New York Times National Wednesday, January 10, 1990 Shuttle in Orbit; Satellite Chase Begins By John Noble Wilford Special to The New York Times CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Jan. 9 - Five astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia rocketed into orbit today on a complex mission to deploy one satellite and after an intricate threeday chase to retrieve another. With the shuttle launching at 7:35 A.M., as scheduled, the chase was on. The quarry, a satellite called the Long Duration Exposure Facility, which has been in space almost six years, had just passed over the Kennedy Space Center here. The satellite, now in a 210 mile-high orbit, is in danger of plunging back to Earth in early March. After a one-day delay because of heavy cloud cover, the Columbia climbed through a high deck of broken clouds and soared out over the Atlantic Ocean. The nine-minute ascent went without a hitch. The shuttle entered an orbit ranging in altitude from 178 miles to 232 miles. ---------- A 1,700-Mile Head Start ---------- "That's the way we wanted to have it to catch up with LDEF," said Lee Briscoe, a flight director at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, referring to the satellite being sought by the Columbia. About 12 to 14 firings of the space shuttle's maneuvering engines and steering jets will be required to catch up with the satellite, which was 1,700 miles ahead of the shuttle, and to ease into the same orbit at the same altitude for a planned rendezvous Friday morning. The astronauts should approach the 30-foot-long cylindrical satellite from slightly above, in an orbit 209 miles above Earth. Although the maneuvers have been carefully planned and will be executed by computerized commands, the final approach will be made by visual and manual controls by the Columbia pilots, Capt. Daniel C. Brandenstein, the mission commander, and Lieut. Comdr. James D. Wetherbee, both of the Navy. They are to fire the shuttle's steering thrusters to come within 30 feet of the satellite. ---------- Praise for 'Stick Handlers' ---------- Expressing confidence in the astronauts' abilities, Al Pennington, the chief flight director, said, "Dan is one of the finest stick handlers in the business, and Jim is not far behind." Once the rendezvous is completed and the astronauts have visually inspected the satellite, Dr. Bonnie J. Dunbar, one of the astronauts, is to operate ---------------------------------------------------------- 'It's great to start the 1990's with a liftoff like this.' ---------------------------------------------------------- the shuttle's 50-foot robotic arm to grapple the satellite and haul it into the cargo bay. She will be assisted in this operation by the two other crew members, Marsha S. Ivins and G. David Low, both mission specialists. Mission planners said revisions in the rendezvous schedule, based on the latest tracking data for the shuttle and the satellite, indicated that the grappling of the satellite should occur at 8:44 A.M. on Friday. The operation is not expected to require the astronauts to take a space walk outside the cabin. ---------- Materials Exposed to Space ---------- The surface of the satellite is covered with trays holding metals, plastics and other materials that have been exposed to space in a test of their durability for use in constructing future spacecraft, particularly the $30 billion Freedom space station planned for later this decade. The LDEF was left in orbit by a shut_tle in 1984, and was to have been retrieved a year later. But scheduling problems and then the Challenger explosion in January 1986 left the satellite stranded in orbit. Dr. William H. Kinard, the chief LDEF scientist at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., said the retrieval delay was a bonus because "it's to our advantage to have the extra exposure for our engineering studies." In the course of chasing the LDEF, the astronauts are to maneuver the shuttle into position to release the communications satellite it carried into orbit. The deployment is scheduled to take place at 8:20 A. M. on Wednesday, in the shuttle's 17th orbit of Earth. ---------- Navy Communications Network ---------- The Syncom IV is the last of five satellites owned and operated by Hughes Communications Inc., a subsidiary of the General Motors Corporation, and leased to the Navy for its worldwide communications network. The satellite, which is 15 feet long and 13 feet wide, is designed to relay communications between aircraft, ships and land-based Navy stations. After the Syncom IV is released from the cargo bay, the Columbia is to maneuver a safe distance away. Then a solid-fuel rocket attached to the satellite is to boost it on a trajectory to an orbit 22,300 miles above the Equator. If the deployment is successfully completed, the astronauts plan to spend Thursday preparing for the final rendezvous and capture of the LDEF. The mission is planned to last 10 days as a test in preparing shuttles for flights of longer duration. Most recent missions have lasted five or six days.