Tuned Out

The hope for clear television transmission from space faded Friday as astronauts aboard the shuttle Discovery, worked fruitlessly to repair a transmitter necessary to fine-tune an antimatter experiment and transmit television signals. "The Ku-band communications system appears to be down for the count," the mission control commentator said. Scientists on the ground will now have to rely on brief bursts of data from ground stations dotted around the world instead of the steady stream from space they'd hoped for.