The Week in Space

January 4-10, 2010

Overexposure  Almost six years after it was originally placed in orbit, NASA’s Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) is seen here being retrieved by the space shuttle Columbia during the STS-32 mission, which was launched twenty years ago this week. Placed in orbit in April 1984, LDEF carried fifty-seven experiments to test how different materials reacted to long-term exposure to the harsh environment of outer space. It was originally scheduled to stay in orbit one year, but mission delays resulting from the Challenger accident left LDEF in orbit much longer. Friction with Earth’s thin upper atmosphere had caused LDEF’s orbit to deteriorate so much that the school bus-size satellite was little more than one month away from reentering the atmosphere when it was retrieved by Columbia.

Image credit: NASA

Weekly Calendar

January 4-10, 2010

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 4

Mercury in inferior conjunction
Quadrantid meteor shower

1970: NASA cancels Apollo 20 mission; further production of Saturn V launch vehicles ceases

Tuesday 5

Wednesday 6

Epiphany

Saturn 8° north of Moon 

1998: Lunar Prospector launched

Thursday 7

Last Quarter Moon 5:39 AM ET
Vesta appears stationary

Friday 8

Saturday 9

Sunday 10

1946: U.S. Army bounces radar signal off the Moon 
1969: Venera 6 launched

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