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Garn Shuttle Countdown Starts

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Associated Press

The two-day countdown for space shuttle Discovery’s mission with Sen. Jake Garn aboard began today, as its sister ship Challenger moved into an assembly hangar to set up a launch doubleheader just 17 days apart.

The countdown clock started at 2 a.m. for Discovery, aiming for a liftoff at 8:04 a.m. (5:04 a.m. PST) Friday. The seven-person crew includes Garn as a congressional observer. The flight, originally set for Feb. 20, has been postponed five times for various reasons, scrambling NASA’s launch schedule.

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