Countdown preparations continued without incident for space shuttle Columbia, which is scheduled to lift off next week on an astronomy mission with seven astronauts.

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Launch is scheduled for 10:38 p.m. MDT Tuesday. The countdown begins Sunday morning. Columbia's payload is a $150 million observatory called Astro, which is composed of four telescopes that will probe ultraviolet light and X-rays during the nine- to 10-day mission.

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