1. Was SMM fully functional until it lost attitude control due to upper atmospheric friction?2. Was a 2nd SMM retrieval mission for Shuttle planned? If so, what happened to the mission--was it cancelled because the program ran out of time, or available hardware, or money?3. Did the situation come down to--we can save LDEF, or we can save SMM again, but we can't save both?
Quote from: zubenelgenubi on 09/22/2017 07:27 pm1. Was SMM fully functional until it lost attitude control due to upper atmospheric friction?2. Was a 2nd SMM retrieval mission for Shuttle planned? If so, what happened to the mission--was it cancelled because the program ran out of time, or available hardware, or money?3. Did the situation come down to--we can save LDEF, or we can save SMM again, but we can't save both?1. yes2 it was to be a science payload swap out with EUVE payload (or another I believe)3. SMM was still functioning, there was no reason to retrieve it.
Re: 3. The retrieval would have facilitated a boost to a higher orbit, such as was done on some (all?) HST retrieval missions, even if there was nothing on SMM to replace or repair. A return to SMM's nominal orbit would allow a further mission extension.Was this considered, even if there was nothing to repair or replace, but ultimately rejected?