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Int. Designation
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1966-047A
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Launched
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3 June 1966
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Launch Site
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Pad 19, Cape Kennedy, Florida
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Landed
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6 June 1966
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Landing Site
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Western Atlantic Ocean
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Launch Vehicle
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Titan II GLV No. 9; spacecraft serial number 9
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Duration
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3 days 20 min 50 sec
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Callsign
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Gemini Nine
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Objective
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Rendezvous and docking mission; EVA activities
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Flight Crew
STAFFORD, Thomas Patten Jr., 35, USAF, command pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: Gemini 6 (1965)
CERNAN, Eugene Andrew, 32, USN, pilot
Flight Log
Gemini 9 certainly seemed to be a jinxed 13th US manned space flight, even before it got airborne. The prime Gemini 9 crew were killed in an air crash in St Louis on 28 February 1966, when their T-38 aircraft hit the roof of the building housing the Gemini 9 spacecraft, before bouncing off and crashing into a car park. Command pilot Elliott See and pilot Charles Bassett were replaced by the back-up crew, Tom Stafford and Eugene Cernan, who had landed at St Louis in a second aircraft shortly afterwards.
On 17 May, the Agena 9 target rocket for the three-day rendezvous, docking and spacewalking mission flew into the Atlantic Ocean after a second-stage malfunction, and the mission was scrubbed. After the Agena 6 failure in October 1965, NASA began to develop an alternative target without its own engine, called the Augmented Target Docking Adapter, ATDA, should the Agena fail again. On 1 June, an Atlas booster carried ATDA into orbit, while Stafford and Cernan waited for their blastoff within the tight, 40-second window. Computer problems grounded them at T — 2 minutes. Stafford, the Gemini 6 pilot, had now been to the pad five times and had lifted off only once.
However, he and Cernan were at last airborne at 08: 39 hrs on 3 June, heading for what scientists were expecting to be a rather unusual sight, as signals from the ATDA indicated that its payload shrouds had not separated fully. They were right. Stafford gave Gemini 9 its trademark, describing the ATDA as an “angry alligator”. They couldn’t dock but, as planned, backed off and conducted two more rendezvous. During the manoeuvres in the 28.9° inclination orbit, the astronauts reached a peak

The ATDA docking target was dubbed the “angry alligator” by the crew of Gemini 9
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altitude of 311 km (195 miles). Cernan’s planned spacewalk was delayed to 5 June, because the astronauts felt exhausted.
The Gemini pilot was equipped with an enlarged EVA Life Support System (ELSS) on his chest, with its own heat exchanger to cool ventilator air and to provide 30 minutes of emergency oxygen. Cernan’s tether was 7.62 m (25 ft) long. He had planned to don the US Air Force manned manoeuvring unit, still attached to a tether, which was housed in the adapter section of the spacecraft. The AMU weighed 76 kg (168 lb) and was powered by nitrogen peroxide thrusters. Cernan’s legs were protected from the AMU’s exhaust by dark grey leggings of eleven layers of aluminised film. He donned the device but never flew it because Stafford called him back after a record 2 hours 8 minutes outside. Cernan found the spacewalk utterly exhausting, as controlling his movement in weightlessness was almost impossible. Compounding the problem were the snaking umbilicals of his spacesuit, the AMU, poor communications when Cernan switched to the AMU circuit, plus the inability of his spacesuit’s environmental control system to handle his body heat. Cernan ended up with a fogged faceplate and couldn’t see out.
Gemini 9 did, however, perform a party piece at the end of the 3 day 20 minute 50 second mission, splashing down just 1.44 km (1 mile) from the recovery ship
USS Wasp, a target miss of just 704 m (2,300 ft) some 552 km (343 miles) east of Bermuda.
Milestones
21st manned space flight
13th US manned space flight
7th Gemini manned flight
1st US manned space flight by back-up crew
2nd US and 3rd flight with EVA operations
Closest splashdown of a Gemini to a recovery vessel (0.38 nautical miles)
Flight Crew
YOUNG, John Watts, 36, USN, command pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: Gemini 3 (1965)
COLLINS, Michael, 36, USAF, pilot
Flight Log
The 299th Atlas (and the 100th NASA Atlas) vehicle took off from Pad 15 on 18 July, taking with it the Agena 10 target stage, which duly entered its programmed orbit. Astronauts John Young and Michael Collins were launched 100 minutes later at 17: 20 hrs, and within 5 hours 52 minutes were docked with Agena 10. Young had used rather too much fuel, however, and practice dockings were cancelled. The Taciturn Two, as the astronauts were described, used the Agena 10 engine to boost them into a record 763 km (474 miles) apogee in the 28.9° orbit, increasing the speed of the docked combination by 129 m/sec during the Agena’s 80-second burn. The boost captured the attention of the crew more than the scenery did, because with the huge stage before their windows, the view was limited. The crew rested for nine hours, and on the next mission “day’’ relit the Agena to reduce the orbital height in preparation for a rendezvous with the second target – the dead Agena 8 stage used during the Gemini 8 mission the previous March.
