Category Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006

Flight Crew

AFANASYEV, Viktor Mikhailovich, 50, Russian Air Force, 3rd mission Previous missions: Soyuz TM11 (1990); Soyuz TM18 (1994)

HAIGNERE, Jean-Pierre, 50, French Air Force, flight engineer, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz TM17

BELLA, Ivan, 34, Slovak Armed (Air) Forces, cosmonaut researcher

Flight Log

This was to prove the final in-orbit hand-over of a Mir crew on a station that had been continually manned since September 1989. The short Slovak Stefanik scientific mission was reportedly paid for by the Russians writing off a Soviet era debt to Slovakia of US$20 million. France reportedly paid US$20.6 million for the Perseus programme, which should have been completed in June but was extended at no extra cost until August.

The Slovak programme encompassed medical experiments, measurements of radiation and observations of the development of quail eggs. Haignere’s Perseus programme included the use of equipment brought up in previous French missions as well as four new experiments. The programme focused on life sciences, physics and space technology. Two other experiments were provided by ESA and there were several experiments provided by French high schools working in cooperation with CNES. On 16 April, Haignere and Afanasyev competed a 6 hour 19 minute EVA in which they were to test a new sealant tool for repairing small holes in the hull. A simulated hole in Kvant was to be used in the test, and the sealant was also to have been used for Spektr, but the hole in the module was never pinpointed. In the test, the valve failed to open and the simulation at Kvant had to be cancelled. The EVA crew did retrieve experiment samples from the exterior of the station, but the deployment of new detectors had to be abandoned as they fell behind schedule.

Slovakia’s first cosmonaut Bella (left) was launched aboard Soyuz TM29 with Russian Afanasyev (centre) and Frenchman Haignere

The three men continued their programmes of biomedical studies, astrophysical and technical experiments and Earth photography, as well as astronomical and solar observations, filling the weeks as they orbited in Mir. In June, Avdeyev surpassed the career record of 681 days accumulated time in space (previously held by Dr. Valery Polyakov). According to some reports, not all the time spent on Mir was harmonious, with Afanasyev not enjoying his third mission to Mir and at times being at odds with Haignere. Two EVAs by Afanasyev and Avdeyev were completed in July (23 Jul for 6 hours 7 minutes and 27 Jul for 5 hours 22 minutes) to deploy an elliptical 6.4 x 5.2m reflector antenna that was 1.1m high. This was a test of a new prototype design for a telecommunications antenna planned for future generations of satellites. It initially refused to deploy and remained furled despite the crew kicking it. During the second EVA, they were able to complete the deployment operation. Over the course of the two EVAs, they also deployed and returned experiments and sample cassettes on the exterior of the station, and during the second EVA they detached the antenna from the Sofora girder, manually pushing it away from the station.

On 25 July, Haignere spoke over the radio to fellow French astronaut Michel Tognini, who was on Columbia during the STS-93 mission. Towards the end of July and in Early August, the crew’s scientific work began to come to an end and for several days the three cosmonauts began winding up their experiments and mothballing the station. Later, they witnessed the effects of the 11 August 1999 total solar eclipse as the shadow passed over southern England, and over the Indian sub-continent one orbit later.

On 27 August, the crew undocked from Mir to complete a landing a few hours later. Afanasyev said that his crew were “abandoning a piece of Russia [with] grief in our souls.’’ According to Russian press releases, there had been over 22,000 scientific experiments in 20 research programmes, utilising over 240 pieces of scientific equip­ment. A total of 14 tons of scientific hardware had been used on Mir by the 27 main crews and numerous visiting crew members. For now, there did not seem to be any further missions on the horizon, although Mir was kept in autonomous flight while all options were examined. The Russians seemed to have committed themselves to ISS and the end of Mir was approaching.

Milestones

211th manned space flight 88th Russian manned space flight 81st manned Soyuz mission 28th manned Soyuz TM mission 29th Mir resident crew

34th Russian and 73rd flight with EVA operations 6th French long-duration mission (189 days)

Haignere celebrates his 51st birthday on Mir (19 May)

New duration record of 748 days in space set by Avdeyev over three missions New duration record of 209 days in space for a non-Russian (Haignere)

STS-110 Posted by admin in Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006 on November 2, 2015

Int. Designation	2002-018A
Launched	8 April 2002
Launch Site	Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landed	20 April 2002
Landing Site	Runway 33, Shuttle Landing Facility, KSC, Florida
Launch Vehicle	OV-104 Atlantis/ET-114/SRB BI-112/SSME #1 2048; #2 2051; #3 2045
Duration	10 days 19 hrs 42 min 44 sec
Call sign	Atlantis
Objective	ISS assembly flight 8A; delivery of S0 Truss and Mobile Transporter

Flight Crew

BLOOMFIELD, Michael John, 43, USAF, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-86 (1997); STS-97 (2000)

FRICK, Stephen Nathaniel, 37, USN, pilot WALHEIM, Rex Joseph, 39, USAF, mission specialist 1 OCHOA, Ellen Lauri, 43, civilian, mission specialist 2, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-56 (1993); STS-66 (1994); STS-96 (1999)

MORIN, Lee Miller Emile, 49, USN, mission specialist 3 ROSS, Jerry Lynn, 54, civilian, mission specialist 4, 7th mission Previous missions: STS 61-B (1985); STS-27 (1988); STS-37 (1991); STS-55 (1993); STS-74 (1995); STS-88 (1998)

SMITH, Steven Lee, 43, civilian, mission specialist 5, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-68 (1994); STS-82 (1997); STS-103 (1999)

Flight Log

The 4 April launch was terminated an hour into the tanking due to a leak in a LH vent line on the Mobile Launcher Platform at the pad. Following repairs to the line, the launch was rescheduled to 8 April but was delayed on the day due to drop-outs in a back-up launcher processing system. After reloading the data, the launch was achieved with just 11 seconds remaining in the launch window.

Docking with ISS occurred on FD 3 (10 Apr) and over the next 170 hours, the Shuttle crew completed 4 EVAs to install the S0 Truss. During and in between the EVAs, the astronauts transferred supplies, equipment and experiments to the station, and brought back trash and unwanted hardware. They also transferred 45 kg of oxygen and 22 kg of nitrogen to the storage tanks in Quest to re-pressurise the airlock following EVA operations. A total of 664 kg of water was transferred to the ISS, along with an experimental plant growth chamber which replaced a crystal growth experi-

Steve Smith works inside the S0 Truss, newly installed on ISS. Rex Walheim (out of frame) worked in tandem with Smith during the mission’s third EVA

ment that would be returned to Earth. The crew also transferred a new freezer for future crystal sample storage.

During FD 4, the S0 Truss was lifted out of the payload bay of Atlantis by Ellen Ochoa using the station’s RMS, assisted by ISS-4 crew member Dan Bursch. It was located onto a clamp at the top of the Destiny lab, where it would serve as a platform on which other trusses would be attached and additional solar arrays mounted. The truss also included navigation devices, computers, coolant and power systems for additional laboratories and facilities to be added to the station later.

