News In Brief

Challenger balloon pops, satellite in wrong orbit

A plastic target balloon ruptured after it was ejected from the space shuttle Challenger Sunday, forcing the astronauts to cancel rendezvous maneuvers designed to rehearse a satellite repair mission planned for April.

It was the second mishap of the eight-day mission that got under way Friday. The Westar 6 commercial communications satellite launched late Friday failed to zoom into its proper orbit, forcing officials to delay the launch of an identical Indonesian satellite until today.