Times, Oct 12/94; C Trib, Oct 12/94; AP, Oct 12/94)
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