Shuttle orbits 184 miles high;
launches first of two satellites
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)
— The shuttle Columbia thun
dered into space for the fifth
time Thursday, and crewmen
sent the first of two commun
ications satellites spinning into
orbit from their cargo-bay
launch pad 184 miles above
Earth
With that, NASA's $11-billion
shuttle was finally open for
business
"This is probably the first time
that people had been the laun
chees and turned right around
and became the launchers,''
said one of the crewmen as the
astronauts went to sleep after a
busy 12 hours in space
The onboard camera showed
the 3Vj-ton satellite whirling
slowly out to space, a sight as
spectacular in its silence as
Columbia’s powerful liftoff just
hours earlier
The shuttle's Veterans Day
Page 4
launcn was me msi evei ui iuui
men in one spacecraft With
NASA's customers paying at
tention, Columbia left exactly on
time. Then the crew settled
down to work.
In mid-afternoon, from a
console inside Columbia's
cabin, mission specialist William
Lenoir started the spin of SBS
C, the communications
spacecraft owned by Satellite
Business Systems of McLean,
Va
The satellite moved away
from the shuttle at three-feet per
second and Lenoir told Mission
Control: "OK Houston, We
deliver." A voice told the crew
"You got a lot of happy people
down here, you guys do good
work."
The space agency’s first cus
tomer was satisfied, too.
"This is an outstanding
beginning for the shuttle's
operational era," said Robert C
Hall, president of SBS He called
the deployment "great miles
tones for NASA and SBS "
On Sunday, Allen and Lenoir
will take the first spacewalk by
an American since 1974 They
will don EVA suits for a 3 hour 25
minute tour of the payload bay
where they will test their ability
to do repair work in space.
For launch, the four astron
auts wore NASA blue-cotton
coveralls instead of the awk
ward brown pressure suits
required on America's 35
previous man-in-space mis
sions Seconds after liftoff, Mis
sion Control said simply,
"Columbia now in space for the
fifth time.”
TELEFUND
STATISTICS
100.000
90.000
80.000
70.000
60.000
50.000
40.000
30.000
20.000
10.000
On 11/10HPER
received a total of 143
pledges for a total of
$2,676
That brings the grand
total for the telefund to
$27,680
The most pledges for one
night was achieved by
Alpha Phi Omega and
Circle K Club with 162
pledges
Friday, November 12,1902 '.