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The crew of the space shuttle Columbia should get back on track Friday, when it is to release a $6 million satellite to study the sun.
The 5,800-pound Spartan satellite was supposed to be placed in orbit Thursday, but a companion solar satellite called SOHO shut down inexplicably Wednesday. That satellite, a million miles from Earth, returned to life Thursday, paving the way for Spartan’s release on Friday afternoon.
Both satellites need to be working because one of Spartan’s main missions is to verify unusual readings from the U.S.-European SOHO satellite.
NASA said it is unclear why SOHO lost power.
The brief outage, the first in SOHO’s two-year history, caused NASA to re-arrange the first five days of Columbia’s activities.