The EVAs were completed by two pairs of STS-110 astronauts. The first and third were performed by Smith (EV1) and Walheim (EV2), while the second and fourth were conducted by Ross (EV3) and Morin (EV4) (dubbed the “Silver” Team, as they were both grandfathers). EVA 1 (11 Apr for 7 hours 48 minutes) focused mainly on electrical and structural connections of the truss to the station after it had been moved from Atlantis’s payload bay. The astronauts attached four mounting struts, deployed avionics trays and connected cables from Destiny to the new addition to the station. EVA 2 (13 Apr for 7 hours 30 minutes) saw the astronauts bolt the final two struts to the lab. Launch support panels and clamps were removed and a back-up device with an umbilical reel for the Mobile Transporter railcar was also installed. EVA 3 (14 Apr for 6 hours 27 minutes) was used to reconfigure electrical connections from the US lab to the truss for powering the Canadarm2. Clamps were also released on the Mobile Transporter cart during this EVA. EVA 4 (16 Mar for 6 hours 37 minutes) saw the installation of a 4.267-metre beam called the Airlock Spur from the S0 Truss to Quest to provide a quick pathway for future EVA astronauts. Floodlights, work platforms and electrical connections were also installed and connected in this final excursion of the mission.

Initial tests of the Mobile Transporter (railcar) were successfully completed on FD 8. ISS-4 crew member Walz commanded the transporter, using a laptop computer to move it to a work site about 5.2 metres down a rail that spanned the entire length of the 13.4m truss. Then it was moved to a second site and back to the first. The unmanned cart moved about 22m in total at a rate of about 3.5 cm per second. Automatic latching did not occur due to the railcar lifting slightly, but manual latching was successfully achieved. This unit would be extended over the coming missions and would be used to ease the translation of astronauts and equipment down the length of the completed truss in future years.

Milestones

231st manned space flight 139th US manned space flight 109th Shuttle mission 25th flight of Atlantis

53rd US and 86th flight with EVA operations

13th ISS Shuttle mission

5th Atlantis ISS mission

1st person to make 7 space flights (Ross)

US career EVA record of 58 hrs 18 minutes on 9 EVAs over 4 missions (Ross)

2002-020A

25 April 2002

Pad 1, Site 5, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan 5 May 2002 (in Soyuz TM33)

26 km southeast of Arkalyk

R7 (11A511U); spacecraft serial number (7K-M) 208 9 days 21 hrs 25 min 18 sec Uran (Uranus)

ISS mission 4S; Soyuz ferry exchange; Soyuz visiting mission 3; Italian Marco Polo research mission; South African SFP science mission

Flight Crew

GIDZENKO, Yuri Pavolich, 40, Russian Air Force, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: Soyuz TM22 (1995); ISS-1 (2000)

VITTORI, Roberto, 37, Italian Air Force, flight engineer SHUTTLEWORTH, Mark, 28, civilian, South African space flight participant

Flight Log

This mission successfully exchanged the older Soyuz TM33 spacecraft for a “fresh” return capsule at ISS. In addition, Italian ESA astronaut Vittori completed a science programme for the Italian Space Agency and the second private fare-paying space flight participant (Shuttleworth) also became the first citizen from South Africa to fly into space. Soyuz TM34 docked with ISS at the Zarya nadir docking port on 27 April.

In addition to the exchange of personal effects and flight hardware required to bring home the older Soyuz and leave the newer vehicle for the ISS-4 resident crew, the two Russian commanders worked on medical experiments and a joint Russian/ German/French plasma crystal experiment during the week of joint activities. Vittori’s activities under the Marco Polo science programme included 23 sessions with four biomedical experiments. These included the relationship of the health of the individual to possible reductions in working capacity, an in-orbit test of the functional capability of a new integrated garment, and a medical experiment on the effects of space radiation on the functional state of the central nervous system and into the working capacity of the test subject. There was also a study of the vegetative regulation of arterial pressure and heart rate.

Mark Shuttleworth was determined to make his visit to the space station more scientifically rewarding and valuable than that of the previous space flight participant, Dennis Tito. He actively developed a programme of life science experiments utilising Russian equipment already aboard the station, as well as bringing four South African

The Soyuz Taxi-3 crew onboard the ISS. L to r Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko, ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori and South African SFP Mark Shuttleworth

university-developed experiments with him on Soyuz. One of these would focus on stem cell research. Shuttleworth also took saliva samples from himself and his crew mates as part of the embryo and stem cell development experiment.

At the end of the week’s visit, the crew packed their experiment results and cargo into the DM of Soyuz TM33. Soyuz has a limited cargo return capability and could only return 50 kg worth of cargo, of which 15 kg was allocated to the return of Italian experiment results and data. The landing of TM33 occurred without incident on 5 May, ending another highly successful visiting ferry exchange mission. It was hoped that these missions would become a regular occurrence twice a year at the station, but not with Soyuz TM. A new variant of Soyuz was waiting in the wings, and this version would have the capacity to carry taller crew members, incorporate upgrades to onboard systems and hardware and be capable of a longer orbital service life of up to a year. The flight of TM34 was therefore the last of a series that had first flown in space in May 1986.

Milestones

232nd manned space flight 93rd Russian manned space flight 86th manned Soyuz mission 33rd manned Soyuz TM mission 4th ISS Soyuz mission (3S)

3rd Soyuz ISS taxi flight 3rd ISS visiting mission Final Soyuz TM mission

1st South African citizen in space (Shuttleworth)

Flight Crew

COCKRELL, Kenneth Dale, 52, civilian, commander, 5th mission Previous missions: STS-56 (1993); STS-69 (1995); STS-80 (1996); STS-98 (2001) LOCKHART, Paul Scott, 46, USAF, pilot

CHANG-DIAZ, Franklin Ramon de Los Angeles, 52, civilian, mission specialist 1, 7th mission

Previous missions: STS 61-C (1986); STS-34 (1989); STS-46 (1992); STS-60 (1994); STS-75 (1996); STS-91 (1998)

PERRIN, Philippe, 39, French Air Force, mission specialist 2 ISS-5 crew up only:

KORZUN, Valery Nikolayevich, 49, Russian Air Force, mission specialist 3, ISS-5 and Soyuz commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz TM24 (1996)

WHITSON, Peggy Annette, 42, civilian, mission specialist 4, ISS-5 science officer

TRESCHEV, Sergei Vladimiriovich, 43, civilian, Russian mission specialist 5, ISS-5 flight engineer

ISS-4 crew down only:

ONUFRIYENKO, Yuri Ivanovich, 40, Russian Air Force, ISS-4 and Soyuz commander, mission specialist 3, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz TM23 (1996)

BURSCH, Daniel Wheeler, 44, USN, ISS-4 flight engineer 1, mission specialist 4, 4th mission

Previous missions: STS-51 (1993); STS-68 (1994); STS-77 (1996)