Before the rendezvous, Collins performed a stand-up EVA, standing on his seat and poking his head and shoulders out of the spacecraft hatch, mainly to set up an astronomical camera and to retrieve cosmic dust particle collectors from the outside of the spacecraft, two of the 16 science experiments being flown on the mission. During the 49-minute exercise, both astronauts were badly affected by leaking lithium hydroxide from the spacecraft’s environmental control system. Their eyes streaming and throats burning, they cut short the EVA. The Agena 10 was undocked after 38 hours 47 minutes attached to Gemini 10, while the latter, using its OAMS thrusters, made an optical rendezvous with the Agena 8 without the use of radar.

Gemini 10 docking with its Agena target, as seen from Mike Collins’ window
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On 20 July, Young piloted Gemini to within 3 m (10 ft) of the rocket stage and Collins opened the hatch for his full EVA, during which he recovered a cosmic dust particle collector from its side. He lost a camera in the process as he wrestled with a nitrogen gas-powered hand-held manoeuvring unit and the annoying tendency to float up and away from where he meant to be. A fault on another camera meant that no pictures were produced of Collins next to the Agena. The planned one-and-a-half – hour spacewalk was called off after 39 minutes because of concern over usage of the dwindling station-keeping thruster fuel. Getting the 15 m (49 ft) tether and the astronaut back into the spacecraft took a lot of effort and having done so, just before retro-fire, the crew opened the hatch for three minutes to dump some rubbish into orbit, namely the chest pack and tether.
Gemini 10 splashed down 846 km (526 miles) east of Cape Kennedy, 5.4 km (3 miles) from the recovery ship, USS Guadalcanal at T + 2 days 22 hours 46 minutes 39 seconds.
Milestones
22nd manned space flight 14th US manned space flight 8th Gemini manned flight 1st re-boost into high orbit
1st mission to rendezvous with two separate spacecraft 1st astronaut to make bodily contact with another spacecraft 1st US mission to launch on the day originally scheduled 3rd US and 4th flight with EVA operations
Flight Crew
CONRAD, Charles “Pete” Jr., 36, USN, command pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: Gemini 5 (1965)
GORDON, Richard Francis Jr., 37, USN, pilot
Flight Log
Gemini 11’s task was to simulate a take-off by an Apollo lunar lander, and rendezvous and docking with an Apollo Command Module in lunar orbit, by taking off and docking with the Agena 11 target within 94 minutes, or one orbit. This meant that after the successful ascent of Agena 11 on the delayed launch day of 12 September, Gemini 11 would have just two seconds in its launch window. Its Titan II booster met its target within half a second, spewing into life with that characteristic high-pitched whine as the hypergolic propellants ignited spontaneously on contact.
Once in 28.8° inclination orbit, Conrad and Gordon switched on their rendezvous radar and computer and the space chase began. Rendezvous was achieved within 85 minutes and the ebullient Conrad jockeyed Gemini’s nose inside the Agena target. For the first time in the programme, the crew performed docking practice, with Gordon being the first Gemini pilot to dock. The Agena was given a quick test burn in preparation for a longer burn later in the mission which was designed to take the crew to a record altitude.
On 13 September, after a rest, Gordon opened the hatch to begin an EVA, which everyone hoped would at last dispel doubts about man’s ability to work in space. The burly Gemini pilot floated towards the Agena docking collar and sat astride it to attach a tether. He used a 10 m (33 ft) tether and a hand-held manoeuvring unit. Riding like a cowboy, as Conrad described him, Gordon had great difficulty remaining in one place and not floating upwards. The effort proved too much for the spacesuit’s environmental control system and Gordon became blinded with sweat. Conrad called him back after just 38 minutes. Gemini had just one more flight to prove

Gemini 11 flies over India and Sri Lanka
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that effective EVA was possible. The crew overcame their disappointment with the big Agena burn, lasting 26 seconds, over the Canary Islands.
