Aalice.159
net.columbia
utzoo!decvax!duke!mhtsa!research!alice!sjb
Fri Nov 13 18:35:01 1981
STS-2 shortened
Although the flight of the shuttle was smooth today, and
all the experiments went well, NASA ordered the ship home
tomorrow. It will land at 1422 EST at Rogers Dry Lake,
right after a cloud cover is expected to break up. With
one cell gone, Columbia could have gone on, but NASA officials
decided not to take a chance with the others -- two gone
would mean a landing as soon as possible (abort); three
would mean the loss of the craft -- it would have no electricity
or internal systems (computers, etc.) and would eventually
fall to Earth and burn up after its orbit decayed. However,
most of the experiments were at least partially completed,
and the Canadarm testing was a complete success, with color
pictures being sent down to Earth.
The SRB parachutes and the tips, or frustrums, of the rockets
were retrieved but high seas continued the delay of recovery
of the main boosters. Strings of lights were put around them for
night and another try was expected today.
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