WALZ, Carl Erwin, 46, USAF, ISS-4 flight engineer 2, mission specialist 5,

4th mission

Previous missions: STS-51 (1993); STS-65 (1994); STS-79 (1996)

Endeavour is shown docked to the ISS at the PMA-2 on the forward end of the Destiny laboratory. A portion of the Canadarm2 is visible in the lower left corner and the Endeavour RMS is in full view stretched out with the SO truss at its end

Flight Log

The original 29 May launch date for this mission was scrubbed due to adverse weather conditions and the rescheduled 31 May launch was also cancelled, this time due to the discovery on 30 May of pressure differences in the left OMS pod on the Endeavour. The component would be replaced on the pad and the launch date changed to 4 June, but the unique nature of this problem meant additional work to build a test fixture, so the launch had to be delayed 24 hours to 5 June. The docking with ISS occurred on FD 3 (7 June) and the vehicles remained docked together for 189 hours. Later on FD 3, the official change-over of ISS resident crew occurred, with the ISS-4 crew formally ending their 182-day residence aboard the station and becoming part of the STS-111 crew. The ISS-5 crew, now with their seat liners in the Soyuz TM34 DM, were officially the resident crew aboard the station.

Three EVAs were completed by Chang-Diaz (EV1) and French astronaut Phillip Perrin (EV2). During their first EVA (9 Jun for 7 hours 14 minutes), they installed power and data cables and a grapple fixture to the P6 Truss, which would be used to relocate it to its final position. They also retrieved six micrometeoroid shields from Endeavour’s payload bay for temporary stowage on PMA-1. These would be installed on Zvezda by a later crew. They also inspected and photographed the failed CMG on the Z1 Truss and removed thermal blankets from the Mobile Base System before positioning it above the Mobile Transporter to thermally condition it prior to installation on the next EVA. During the second EVA (11 Jun for 5 hours), the two astronauts connected primary and back-up video and data cables between the MT railcar and MBS, and deployed an auxiliary grapple fixture on the MBS. This was called the Payload Orbital Replacement Unit Accommodation (POA) and is designed to grapple future payloads and hold on to them as they are moved across the station’s truss atop the MBS. The attachment of four bolts completed the installation of the MBS and the crew also relocated a TV camera for better views of station assembly and maintenance operations. During the final EVA (13 Jun for 7 hours 17 minutes), the astronauts replaced the faulty Canadarm2 wrist roll joint with a new unit that had been brought up to the station with them in the Shuttle’s payload bay. The faulty joint was stowed in the payload bay for return to Earth. This repair restored the station’s RMS system to operational status.

MLPM Leonardo was moved from the payload bay of Endeavour to the side of the Unity module on 8 June and remained there for unloading and loading until it was returned to the payload bay on 14 June. In the transfer of logistics, cargo, hardware and supplies to the station, the crew relocated 3,652 kg from Leonardo and a further 453 kg from lockers on Endeavour’s mid-deck. For the return to Earth, the MPLM was filled with 2,117 kg of equipment, waste and items no longer needed and a further 453 kg of returned material was located in the mid-deck lockers of the Shuttle. Among the items moved over to the station was a new science rack to house microgravity experiments, and a glove box that would permit the station crew to begin a series of experiments that required isolation conditions.

The Shuttle landed at Edwards AFB after three days of trying to land at the Cape. Low clouds, rain and thunderstorms cancelled KSC landing attempts on 17,18 and 19 June, forcing the decision to land at Edwards AFB and giving the Shuttle and ISS-4 crews an additional two days in space.

Milestones

233rd manned space flight

140th US manned space flight

110th Shuttle mission

18th flight of Endeavour

54th US and 87th flight with EVA operations

14th Shuttle ISS mission

5th Endeavour ISS mission

5th MPLM flight

3rd MPLM-1 (Leonardo) flight

1st French Shuttle crew member EVA

1st French EVA from ISS (via Quest)

