Nov 17 1993
From The Space Library
NASA announced that USN Captain Richard N. Richards would command the STS-64 mission scheduled for the fall of 1994 aboard Discovery. The STS-64 mission was scheduled to carry the LIDAR In-Space Technology Experiment (LITE), a project to measure atmospheric parameters from a space platform utilizing laser sensors, the Robert Operated Materials Processing System (ROMPS) to investigate robot handling of thin film samples, and the Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy (Sparton-201), a free-flying retrievable x-ray astronomy platform. (NASA Release 93-204)
NASA announced that the flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour on Mission STS-61 to repair the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was scheduled for December 1, 1993. The flight was the first in a series of planned visits to the orbiting telescope. The 11-day mission was designed to accommodate a record five spacewalks with the capability for an additional two if needed.
The first HST servicing mission was to have three primary objectives: restoring the planned scientific capabilities of the telescope (because of a manufacturing mistake, Hubble's primary mirror was too flat along its edge by about 1/50 of the thickness of a human hair, leading to blurry images); restoring the reliability of HST systems; and validating the HST on-orbit servicing concept. (NASA Release 93-204; NASA Note to Editors N93-66; USA Today, Nov 18/93; RTW, Nov 17/93; APn, Nov 17/93; B Sun, Nov 17/93; P Inq, Dec 1/93)
Yuri Koptev, head of the Russian Space Agency, said that Russia would definitely take part in the creation of a proposed Space Station with the United States. Work on the Station should start in 1997 and be finished by 2001. (Reuters, Nov 16/93; P Inq, Nov 26/93)
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