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deployed for communicating via the TDRS system.
In anticipation of the LDEF retrieval the crew and flight controllers checked out the Remote Manipulator system (RMS) arm a few hours after launch. PNG and CNCR activations,as well as AFE and FEA middeck experiment operations, were begun during the third,fourth,and fifth orbits. During orbit seven the crew began their first sleep period aboard Columbia. The orbiter was at this time about 965 nm behind LDEF and closing at 52 nm per orbit.
Day Two:January 10,1990
The main objective on Day Two of the mission was the deployment of the Syncom IV-05 satellite. The 15,000 pound satellite was spun out of the payload bay ‘frisbee style’ at 13:18 GMT as Columbia passed over the western coast of Africa.
“Th…