. SOYUZ TMA9 Posted by admin in Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006 on November 2, 2015 Flight Crew LOPEZ-ALEGRIA, Michael Eladio, 48, USN, ISS-14 commander and science officer, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-73 (1995); STS-92 (2000); STS-113 (2002) TYURIN, Mikhail Vladislavovich, 46, civilian, Russian ISS-14 Soyuz commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: ISS-3 (2001) ANSARI, Anousheh, 40, civilian, US space flight participant Flight Log The original spaceflight participant on this mission was scheduled to be Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomato, but on 21 August he failed the pre-flight medical and was replaced by his back-up Anousheh Ansari. She is the Iranian-born naturalised American who co-founded Telecom Technologies Inc. in 1993, and the X-Prize sub­orbital space flight record attempts (won in 2005 by Spaceship One). During the flight to ISS, she reportedly suffered from Spaceflight Adaptation Syndrome, but seemed to recover successfully once on ISS to complete her research programme. This consisted of three TV broadcasts, amateur radio broadcasts, photo and video surveys of the Russian segment of ISS for education purposes, participation in two small ESA experiments and commemorative activities, including regular email contact to the Internet through her own website during the mission. She returned to Earth on 29 September with the ISS-13 crew in TMA8. Soyuz TMA9 docked with ISS on 21 September to begin the six-month residency of the ISS-14 crew. During their stay, they will work with German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter until he is replaced by NASA astronaut Sunita Williams during the STS-116 mission in December. Williams, like Reiter, will serve as ISS-14 flight A million dollar ticket to space. Space flight participant Ansari is shown strapped to her Soyuz TMA seat in TMA9 shortly after entering orbit on the two-day flight to ISS with the Expedition Fourteen crew engineer 2 and will continue to work with the ISS-15 crew until she in turn is replaced by another NASA astronaut during STS-118 in the spring of 2007. The residency of ISS-14 will see a significant increase in onboard science activities with the return of a resident three-person crew. In addition, they will host Shuttle missions STS-116 and 117, receive two Progress re-supply missions and complete four EVAs. One of the spacewalks will be by Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria using the Pirs airlock and wearing Orlan suits. The other three will be by Lopez-Alegria and Williams out of the Quest airlock wearing US suits. The ISS-14 crew are expected to be relieved by the ISS-15 crew in March 2007, and will return to Earth with the next space flight participant (launched with the ISS-15 crew on TMA10) on 19 March 2007. Milestones 250th manned space flight 102nd Russian manned space flight 95th manned Soyuz mission 9th manned Soyuz TMA mission 11th ISS Soyuz mission (11S) 11th visiting mission (VC-11) 4th space flight participant 1st female space flight participant Soviet/Russian orbital launchers Posted by admin in Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006 on November 2, 2015 The Russian ICBM R7-based Vostok booster with an upper stage was used to launch Yuri Gagarin on the first manned space flight on 12 April 1961. Five more missions followed until an “up-rated” Voskhod craft was launched using the Voskhod rocket, another derivative of the R7. A series of Soyuz boosters, also based on the R7 first stage, have been used to launch crewed missions since 1967 and the launcher will continue for many more years to send Soyuz International Space Station crew ferry and emergency return vehicles aloft. The basic R7 launch vehicle had its origins in 1947, with the idea of grouping (clustering) rocket stages together instead of stacking them on top of each other (as with Saturn V).The final configuration from studies became Izdelie 8K71 (Product 8K71). Originally developed as an ICBM, it featured a central sustainer engine (Blok A) to which four strap-on boosters were attached (Blok B, V, G and D) forming stage 1. The central engine was the RD-108, providing 75 tons of thrust at lift off and burning for 304 seconds, while the four RD-107 boosters delivered 83 tons of thrust and burned for 122 seconds, separating at burn-out to allow the central sustainer to continue the A Soyuz launch ascent. Both engines used LOX/kerosene and remained the core propulsion vehicle for all Soviet and Russian manned launches and a significant number of unmanned ones. Depending on the payload, additional upper stages were added to propel the payload into orbit. The central core of the R7 stands 26m (85 ft) with a diameter of 2.95 m (9.5 ft) tapering to 2.15 m (7 ft) to accommodate the four strap-on stages. Each of the boosters was 19 m (62 ft) long. Apollo Posted by admin in Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006 on November 2, 2015 The three-man Apollo would be launched to the Moon using a Saturn V mega­booster, with two of the crew landing on the surface of the Moon. The trip utilised the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR) method, in which an Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM) mother ship and a Lunar Module (LM) would fly to the Moon together. Initially, Apollo Command and Service Modules, termed Block I, were to be tested in Earth orbit for up to 14 days, before sending improved spacecraft (Block II) into deep space or around the Moon on solo test flights prior to man-rating the LM in a series of flight tests. Following the initial lunar landing, a series of exploration missions (up to nine) were planned to explore the local vicinity, using flying and roving vehicles to assist the astronauts who would spend four or five days on the Moon and about a week in orbit. A follow-on programme called Apollo Applications (Block III) would see expansion of the lunar landing programme to missions of up to two weeks on the surface, supported by a small S-IVB space station and leading to the creation of a lunar research base in the 1980s. The loss of the Apollo 1 crew in 1967 cancelled all Block I Apollo missions. The first manned flight (Apollo 7) was a CSM-only mission, as was Apollo 8, the first manned lunar orbiting mission. Apollo 9 tested the CSM/LM combination in Earth orbit, and Apollo 10 repeated the feat in lunar orbit. This led to the Apollo 11 lunar landing in July 1969. By then, ten landings were manifested and others planned. However, a variety of social, political and hardware issues, notwithstanding the Apollo 13 aborted lunar mission that almost cost the lives of the crew, terminated the Apollo lunar landing programme with the sixth landing – Apollo 17. Apollo 7, weighing 14,694 kg (32,400 lb) in orbit, comprised two of the three Apollo Moon landing flight modules, namely the Command and Service Modules. The Command Module was 3.48m (11.4ft) high and 3.91m (12.8ft) in diameter. It weighed 5,556 kg (12,251 lb) and comprised heat shields, 12 reaction control system thrusters, a triple main parachute landing system, computers, waste management, hot water and food. The atmosphere of the 5.95 m2 (64 ft2) cabin was gradually changed from a 60/40 oxygen/nitrogen mix at 15 psi to a 5 psi pure oxygen atmosphere after lift­off. The Service Module, including the UDMH-nitric oxide, 9,752 kg (21,503 lb) thrust Service Propulsion System with its 2.8 m (9 ft) long nozzle, was 7.49 m (24.5 ft) long and the same diameter as the Command Module. It contained the fuel tanks for the SPS, fuel cells for the electrical and water generation system, pumps, radiators and a series of RCS thrusters. Apollo 7 Command Module 101 was a lighter weight CM/SM combination than on later flights. Apollo 8, CM103, weighed 28,901kg (63,727 lb) The Apollo Service Module and Service Propulsion System engine and included, for the first time, the high-gain steerable S-band antenna of four 78 cm (31 in) diameter parabolic dishes mounted on a folding boom at the aft end of the Service Module. The combined Apollo 9 CM104, LM3 modules weighed 36,559kg (80,613lb) in orbit. The two-stage aluminium-aluminium alloy LM, which was not designed to Table 3.1. Apollo Lunar Landing mission details Apollo mission Landing site Landing date Surface EVAs Total EVA time (H: M) Surface stay time (H : M) и Sea of Tranquillity 1969 Jul 20 1 2: 23 21 : 36 12 Ocean of Storms 1969 Nov 19 2 7: 45 31: 31 13 [Fra Mauro planned 1970 Apr – mission aborted two days out from Earth] 14 Fra Mauro 1971 Feb 05 2 9: 22 33: 30 15 Hadley-Apennine 1971 Jul 30 4 18:34 66: 54 16 Descartes 1972 Apr 20 3 20:14 71 : 02 17 Taurus-Littrow 1972 Dec 11 3 22: 03 74: 59 Cancelled original Apollo lunar landing mission plans as of late 1969 18 Copernicus? 1972 Feb/Mar 3 21: 00 approx 70 : 00 approx Cancelled Sep 1970 19 Hadley Rille? 1972 Jul/Aug 3 21: 00 approx 70 : 00 approx Cancelled Sep 1970 20 Tycho Crater? 1972 Nov/Dec 3 21 : 00 approx 70 : 00 approx Cancelled Jan 1970 Total: 10 missions, 7 flown, 6 landings 15 80:21 299:32 withstand re-entry, was 6.98 m (23 ft) tall. The descent stage was an octagonal struc­ture, 3.22 m (10.5 ft) high, with a maximum diameter of 4.29m (14 ft). With four landing legs deployed, the LM measured 9.44 m (31 ft) tall. The landing struts were made of crushable aluminium honeycomb and each 0.9 m (3 ft) diameter footpad had surface sensing probes to signal descent engine shutdown. One of the legs had a ladder, extending from the porch of the ascent stage crew hatch. The descent engine was surrounded by equipment bays, holding fuel and gas tanks, navigation and guidance systems, and science equipment used on lunar missions. The descent stage was covered in Mylar-aluminium alloy for thermal and meteoroid protection. The ascent stage was 3.75 m (12 ft) high, with a maximum diameter of 4.44 m (14.5 ft). It contained a 7.16 m3 (253ft3) pressurised crew compartment, measuring 2.33m (7.5ft) by 1.06m (3.5ft). The ascent stage also included an ascent engine, docking port and tunnel, guidance and navigation, and life support systems. The total weight of the first manned Lunar Module was 4,450kg (9,812lb). Apollo 11 (CM107, LM5) weighed 43,869.6kg (96,732 lb). Apollo 15 (CM112, LM8) weighed 46,785.35 kg (103,162 lb). This was a new J-series mission which incorporated enhanced Command, Service and Lunar Modules. GEMINI 4 Posted by admin in Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006 on November 2, 2015

Int. Designation	1965-043A
Launched	3 June 1965
Launch Site	Pad 19, Cape Kennedy, Florida
Landed	7 June 1965
Landing Site	Atlantic Ocean
Launch Vehicle	Titan II GLV #4; spacecraft serial number 4
Duration	4 days 1 hr 56 min 12 sec
Callsign	Gemini Four
Objective	Four-day extended-duration mission; first US EVA excursion

Flight Crew

McDIVITT, James Alton, 35, USAF, command pilot WHITE II, Edward Higgins, 34, USAF, pilot

Flight Log

When the flight plan for Gemini 4 was initially worked out, station-keeping with the Titan second stage and spacewalking were not on the agenda. Indeed, doctors were doubtful that the mission should last four days and recommended a two-day mission. The astronauts supported an EVA, but initially this was only a stand-up EVA in the hatch. After Leonov’s exploits, they got what they wanted, but with just nine days to spare – for confirmation of the planned spacewalk was only made on 25 May 1965. Station-keeping with the second stage of the booster was the idea of Gus Grissom and Gordon Cooper, who had light-heartedly suggested such a manoeuvre during space – to-ground communications during Gemini 3.

