CU's observatory space venture is delayed 4 months

By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.

The confluence of terrestrial engineering and celestial mechanics has caused a four-month launch delay for the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), which will carry a Cornell-designed instrument.

The delay was announced by NASA on April 18, when the space-bound observatory was only days away from beginning its search for the earliest, coldest and dirtiest parts of the cosmos. Originally SIRTF was scheduled to be launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., April 15. Then the launch was delayed until April 18 and then until April 27.

The latest delay is due to one of the nine rocket boosters on the Boeing Delta II heavy launch vehicle, which has suffered from multiple material delaminations inside the engine-nozzle exit-cone liner.

NASA said that delaying launch until at least mid-August will allow engineers enough time to change one of the nine solid rocket motors. "Everyone is focused on getting the payload off the rocket and off the launch tower safely, and then get it back to the safe haven of the laboratory," said James R. Houck, Cornell professor of astronomy, leader of the team that designed the largest of SIRTF's three instruments, the infrared spectrograph. "That process should take a few days."

Changing the rocket motor on SIRTF's Delta II now would have delayed the launch of the two Mars Exploration Rovers, scheduled for launch on the same pad on June 6 and June 25. The rover A and B missions could not be delayed because it will take another two years for Mars to reach a similar orbital position. Steven Squyres, professor of astronomy, is the scientific principal investigator on the Mars missions.

The first of the twin Mars missions, originally scheduled for May 30, was recently rescheduled to June 6 due to a potential problem with cabling on the spacecraft, according to the space agency. "There simply is not enough time to remove and replace the rocket motor to support a SIRTF launch in advance of the Mars Exploration Rover-B launch window," said Karen Poniatowski, a NASA launch services administrator, in a prepared statement.

SIRTF, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is the last mission of the space agency's Great Observatories program.

The infrared spectrograph will peer into deep regions of the universe not visible optically and could provide clues to the youngest parts of the heavens, perhaps showing astronomers when star and galaxy formation began. Houck said the spectrograph can penetrate obscuring dust in the dirtiest parts of the cosmos and observe ultrafrigid, newly forming stars in the coldest regions of the universe.