En route to a high point of 1,372 km (853 miles) over Western Australia, the highest Earth orbit manned apogee, Gordon took an epic photo of India and Sri Lanka from a height of about 800 km (497 miles). The Agena was used to reduce the orbital height, in preparation for a stand-up EVA by Gordon lasting 128 minutes, during which he conducted several of the mission’s science experiments and also had a cat nap.
Finally, Gemini 11 undocked from Agena 11, which was left dangling at the end of a 30 m (98 ft) tether. Conrad fired the thrusters to put the combination into a spin and thus created artificial gravity. After separating from the Agena and backing away, the crew performed further rendezvous exercises and a two-minute “equipment jettison” out of an opened hatch, before sitting back for a fully computer-controlled retro-fire, re-entry and landing. The eventful mission ended 1,120 km (696 miles) east of Miami, within 3 km (2 miles) of the recovery ship, USS Guam, at T + 2 days 23 hours 17 minutes 8 seconds.
Milestones
23rd manned space flight 15th US manned space flight 9th Gemini manned flight
1st manned mission to create artificial gravity in orbit 1st computer-controlled retro-fire re-entry and landing 4th US and 5th flight with EVA operations
On 1 November 1966, NASA civilian test pilot William Dana, 35, flew X-15-3 to 93 km during the programme’s tenth astro-flight.
Flight Crew
LOVELL, James Arthur Jr., 38, USN, command pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: Gemini 7 (1965)
ALDRIN, Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Jr., 36, USAF, pilot
Flight Log
Apart from the now customary Agena rendezvous and docking, the most important task of Gemini 12 was to overcome the perennial spacewalking problem. For this, astronaut Buzz Aldrin was to have the additional assistance of straps, harnesses, Velcro patches and even “golden slippers” spacesuit boot holders, to help keep him in place, so he could do really effective work without overworking his environmental control system. The crew walked to the pad with “The” and “End” cards on their backs and were told when they reached Gemini 12 that theirs was “the last chance… no reruns… show will close after this performance”. The show began with the Agena 12 launch from Pad 14 and followed that with Gemini 12’s lift-off at 15: 26hrs local time on 11 November. The flight achieved a 28.9° inclination orbit, which would at one point of the flight reach an apogee of 301 km (187 miles).
Fortunately, pilot Aldrin had written a thesis on manned orbital rendezvous before he was selected as an astronaut, so when the spacecraft’s rendezvous radar failed, his slide rule and sextant came out. To the admiration of ground controllers, rendezvous was achieved at T + 3 hours 46 minutes with a docking 28 minutes later. The astronauts had planned to use Agena’s engine for a modest re-boost to an altitude of 640 km (398 miles), but controllers were concerned about a potentially dangerous malfunction and instead ordered the crew to use the Gemini engines to perform “rendezvous” with a solar eclipse over South America, which was an added bonus to the mission. Aldrin then performed a 2 hour 39 minute stand-up EVA (SUEVA), taking photographs casually leaning over the spacecraft like a tourist.
The following day, 12 November, mission planners watched with some trepidation as Aldrin began the most important EVA so far. It went swimmingly and Aldrin

Astronaut Eugene Cernan (left) jokes with the Gemini 12 crew as they prepare to board the capsule
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did everything he planned during the successful 2 hour 8 minute spacewalk. One of his tasks had been to attach a tether to the Agena 12 target, which later allowed the astronauts to perform an artificial gravity test. On the third day, Aldrin opened the hatch again and made a 51-minute SUEVA, conducting some of Gemini’s 14 science experiments. Thruster problems continued to be a concern throughout the mission but did not prevent a safe re-entry and landing at T + 3 days 22 hours 34 minutes 31 seconds, just 4.16 km (3 miles) from USS Wasp. The Gemini programme had been concluded with ten manned missions, clocking up 80 man-days in space. What was remarkable was that throughout the programme, the Soviets did not launch one cosmonaut into space. America was on its way – to the Moon.
Milestones
24th manned space flight 16th US manned space flight 10th Gemini manned flight
1st manned mission to witness solar eclipse in space 5th US and 6th flight with EVA operations
The next US mission after the end of the Gemini programme should have been the mission of Apollo 1 in February 1967. The tragic events on 27 January 1967 which prevented this mission are covered in detail under the chapter Quest for Space (Chapter 2).