A misbehaving gantry tower got stuck and spoiled the launch day slightly, delaying the ascent of the rookie astronauts James McDivitt and Edward White by 1 hour 16 minutes. The launch was shown live on television in Britain and the rest of Europe via the Early Bird communications satellite, at 11: 15 hrs Cape time and 10: 15 hrs Houston time, where the new Manned Space Flight Center and flight control room was situated, ready to take command of its first mission. Gemini 4 entered a 32° inclination orbit with a peak apogee of 296 km (184 miles). McDivitt’s station-keeping with the second stage of the Titan was not altogether a success, with 42 per cent of the Orbital Attitude Manoeuvring System (OAMS) propellant being consumed. The experiment was called off and the EVA delayed for an extra orbit.

On orbit No. 3, Edward White exited Gemini 4 for a 21-minute adventure that featured some of the finest space photography, courtesy of McDivitt. White’s 7.62 m (25 ft) long tether provided oxygen and he had a ventilator control module on his chest to provide nine minutes worth of emergency oxygen, if required. The excited and

Ed White takes a stroll during Gemini 4

enthusiastic White controlled his movements using an oxygen-powered hand-held manoeuvring unit, and had to be ordered back into the capsule because night was approaching. The hatch was closed 36 minutes after it had been opened, but only after some strenuous pulling by the two crewmen.

The rest of the flight, lasting a US record 62 orbits, passed quietly as the crew performed 11 scientific experiments and took a fine photo of Cape Kennedy from the cramped confines of the spacecraft. The onboard computer failed towards the end of the flight and McDivitt performed a two-phase manual re-entry, first lowering the orbit to 76 by 158 km (47 by 98 miles) before firing the retros to initiate an 8-G re­entry. Splashdown at T + 4 days 1 hour 56 minutes 12 seconds was 81 km (50 miles) off target, about 625 km (388 miles) east of Cape Kennedy. The jubilant crew, having almost caught up with the Russians, were recovered by a helicopter from USS Wasp.

Milestones

16th manned space flight

8th US manned space flight

2nd Gemini manned flight

1st US and second flight with EVA operations

1st US manned launch seen live in Europe

On 29 June 1965, USAF pilot Joseph Engle, 32, flew the sixth X-15 astro-flight in the number 3 aircraft to an altitude of 85 km. Six weeks later, on 10 August 1965, he was again at the controls of X-15-3 on the seventh astro-flight, this time to 83 km.

Flight Crew

COOPER, Leroy Gordon, 38, USAF, command pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: Mercury-Atlas 9 (1963)

CONRAD, Charles “Pete” Jr., 35, USN, pilot

Flight Log

Gemini 5 was America’s bid to exceed the Soviet five-day space endurance record. Indeed, such was their determination that the first official astronauts’ flight badge featured an image of a covered wagon of the “Old West’’ whose slogan was “Cali­fornia or bust’’. The Gemini 5 crew emblem carried the motto “Eight Days or Bust’’. When this was proposed, the crew were told to cover the slogan, in case they should “bust’’ before the eight days were reached. Cooper’s connection with the Mercury programme was perpetuated when, after a countdown rehearsal on Pad 19, the crew had to be rescued by the “cherry picker’’ crane used at the Mercury-Redstone Pad 5, after the main gantry failed to erect itself.

The launch was delayed on 19 August by threatening storms and was recycled by 48 hours. At 09: 00hrs local time, Gemini 5 thundered into the skies right on time, entering a record US altitude of 303 km (188 miles) in its 32.6° inclination orbit. A 5m (16 ft) segment of the Titan first stage was recovered in the Atlantic, marking another US space first. The major plan for Gemini 5 was to eject a 34.4 kg (76 lb) radar evaluation pod from the rear adapter section and for the astronauts to back away 84 km (52 miles), then rendezvous with it. These plans were almost immediately thwarted when the fuel cell oxygen pressure decreased from 800 psi to 120 psi. Space­craft power had to be conserved drastically and plans were made to bring the crew home after just three orbits.

The pressure finally dropped to 60 psi but mission planners decided to keep the crew aloft for a lazy, boring drifting flight. This seemed interminable to the crew, who in their months of training had covered almost every topic imaginable and didn’t therefore talk to each other – or the ground – much. Surprisingly, mission control

Conrad (left) and Cooper smile broadly upon their successful recovery after 8 days in space

planned a five-orbit-change “phantom rendezvous” as a practice, which took them even higher to 349 km (217 miles) in the 32.6° orbit. The crew were able to perform 17 science experiments, one of which was to evaluate their ability to see things on the ground, and although they did not see a special “chessboard” target, they did see a rocket launched from Vandenberg AFB.

They also saw the wake of their prime recovery ship USS Lake Champlain on which they would later beam proudly after a flight of 7 days 22 hours 55 minutes 14 seconds, shortened by one orbit because of fears of a hurricane in the splashdown zone. Gemini 5 missed its target by 170 km (106 miles), but it did beat the Soviet endurance record. More importantly, the Americans had flown a mission lasting as long as it would take to fly to the Moon and back. The crew reportedly ripped off the patch covering their emblem slogan, having surpassed their objective.

Milestones

17th manned space flight 9th US manned space flight

3rd Gemini manned flight 1st US on-time lift-off 1st flight to be curtailed

1st manned spacecraft to be powered by fuel cells 1st flight to feature a personal crew emblem

On 28 September 1965, NASA civilian test pilot John McKay, 42, flew the X-15 number 3 aircraft on the eighth astro-flight, to 90 km. The next astro-flight occurred on 14 October 1965, when USAF pilot Joe Engle, 33, flew the X-15 number 1 aircraft on its first such flight. The programme’s ninth astro-flight attained an altitude of almost 81 km.

