![[Imagemap]](/TECH/images/nav_tech.gif){kind=small}
February 24, 1996
Web posted at: 11:00 a.m. EST
From Correspondent John Holliman
(CNN) -- NASA postponed the deployment of a tethered Italian satellite from the space shuttle Columbia Saturday, preferring to give the crew and earth-bound engineers an extra day to solve intermittent computer problems. (292K AIFF sound or 292K WAV sound)
The delay also means Columbia's mission will be extended an extra day, Mission Control told the astronauts.
Columbia's seven-member crew is working around the clock in three shifts with one goal in mind -- unreeling the science satellite on a toothpick-thin wire that will stretch about 11 miles from the shuttle.
The main computer which relays commands from the shuttle to the satellite failed Friday, and automatically switched to the back-up system. But switching to the other system caused a series of other computers to crash.
The astronauts replaced a connecting cable which seemed to solve the problem for about an hour before the system failed again. It works most of the time -- but NASA managers want the computer -- called SmartFlex -- working perfectly during deployment.
"If we lost the SmartFlex totally, it would be a problem,"
said mission director Lee Briscoe.
Out in the cargo bay, the tethered satellite was put through its paces overnight Friday, and everything aboard the five-foot diameter metal ball seems to be working well.
The release of the satellite is now scheduled for Sunday, unless the computer problems can't be solved to the satisfaction of the crew and ground controllers. The main experiment will be to test electrical generation from an 11 - mile-long wire zooming through space at 17,500 miles per hour.
Four years ago, astronauts were able to unreel only 840 feet of the tether when it snagged on a bolt and tangled in the cargo bay. Hardly any electricity was produced. The bolt and other problems with the satellite have been fixed. NASA officials are confident of success this time around, though they acknowledge release and retrieval of the satellite will be tricky.
Copyright © 1996 Cable News Network, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