Int. Designation
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1983-026A
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Launched
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4 April 1983
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Launch Site
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Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
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Landed
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9 April 1983
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Landing Site
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Runway 22, Edwards Air Force Base, California
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Launch Vehicle
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OV-099 Challenger/ET-8/SRB A17; A18/SSME #1 2017; #2 2015; #3 2012
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Duration
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5 days 0 hrs 23 min 42 sec
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Callsign
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Challenger
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Objective
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Maiden flight of OV-099 (Challenger); EVA demonstration; deployment of first TDRS
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Flight Crew
WEITZ, Paul Joseph, 50, civilian, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: Skylab 2 (1973)
BOBKO, Karol Joseph, 45, USAF, pilot
MUSGRAVE, Franklin Story, 47, civilian, mission specialist 1
PETERSON, Donald Herod, 49, civilian, mission specialist 2
Flight Log
The first Challenger orbiter mission was originally due to have taken place on 27 January 1983 but was delayed by a series of potentially disastrous engine problems which first came to light after Challenger’s Flight Readiness Firing on 18 December
1982. Engineers detected an abnormal level of gaseous hydrogen. A second FRF was scheduled for 25 January and the TDRS payload was removed from Challenger. The hydrogen leak was detected again and this time was traced to a 2 cm (| in) crack in the No.1 main engine combustion chamber coolant outlet manifold. Engine 1 was ordered to be replaced. TDRS was replaced, only to be slightly damaged by fine salt sea spray after a severe storm. It was back inside Challenger’s cargo bay by 19 March.
Worse was to follow. The replacement engine 1 was found to be faulty and had to be replaced itself, then an inspection of the No.2 and 3 engines revealed hairline cracks which had to be repaired. Challenger sat engineless on the pad. At last, on 4 April
1983, at the comparatively late hour of 18:30 KSC time, Challenger ascended flawlessly into clear blue skies, the only anomaly being the annoying deposition of some black soot on Challenger’s windows at SRB separation.
The rookie crew (called the F Troop after a TV programme and the fact that they were the sixth Shuttle crew) proceeded to achieve the main objective – to deploy NASA’s first $100 million communications station in space, TDRS, on only the second IUS solid propellant two-stage upper stage flown. This was duly deployed

The first Shuttle EVA demonstration was conducted during STS-6
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from its tilt table and was later injected into geostationary transfer orbit. A second stage failure stranded the satellite, however, and through no fault of its own the Shuttle was tarred with the same brush by some of the press. TDRS was eventually nudged into its planned geostationary orbit by careful firing of its own thrusters over a period of 58 days.
Maximum altitude reached by Challenger in the 28.4° orbit was 248 km (154 miles). On 8 April, Story Musgrave (EV1) and Donald Peterson (EV2) made the delayed EVA that was planned for STS-5, lasting 4 hours 17 minutes, to check out the Shuttle spacesuit and practice making space repairs, featuring in some spectacular TV. It was also the first US EVA since Skylab 4, nine years earlier. Later, Challenger came home to Edwards Air Force Base, landing on runway 22 at T + 5 days 0 hours 23 minutes 42 seconds, the shortest four-crew space flight.
Milestones
89th manned space flight 37th US manned space flight 6th Shuttle flight 1st flight of Challenger
16th US and 22nd flight with EVA operations
1st Shuttle-based EVA
1st TDRS deployment mission
Flight Crew
TITOV, Vladimir Georgyevich, 36, Soviet Air Force, commander STREKALOV, Gennady Mikhailovich, 43, civilian, flight engineer 1, 2nd mission
Previous mission: Soyuz T3 (1980)
SEREBROV, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, 39, civilian, research engineer, 2nd mission
Previous mission: Soyuz T7 (1982)
Flight Log
Salyut 7 remained empty during the Russian winter of 1982-3 and was joined by the unmanned Cosmos 1443 module in March. Trained to work aboard Salyut and the new module were Vladimir Titov, Aleksandr Serebrov, making the first successive national manned space flight, and Gennady Strekalov. Their attempt to dock with Salyut, however, was doomed very soon after lift-off, at 19: 11 hrs local time from Baikonur, when the payload shroud tore away Soyuz T’s rendezvous radar antenna which only partially deployed. The crew used the RCS thrusters to try to shake the antenna free but to no avail. In trying to hide the serious problem, these engine firings were reported as tests of the attitude control system.