STS-3 Posted by admin in Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006 on November 2, 2015

Int. Designation	1982-022A
Launched	22 March 1982
Launch Site	Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landed	30 March 1982
Landing Site	Runway 17, Northrup Strip, White Sands, New Mexico
Launch Vehicle	OV-102 Columbia/ET-4/SRB A11; A12/SSME #1 2007;
	#2 2006; #3 2005
Duration	8 days 0 hrs 4 min 45 sec
Callsign	Columbia
Objective	Third Orbital Test Flight (OFT-3)

Flight Crew

LOUSMA, Jack Robert, 46, USMC, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: Skylab 3 (1973)

FULLERTON, Charles Gordon “Gordo”, 45, USAF, pilot

Flight Log

When Columbia returned to the Kennedy Space Center after STS-2, it was scheduled to be launched again on 22 March 1982. It was launched into murky skies, watched by one of the largest crowds since the moonshots, at 11: OOhrs local time. The first two minutes on the SRBs were enough for Lousma to describe the experience as a real barnburner, during which the vibrations caused the loss of 37 tiles from the nose and rear. His attention was diverted by an overheating APU which had to be shut down and when he got into his 38° inclination orbit, he became sick, repeating his experience of Skylab 3.

Lousma and his balding rookie pilot Gordon Fullerton started work on a hectic schedule of test flying and science. The RMS was to be tested heavily, moving two payloads around but not actually deploying them. The failure of TV cameras on the RMS, however, meant the cancellation of testing with the heaviest payload, although some operations were permitted with the Plasma Diagnosis Package. Other niggling failures, including the much-publicised toilet, were rather over-emphasised in the media, giving STS-3 a reputation it did not necessarily deserve.

Columbia was given long hot and cold soaks, pointing in the same direction for up to 80 hours, exposing it to temperatures of between — 66°C and +93°C. One of these cold soaks froze a fitment on one of the payload bay doors which refused to close properly. The mission, which reached a maximum altitude of 204 km (127 miles), was to last seven days and to end at White Sands for a change, because the runway at Edwards Air Force Base was waterlogged. Just 4O minutes before retro-fire, Columbia was waived off by high winds and given a day’s extension. When she finally came home

STS-3 lands at White Sands, New Mexico

to the Northrup Strip’s runway at T + 8 days 0 hours 4 minutes 45 seconds, Lousma caused a scare by looking as though he was trying to take off again, at a record Shuttle landing speed of 404 kph (251 mph), when he over-corrected what he thought was excessive nose pitch down rate.

Milestones

83rd manned space flight 34th US manned space flight 3rd Shuttle flight 3rd flight of Columbia

Flight Crew

BEREZOVOY, Anatoly Nikolayevich, 40, Soviet Air Force, commander LEBEDEV, Valentin Vitalyevich, 40, civilian, flight engineer, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz 13 (1973)

Flight Log

With Salyut 6 and its Heavy Cosmos module orbiting somewhat uselessly, on 19 April 1982 the Soviets launched Salyut 7 (DOS 5-2/1982-033A), similar to Salyut 6 although its interior was fitted with an eye to decor. It was equipped with the Salyut 6-type MKF and Kate telescopes and a new large X-ray telescope for astronomy. Improved medical and physical exercise machines were incorporated, and on the outside the space station had extra handholds to improve EVA productivity. The three solar panels, too, were fitted with an attachment that could hold new, secondary sets of panels. The primary docking port was equipped to accommodate the Heavy Cosmos class modules comfortably and safely, and there were also new portholes.

The first crew to inhabit Salyut 7 was launched at 15: 58 hrs local time on 13 May. It comprised rookie commander Anatoly Berezovoy and the experienced flight en­gineer Valentin Lebedev, a nit-picking duo who were soon to build up such a bad relationship that they only spoke to each other when necessary during the first 200-day long mission in history, which, no doubt fortunately for them, included the visit of a French cosmonaut and the first lady in space since Valentina Tereshkova. Soon after boarding, Berezovoy and Lebedev hand-deployed a small Iskra communications satellite from an airlock, the first such deployment by the Soviets and the first from a space station. Progress 13 then arrived on 25 May, to stock up the station for the long-duration medical and science mission.

The cosmonauts operated cameras, the new telescope, a Kristall materials proces­sing furnace, a star sensor and the Oasis plant growing cabinet. The first visit occurred on 25 June, when French cosmonaut Jean-Loup Chretien and two Soviets came aboard in Soyuz T6 for a short stay. Another Progress, No.14, arrived on 12 July

Where off Earth are we? Berezovoy consults the star charts during the long, 211-day mission

bearing more cargo, water and fuel. The first Salyut 7 spacewalk was made on 30 July, with the cosmonauts spending 2 hours 33 minutes outside retrieving samples that had been exposed to space and replacing some science equipment. Lebedev was the prime EVA crewman, with his commander supporting activities with a television camera to provide some live pictures for the folks at home. The flight engineer also conducted some space assembly tests under the code name Pamyat, in which joints between girders were made and assessed.

By 20 August, this altogether highly successful mission was receiving Svetlana Savitskaya and two male colleagues from Soyuz T7, and afterwards two more Progress tankers, 15 and 16, came to roost. The cosmonauts, who reached a maximum altitude of 374 km (232 miles) during the 51.6° mission, had even launched another Iskra communications satellite. A manned crew changeover was expected later in the year but never came. Apparently it was decided to bring Berezovoy and Lebedev home earlier than anticipated, before the New Year rather than after.

They had a rough return, coming back at T + 211 days 9 hours 4 minutes 32 seconds aboard the fresh Soyuz T7, which landed hard, turned over and rolled down a slope. Lebedev ended up on top of his commander. The weather conditions were so awful – thick fog, heavy snow and temperatures of — 18°C – that helicopters could not reach them for a day. The pale, tired and drawn duo had to wait 20 minutes for a ground team to reach them and ended up spending the night in the back of a truck! When the helicopter did arrive, it crash-landed and the second vehicle had to be talked down by the commander of the first.

The cosmonauts had lost several pounds in weight, their red blood counts were reduced, and their pulse rates and blood pressure were high. Indeed, Berezovoy and Lebedev were reported to be still suffering from a space hangover by mid-January. On 2 March 1983, the Soviets launched another Heavy Cosmos module, Cosmos 1443. This was similar to the Cosmos 1267 module attached to Salyut 6, with a re-entry capsule at the front. Cosmos 1443 docked with Salyut 7 on 10 March, in preparation for a new manned occupation.

Milestones

84th manned space flight

50th Soviet manned space flight

43rd Soyuz manned space flight

4th Soyuz T manned mission

1st “operational” Soyuz T flight

1st manned space flight over 200 days

New duration record – 211 days 9 hours

6th Soviet and 21st flight with EVA operations

Flight Crew

DZHANIBEKOV, Vladimir Aleksandrovich, 40, Soviet Air Force, commander, 3rd mission

Previous missions: Soyuz 27 (1978); Soyuz 39 (1981) IVANCHENKOV, Aleksandr Sergeyevich, 41, civilian, flight engineer, 2nd mission

Previous mission: Soyuz 29 (1978)

CHRETIEN, Jean-Loup, 44, French Air Force, cosmonaut researcher

Flight Log

The highlight to France’s long-term cooperation with the Soviet Union in space was the decision in 1980 to fly a national cosmonaut. However, the cooperation between the chosen man, Jean-Loup Chretien and the chosen commander, Yuri Malyshev, in 1981, was not very smooth, leading to Malyshev’s replacement by Vladimir Dzhanibekov, with flight engineer Aleksandr Ivanchenkov making up the numbers. The highly qualified Chretien had been forbidden by Malyshev to touch anything during simulations and was so frustrated that he took a pillow along with him for one simulation at Star City and went to sleep during the session, much to Malyshev’s exasperation.

