NASA-Commission Report Urges Repair Of Space Telescope
The National Research Council really, really wants NASA
Administrator Sean O'Keefe to rethink his decision against sending
a manned rescue mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. At least on
the surface, it appears Mr. O'Keefe got the message.
NASA and the European Space Agency became fascinated with
Saturn's moon, Titan, after analyzing the data from Voyager's flyby
in 1980 and 1981. That's when they discovered the moon's dense
atmosphere, made mostly of methane. Why, they wondered, at
temperatures prevalent on Titan, doesn't the methane fall from the
sky like rain? Perhaps there was a ocean of methane on the
surface.
The launch of NASA's Aura spacecraft atop a Boeing Delta II
rocket was scrubbed Wednesday because of an issue with one of the
two batteries on the second stage of the Delta II launch vehicle.
At approximately three minutes before the scheduled liftoff time,
as the batteries were being transferred to internal power, the
battery current level dropped below prescribed limits, triggering a
launch hold.
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