Although mission rules would normally dictate a return to Earth, the rookie commander Titov got permission to try a visual rendezvous and attempted docking using radar readings from the ground. The docking was perceived as having a low success probability by the ground controllers. It could have been a complete disaster, for Soyuz T8 flew past Salyut 7 at great speed, missing a catastrophic collision by 160 m (525 ft). Titov had made an optically guided approach to Salyut’s rear docking port after a 50 second rocket burn. The seventh space station flight had to be aborted not because of lack of power but because propellant reserves were not high enough to try again. The difficulty in guiding the Soyuz T to the station becomes more apparent when it was later revealed by Titov that he had not trained for a fully manual docking

Soyuz T8 crew during a training session in the Salyut 7 mock-up, something they did not put into practice in space. L to r Titov, Serebrov, Strekalov
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approach and was unsure of his depth perception through the spacecraft periscope as he attempted a difficult manoeuvre.
The crew, which would have been the first three-man long duration crew since Soyuz 11, came home 96 km (60 miles) northeast of Arkalyk at T + 2 days 0 hours 17 minutes 48 seconds. Maximum altitude reached in the 51.6° orbit was 300 km (186 miles).
Milestones
90th manned space flight 53rd Soviet manned space flight 46th Soyuz manned space flight 7th Soyuz T manned space flight
1st space flight by crewman on successive national missions
Int. Designation
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1985-092A
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Launched
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3 October 1985
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Launch Site
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Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
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Landed
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7 October 1985
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Landing Site
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Runway 23, Edwards Air Force Base, California
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Launch Vehicle
|
OV-104 Atlantis/ET-25/SRB BI-021/SSME #1 2011
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#2 2019; #3 2017
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Duration
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4 days 1 hr 44min 38 sec
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Callsign
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Atlantis
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Objective
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2nd classified DoD Shuttle mission
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Flight Crew
BOBKO, Karol Joseph, 48, USAF, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-6 (1983); STS 51-D (1985)
GRABE, Ronald John, 40, USAF, pilot HILMERS, David Carl, 35, USMC, mission specialist 1 STEWART, Robert Lee, 43, US Army, mission specialist 2, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS 41-B (1984)
PAILES, William, 33, USAF, payload specialist 1
Flight Log
The maiden flight of the Atlantis orbiter began in spectacular style from Pad 39A at 11: 15hrs local time, but the first anyone was to have known about the mission was nine minutes earlier, when the ground launch sequencer started the final countdown. Mission 51-J was a Department of Defense flight and is one of the most anonymous in Shuttle history because of its classification. It is thought to have deployed two DSCS communications satellites into orbit aboard an IUS upper stage. According to data revealed by the North American Air Defense Command, NORAD, Atlantis reached a record 512km (318 miles) altitude in the 28.5° orbit.
Also on board was an experiment called Bios, which studied the damage to biological samples by high-energy cosmic rays. The mission also marked the end of the brief career of the USA Air Force Manned Space Engineer corps, whose William Pailes was the second and last to fly. At one time, one or two representatives from the MSE corps were to have flown every DoD mission. After the Challenger accident the next year, these already limited opportunities disappeared altogether.
Atlantis made a longer than usual return from its high orbit, landing on runway 23 at Edwards Air Force Base at T + 4 days 1 hour 44 minutes 38 seconds.

This Earth image is one of the few released for the classified STS 51-J mission
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111th manned space flight 52nd US manned space flight 21st Shuttle mission 1st flight of Atlantis
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Int. Designation
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1990-097A
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Launched
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15 November 1990
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Launch Site
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Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
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Landed
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20 November 1990
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Landing Site
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Runway 33, Shuttle Landing Facility, KSC, Florida
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Launch Vehicle
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OV-104 Atlantis/ET-40/SRB B-039/SSME #1 2019;
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#2 2022; #3 2017
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Duration
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4 days 21 hrs 54 min 31 sec
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Call sign
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Atlantis
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Objective
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7th dedicated classified DoD mission
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Flight Crew
COVEY, Richard Oswalt, 44, USAF, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS 51-1 (1985), STS-26 (1988)
CULBERTSON Jr., Frank Lee, 41, USN, pilot MEADE, Carl Joseph, 40, USAF, mission specialist 1 SPRINGER, Robert Clyde, 48, USMC, mission specialist 2, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-29 (1989)
GEMAR, Charles Donald “Sam”, 35, US Army, mission specialist 3
Flight Log
Originally scheduled for launch in July 1990, when a liquid hydrogen leak was found on Columbia (STS-35), three precautionary mini tanking tests on Atlantis also confirmed hydrogen leaks on its ET. These could not be repaired on the pad, and the stack was returned to the processing area for repairs on 9 August. The STS-38 stack was parked outside the VAB overnight to allow STS-35 to be rolled out to its pad. Unfortunately, a hail storm that night caused minor tile damage which also needed repairing. Atlantis was returned to the VAB for mating on 2 October, but during hoisting operations a platform beam that should have been removed from the aft compartment fell off, causing more (but thankfully minor) damage, which was quickly repaired. The stack was returned to the Pad on 12 October and a fourth tanking test went smoothly. The revised launch date was set at 9 November. However, on 31 October, the USAF announced another delay to the launch, this time due to “anomalies discovered during cargo testing.” The night-time launch was rescheduled for 15 November and this time occurred without incident despite some concerns with the weather at the Cape. Atlantis lifted off 18 minutes into its four-hour launch window.