Relations improved with a new commander in the seat, and at 22: 29 hrs local time on 24 June, Soyuz T6 ascended, watched by French officials from a stand some 1,800 m (5,905 ft) away. Before the mission the prime crew and back-up crews had drawn lots to decide which emergency situations they would cope with during final simulator training. Chretien and his colleagues came out with automatic docking failure, which was repeated in space when the spacecraft’s computer failed, necessitat­ing a manual docking by Dzhanibekov. Once the Soyuz trio had joined Berezovoy and Lebedev, the experiments began.

The Soviets thought that working with the French was more like the real thing. The experiments were more technically sophisticated and useful compared with

The Third Decade: 1981-1990

some of those carried on earlier Interkosmos missions. These included the French Echograph heart monitor, which was left on Salyut 7 after Chretien’s departure. During his stay aboard Salyut, during which he reached 360 km (224 miles) in the 51.6° orbit, and with the US Space Shuttle Columbia also in orbit, seven men were in space for the first time since 1969.

Soyuz T6’s successful mission ended in fine weather near Arkalyk at T + 7 days 21 hours 50 minutes 52 seconds, with Chretien highly impressed with the dynamics of re-entry, rather than his launch. Later, he was to criticise the Soviet planners for cramming too much into the work schedule and to remark that throughout the mission he never fully acclimatised to weightlessness.

Milestones

24 June 1982

85th manned space flight

51st Soviet manned space flight

44th Soyuz manned space flight

5th Soyuz T manned space flight

1st Soyuz international mission

1st manned space flight by a Frenchman

1st manned space flight by a West European

STS 51-G Posted by admin in Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006 on November 2, 2015

Int. Designation	1985-048A
Launched	17 June 1985
Launch Site	Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landed	24 June 1985
Landing Site	Runway 23, Edwards Air Force Base, California
Launch Vehicle	OV-103 Discovery/ET-20/SRB BI-019/SSME #1 2109;
	#2 2018; #3 2012
Duration	7 days 1 hr 38 min 52 sec
Callsign	Discovery
Objective	Satellite deployment mission

Flight Crew

BRANDENSTEIN, Daniel Charles, 42, USN, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-8 (1983)

CREIGHTON, John Oliver, 42, USN, pilot

FABIAN, John McCreary, 43, USAF, mission specialist 1, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-7 (1983)

NAGEL, Steven Ray, 38, USAF, mission specialist 2

LUCID, Shannon Wells, 42, civilian, mission specialist 3

BAUDRY, Patrick, 39, French Air Force, payload specialist 1

AL-SAUD, Prince Sultan Salman Abdul Aziz, 28, civilian, payload specialist 2

Flight Log

The smoothest Space Shuttle to date, STS 51-G, with the orbiter Discovery in tow, made a majestic, on-time lift-off at 07: 33 hrs local time from Pad 39A, carrying a cargo of three large communications satellites and a crew of seven which for the first time included passengers (or, more correctly, payload specialists) from two other countries, France (CNES) and Saudi Arabia. Three days later, the Mexican satellite, Morelos, Saudia Arabia’s Arabsat, and the USA’s Telstar were safely deployed en route to geostationary orbit, with the aid of PAM-D stages.

Another satellite payload, called SPARTAN 1, was deployed for an autonomous flight to conduct X-ray observations of the Milky Way, before it was retrieved by the RMS. 51-G also conducted the first manned Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, or “Star Wars’’)-related tests, attempting, eventually successfully, to reflect a laser beam directed at the Shuttle from Hawaii back to Earth via a small mirror mounted on the orbiter’s mid-deck side hatch window. French crew member Baudry completed a programme of biomedical experiments similar to those flown by his colleague Jean – Loup Chretien aboard Salyut 7 the previous year. Baudry had been Chretien’s back­up on that mission before completing an abbreviated Shuttle payload specialist

The multi-national STS 51-G crew. L to r: Al-Saud, Creighton, Nagel, Lucid, Fabian, Baudry and Brandenstein

training programme in America. The experiments included studies in physiology, biology, materials processing, and astronomy. Al-Saud took photographs of his homeland, participated in several experiments (include assisting Baudry in his pro­gramme) and continued his religious commitments, fulfilling his Muslim customs as well as he could. He admitted that he could not totally “bend down” while floating, due to the tendency to cause space sickness; and facing Mecca created its own problems when he was orbiting Earth every 90 minutes.

Discovery came home to Edwards Air Force Base’s runway 23, making the shortest rollout so far, of 2,265 m (7,431 ft), only for its main landing gear to sink partially in the wet lake bed. It had to be rather ignominiously righted using a plank of wood. Flight time was T + 7 days 1 hour 38 minutes 52 seconds. Orbital inclination was 28.45° and maximum altitude was 334 km (208 miles).

Milestones

107th manned space flight

49th US manned space flight

18th Shuttle flight

5th flight of Discovery

1st flight by crew from three nations

1st flight by a Saudi Arabian

1st royalty in space (Al-Saud)

1st nation (France) to make space flights with both the USA and Russia

STS-31 Posted by admin in Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006 on November 2, 2015

Int. Designation	1990-037A
Launched	24 April 1990
Launch Site	Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landed	29 April 1990
Landing Site	Runway 22, Edwards AFB, California
Launch Vehicle	OV-103 Discovery/ET-34/SRB BI-037/SSME #1 2011
	#2 2031 #3 2107
Duration	5 days 1 hr 16 min 6 sec
Call sign	Discovery
Objective	Deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope facility

Flight Crew

SHRIVER, Loren James, 46, USAF, commander, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-51C (1985)

BOLDEN Jr., Charles Frank, 44, USMC, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS 61-C (1986)

McCANDLESS II, Bruce, 53, USN, mission specialist 1, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS 41-B (1984)

HAWLEY, Steven Alan, 39, mission specialist 2, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS 41-D (1984); STS 61-C (1986)

SULLIVAN, Kathryn Dwyer, 39, mission specialist 3, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS 41-G (1984)

Flight Log

The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) deployment mission was originally set for 18 August, but was moved up to 12 April, then 10 April, following the Flight Readiness Review. This was the first time a Shuttle launch had been advanced following the FRR and not put back. However, the 10 April attempt was scrubbed at T — 4 minutes due to a faulty valve in APU # 1. The battery was replaced and the payload batteries on Hubble were recharged. On 24 April, the count was briefly halted at T — 31 seconds when a fuel valve line failed to shut. This was soon traced to a software failure and was overridden by engineers, allowing the count to continue.

