Ailing Satellite Target of Shuttle Rescue Mission
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA began the countdown Thursday for Monday’s launch of the space shuttle Columbia on a 10-day satellite rescue mission.
The clock began ticking when test director Jim McKnight issued the traditional call to stations at the launch pad and in the control center. Liftoff is scheduled at 5:10 a.m. PST Monday for the first of a record 10 flights planned in 1990.
During 10 days in space, the crew of five is to deploy a Navy communications satellite and track down and retrieve a 21,400-pound science laboratory before it falls back to Earth.
The laboratory, which has been orbiting for nearly six years, will be returned to Earth for a study of its 57 experiments and to determine what has happened to it during long exposure to space.
Liftoff had been scheduled to take place before Christmas, but problems with the launch pad, which has undergone a $50-million overhaul, forced a postponement.
The astronauts will fly to the space center today from their training base in Houston to prepare for the flight.
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