As this was a classified DoD mission, the air-to-ground communications and reporting of crew activities and mission events ceased after confirmation that Atlantis

A happy crew indicate a successful conclusion to the mission shortly after exiting Atlantis. L to r Covey, Springer, Gemar, Culbertson and Meade
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had safely reached orbit, but this did not stop the speculation as to what the mission of STS-38 was intended to achieve. Media reports indicated that the payload bay was full of sensors, including high-resolution digital cameras that might be used to monitor activities in the Persian Gulf, particularly the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait that led to the First Gulf War. However, a USAF spokesman indicated that Atlantis had launched into an orbital inclination that would take the Shuttle well south of Iraq “for much of the time.” This gave rise to comments that the payload might be an electronic eavesdropping satellite called “Magnum”, rather than a photoreconnaissance satellite. The deployment of the payload could have been at any time during the orbital phase, but media reports indicated that this operation had been carried out two days into the mission. The payload was later identified as an advanced data relay satellite for use with the Crystal imaging reconnaissance platform.
Whatever it was, its deployment from the orbiter was monitored by amateur astronomers on Earth. Their reports indicated that the deployed payload was behaving very mysteriously in ways never seen before, suggesting that the satellite might have malfunctioned and that the Shuttle crew might have been required to retrieve it. NASA and the Air Force remained silent, which only served to fuel speculation that
there was perhaps an unannounced EVA by the crew. Records have shown that the RMS was carried on classified missions STS 51-C, STS-27, and the later unclassified DoD mission STS-39, but not on STS-38. Therefore, if the satellite had to be retrieved or attended to, the lack of RMS meant that the only other option was a contingency EVA. If such an event had occurred – and there is still no evidence that an EVA was accomplished – astronauts Springer (EV1) and Meade (EV2) would have been assigned the task, supported by Culbertson (IV). A year after the mission, an issue of Space News dated 18-24 November 1991 included an interview with Don Stager, the Vice President of TRW’s military wing. Stager talked about the upcoming deployment of the DSP satellite during STS-44, and indicated that “a couple of [military shuttle] launches ago, there was a situation that was not understood”. He indicated that sunlight glinting off the solar arrays had caused a problem, which may have explained the strange movements observed by the amateur astronomers. Exactly what occurred during the deployment sequence will remain classified for many years to come, however.
Although the activities of the crew were classified, at least one voice message from Atlantis was released. Commander Dick Covey requested that a message of support be sent to the men and women of Desert Shield from the crew of Atlantis. The crew wished them peace and a speedy return home. The astronauts were thinking of them and their families as they orbited the Earth.
The landing was intended to be at Edwards AFB, but unacceptable crosswinds and continuing adverse conditions led to a late decision to delay the landing by 24 hours and take Atlantis back to the Cape. The last landing there, in April 1985 (STS 51-D), led to a landing left of the centreline, locked right side landing brakes and a blown tyre. Because of this, landings at KSC were eschewed in favour of Edwards AFB, whose dry lake bed surfaces surrounding the runways offered more flexibility until improvements were completed at the Cape. This time, however, Atlantis came home without incident, landing on Runway 33 and rolling out about 2,750 metres to wheel stop.