Following a nominal ascent, most of the rest of FD 1 was spent preparing for the deployment of the telescope, which included powering up the RMS 2 hours 54 minutes into the flight. The cabin pressure was lowered in order to reduce the time the EVA crew of McCandless and Sullivan would need to pre-breathe pure oxygen should a contingency EVA be required. About 4.5 hours into the mission the umbilical power connection to the telescope was activated. The next day, the two spacewalkers got themselves partially dressed in their coolant garments, to save time should they need

The Hubble Space Telescope, still in the grasp of the RMS, is back-dropped over Cuba and the Bahamas. The solar arrays and high-gain antenna have yet to be deployed. The EVA handrails to support future Shuttle service missions are clearly visible across the main structure of the telescope

to exit the airlock in support of HST deployment. Steve Hawley lifted the telescope out of the payload bay using the RMS. Once the end effector had grasped the starboard grapple fixture of the telescope, the five latches that restrained Hubble in the bay were released.

With the telescope out of the payload bay, its solar arrays were deployed. There was some concern early in the process when they became stuck, and at one point, it looked as though the EVA crew would have to go out and assist in the unfurling of the arrays. Eventually, by disengaging the tension warning system, the arrays unfurled to their full length. Nine hours after lifting the telescope out of the bay, Hawley released it from the grip of the RMS. Discovery then completed two separation burns to move away from the telescope. Until the RMS was stowed, the EVA crew remained in the airlock in case they were required to manually retract the arm for entry and landing.

Following the release of the telescope, the crew focused on their programme of secondary and mid-deck experiments, which included monitoring particles in the payload bay, a protein crystal growth experiment, radiation-monitoring equipment, polymer membrane processing and a student experiment to determine the effects of microgravity on electrical arcs. From their 600 km altitude vantage point, the crew also recorded spectacular images of the Earth. This was the highest apogee in the programme to date, and only Gemini 10 and 11 in 1966 and the nine Apollo lunar missions had ever taken astronauts higher. The IMAX camera was flown to record mission events from outside the crew compartment and a hand-held IMAX captured images from inside the flight and mid-deck. Sequences from STS-31 footage were later used in the IMAX movie presentation The Blue Planet in IMAX theatres. On FD 4, HST controllers managed to open the aperture door of the telescope and, with the astronauts no longer required to support the telescope, the crew turned their attention to preparations for landing on FD 6. Over the coming weeks, the telescope was checked out in orbit. Unfortunately, about two months after its deployment, it became apparent that the mirror on the telescope was not focusing as designed due to a production error. It was decided that a set of corrective optics would have to be developed and then installed, during the first scheduled servicing mission in 1993. This, however, was not the fault of the astronauts or the mission of STS-31, which was a complete success.

Milestones

133rd manned space flight

65th US manned space flight

35th Shuttle mission

10th flight of OV-103 Discovery

1st use of carbon brakes at landing

1st launch set earlier than planning following FRR

Highest orbit in Shuttle programme to date (600 km)

Int. Designation	1992-034A
Launched	25 June 1992
Launch Site	Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landed	9 July 1992
Landing Site	Runway 33, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Launch Vehicle	OV-102 Columbia/ET-50/SRB BI-051/SSME #1 2019; #2 2031; #3 2011
Duration	13 days 19 hrs 30 min 4 sec
Call sign	Columbia
Objective	Operation of first US Microgravity Laboratory payload utilising the Spacelab pressurised module

Flight Crew

RICHARDS, Richard Noel, 45, USN, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-28 (1989), STS-41 (1990)

BOWERSOX, Kenneth Duane, 36, USN, pilot

DUNBAR, Bonnie Jean, 43, civilian, mission specialist 1, payload commander, 3rd mission

Previous missions: STS 61-A (1985), STS-32 (1990)

BAKER, Ellen Louise, 39, civilian, mission specialist 2, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-34 (1989)

MEADE, Carl Joseph, 41, USAF, mission specialist 3, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-38 (1990)

DELUCAS, Lawrence James, 41, civilian, payload specialist 1 TRINH, Eugene Huu-Chau, 41, civilian, payload specialist 2

Flight Log

The longest flight to date in the Shuttle programme was made possible after an extensive modification programme for Columbia at the Rockwell facility in Cali­fornia. The upgrades comprised over fifty modifications, including the installation of a drag chute and the first fitting to any orbiter of the Extended-Duration Orbiter hardware (incorporating the EDO cryogenic pallet). The EDO pallet carried addi­tional hydrogen and oxygen supplies in the cargo bay. Other system improvements included upgraded carbon dioxide filters and stowage provision for cabin waste, additional food supplies and equipment.

USML-1 was the first of a planned series of at least four flights of the pressurised Spacelab module, which should have flown every two or three years. It was designed to advance US microgravity research efforts in several disciplines but, like many of these science-orientated Shuttle/Spacelab missions, the USML series was cancelled after

In Orbiter Processing Facility High Bay 3, workers continue to establish the mechanical interfaces between the USML-1 laboratory and Columbia. The first Extended-Duration Orbiter Pallet that allowed a mission duration of 13 days is visible to the left of the science module

only two missions due to the changing priorities in favour of the Shuttle-Mir and ISS programmes. USML-1 featured 31 experiments, ranging from manufacturing crystals for possible semiconductor use, to studies of the behaviour of liquids in microgravity. The flight also featured an experiment in manufacturing polymers as filters for terrestrial industries and another flight of the Shuttle Amateur Radio experiment. In addition, the EDO Medical Project (EDOMP) was a series of medical investigations designed to provide further data and experience in the development of counter­measures against the adverse effects of space flight on the human body. A significant focus of this research was in the re-adaptation process upon return to Earth, looking for potential problems that might hinder a station crew in the event of an emergency escape and recovery situation.

During the two-shift operation (in which Richards, Bowersox, Dunbar and DeLucas formed the Red Team, and Baker, Mead and Trinh the Blue Team), the crew worked with a whole range of equipment for the USML payload, including four experiments in the Crystal Growth Furnace, three experiments in the Drop Physics Module and sixteen experiments using the Glove Box. There was also a surface tension-driven convection experiment, a solid surface combustion experiment, a space acceleration measurement experiment and four biological experiments in the mid-deck.

The landing was delayed by a day due to rain at the primary landing site at Edwards AFB. Mission controllers hoped to land at Edwards, where Columbia would have had more room on the runway (and substantial overshoot capacity on the dry lake beds), given that it was returning with 104,328 kg of payload and flying new landing systems. However, the landing at Kennedy occurred without incident and saved precious processing time. The mission eclipsed all previous US manned space flight durations save for those of the three Skylab missions in 1973-1974. It also set a new US duration record for a spacecraft – as opposed to a space station – mission, surpassing the Gemini 7 record set in 1965.

Milestones

151st manned space flight 78th US manned space flight 48th Shuttle mission 12th flight of Columbia

1st Extended-Duration Orbiter (EDO) mission 1st landing of OV-102 at KSC 1st use of new synthetic tread tyres 1st flight of USML laboratory configuration 6th Spacelab Long Module mission