Milestones
136th manned space flight 67th US manned space flight 37th Shuttle flight 7th Atlantis flight
7th and final fully classified DoD Shuttle mission 1st KSC landing for Atlantis
Meade celebrates his 40th birthday in space (16 Nov)
1992-061A 12 September 1992
Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida 20 September 1992
Runway 33, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
OV-105 Endeavour/ET-45/SRB BI-053/SSME #1 2026;
#2 2022; #3 2029
7 days 22 hrs 30 min 23 sec
Endeavour
Spacelab J (SL-J) research objectives utilising the pressurised Spacelab module
Flight Crew
GIBSON, Robert Lee “Hoot”, 45, USN, commander, 4th mission Previous missions: STS 41-B (1984); STS 61-C (1986); Cdr STS-27 (1988) BROWN Jr., Curtis Lee, 35, USAF, pilot
LEE, Mark, 40, USAF, mission specialist 1, payload commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-30 (1989)
APT, Jerome “Jay”, 43, civilian, mission specialist 2, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-37 (1991)
DAVIS, (Nancy) Jan, 37, civilian, mission specialist 3 JEMISON, Mae Carol, 34, civilian, science mission specialist MOHRI, Mamoru Mark, 43, civilian, Japanese payload specialist
Flight Log
The 50th flight of the Space Shuttle series featured a joint venture in materials science and life science experiments between NASA and the Japanese NASDA agency. The mission began with the first on-time launch since November 1985, carrying an experiment programme of 24 materials and 20 life science experiments into orbit. Of the 44 investigations, 35 were sponsored by NASDA, seven were from NASA and two were joint efforts. As with previous missions, many of the experiments were designed to help prepare the astronauts for future work on space station and long – duration missions.
As one of the partners in the space station programme, Japan was eager to gain some experience in a dedicated Spacelab mission (termed Fuwatto 92, or First Materials Processing Test – FMPT) for its first Shuttle flight, rather that having a PS fly on a Shuttle mission with a smaller, more generic experiment programme. Aside from the main Spacelab experiment payload, the crew worked in two shifts (Red – Brown, Lee, Mohri; Blue – Apt, Davis, Jemison; Gibson worked with either shift as

The prime and alternative crew members inside the Spacelab J laboratory installed in the cargo bay of Endeavour during STS-47 launch-processing in July 1992. Kneeling from left Chiaki Mukai alternative Japanese PS; Davis; Takao Doi alternative Japanese PS. Standing from left are Brown, Lee, Apt, Mohri, Gibson, Jemison and Stanley Koszelak, an alternative PS who served as back-up to Jemison
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required) on five mid-deck secondary payloads. Endeavour also carried twelve GAS canisters, ten of which were experiments and the other two acting as ballast mass. Of the five mid-deck secondary payloads, one was an Israeli experiment to study the ability of oriental hornets to orientate their combs in microgravity. In fact, the hornets were part of a very comprehensive “crew”. In addition to the seven astronauts, STS-47 carried four female frogs, thirty chicken eggs, 180 oriental hornets, about 400 adult fruit flies, 7,200 fly larvae and two Japanese carp. The menagerie became known as “Hoot’s Ark” after commander Robert “Hoot” Gibson (whose nickname came from a famous cowboy film star of the silent and early sound western movies).
Media interest focused on Jemison, both as the first African American woman in space and as a science mission specialist. She was the first (and, to date, only) career astronaut to be officially assigned to perform the tasks of a payload specialist. Jemison had been frustrated with her experiences at NASA for some time prior to this flight and declined the chance of a second mission, resigning from the astronaut office in March 1993 to pursue other interests. Media attention also focused on the first married couple in space (Lee and Davis), with the inevitable question arising of “will they or won’t they become the first members of the 300 km high club.’’ Rumours about this persisted, despite claims that no “marital experiments’’ were planned and the fact that Lee and Davis worked on different shifts throughout the mission.
Like several others, this mission was extended a day to gather more science from the experiment package. Offshore reports of rain around the Cape area were a factor in delaying the landing of Endeavour when it was finally due to return. Mission controllers passed up the first opportunity to land at KSC, but further analysis indicated that the cloud would not encroach over the Cape, allowing the Shuttle to land at the second opportunity.
Milestones
154th manned space flight
80th US manned space flight
50th Shuttle mission
2nd flight of Endeavour
7th Spacelab Long Module mission
1st on-time Shuttle launch since November 1985
1st married couple on same mission (Lee and Davis)
1st African American female in space (Jemison)
1st flight of a science mission specialist (Jemison)
1st Japanese to fly on the Shuttle (Mohri)
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