Flight Crew
KORZUN, Valery Grigoryevich, 46, Russian Air Force, commander KALERI, Alexandr Yuriyevich, 40, civilian, flight engineer, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz TM14 (1992)
ANDRE-DESHAYS, Claudie, 39, civilian, cosmonaut researcher
Flight Log
The original crew for this mission were supposed to have been Expedition 22 crew members Gennady Manakov (commander) and Pavel Vinogradov (flight engineer), along with French cosmonaut Claudie Andre-Deshays. However, just one week before launch, Manakov failed a regular medical check and the back-up crew of Korzun and Kaleri took the place of the Russian prime crew. Since she was not part of the main crew, Andre-Deshays was able to remain on the mission. The change did not have much effect on Shannon Lucid, who was nearing the end of her stay on Mir, but the next US resident astronaut, John Blaha, had not trained with either Korzun or Kaleri. This would prove a challenging hurdle for the American to overcome after he replaced Lucid on Mir in September.
The French Cassiopee programme included cardiovascular and neurosensory investigations. There was also a technology experiment that recorded vibrations aboard the station while there were more than the normal resident crew aboard, as well as a materials-processing experiment. After two weeks aboard Mir, Andre – Deshays returned with the EO-21 crew, leaving Lucid to complete her residency with the new cosmonauts prior to the arrival of Blaha on STS-79. Andre-Deshays commented that two weeks was nowhere near sufficient time to adjust to life on Mir and to complete all her experiment programme, but with two more French long-duration visits already booked, this was not expected to be a problem for future French cosmonauts.
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The Soyuz TM24 crew of Kaleri (left), Korzun and Andre-Deshays
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On 7 September, Lucid surpassed Kondakova’s record for the longest female space flight. Ten days later, with her return Shuttle flight already in space, she surpassed Reiter’s 179-day record for a visiting cosmonaut. When Blaha took over, he continued the programme of experiments started by Lucid, but also brought some new ones. During his stay on Mir, it appeared he was enjoying his residency, and it was only after he came home that he revealed it had been a difficult mission. He was replaced on Mir in January 1997 by Jerry Linenger, who would remain with the EO-22 crew for a month before the next resident crew took over.
The EO-22 cosmonauts completed two EVAs during their stay on Mir; the first on 2 December lasted 5 hours 58 minutes, and the second, a week later, lasted 6 hours 38 minutes. Their work outside included the completion of MCSA cable installation. They also relocated the Rapana girder to the top of the new Stombus girder on the underside of Kvant and on their second EVA, they had to reinstall antennae they had dislodged during their first excursion. Back inside the station, in addition to the regular maintenance and housekeeping chores, the cosmonauts continued the research programme and assisted their various visitors with their research objectives.
One of the more challenging events at the end of their residency was the fire on 24 February 1997, which was the result of a split chemical burner in the Vika unit in Kvant 1. The use of “candles” to supplement the oxygen output of the Elektron regeneration system was typical when more than three cosmonauts were aboard Mir. But this time, the unit had split and released oxygen into the electronics, causing a jet of flame to shoot across the area. For an hour or so, the crew (by this point including Linenger) wore oxygen masks until the station’s filtration system finally began dissipating the thick black smoke. The crew reported some eye irritation, but no lingering damage was found from smoke inhalation, although filtration masks were still worn for a few days afterwards as a precaution. The faulty canister was stored in the Soyuz TM24 Descent Module for return to Earth and post-flight examination. Both EO-22 cosmonauts made the return journey with German cosmonaut Ewald.
Milestones
191st manned space flight
83rd Russian manned space flight
76th manned Soyuz mission
23rd manned Soyuz TM mission
29th Russian and 63rd flight with EVA operations
4th French long-duration mission (16 days)
Flight Crew
READDY, William Francis, 44, civilian, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-42 (1992); STS-51 (1993)
WILCUTT, Terrence Wade, 46, USMC, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-68 (1994)
APT, Jerome “Jay”, 47, civilian, mission specialist 1, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-37 (1991); STS-47 (1992); STS-59 (1994)
AKERS, Thomas Dale, 45, USAF, mission specialist 2, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-41 (1990); STS-49 (1992); STS-61 (1993)
WALZ, Carl Erwin, 41, USAF, mission specialist 3, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-51 (1993); STS-65 (1994)
NASA-3 Mir crew member up only:
BLAHA, John Elmer, 54, USAF, mission specialist 4, EO-22 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 3, 5th mission
Previous missions: STS-29 (1989); STS-33 (1989); STS-43 (1991); STS-58 (1993) NASA-2 Mir crew member down only:
LUCID, Shannon Wells, 53, civilian PhD, mission specialist 4, EO-21 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 2, 5th mission Previous missions: STS 51-G (1985); STS-34 (1989); STS-43 (1991); STS-58 (1993)
Flight Log
During her six-month stay on Mir, Shannon Lucid had conducted research in advanced technology, Earth sciences, fundamental biology, human life sciences,
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Carl Walz totes a bag carrying an Orlan DMA Unit #18 spacesuit brought back to Earth for analysis. Other stowage bags and sample return are shown in the frame
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microgravity research and space sciences. She also won admiration for keeping cheerful despite delays in getting her home, firstly for the technical problems with the SRBs, and then for weather problems with two hurricanes. She kept track of the time on Mir by wearing pink socks each Sunday, and relieved any boredom by reading several books. Her daughter had given her one novel, but she had not included the sequel, which was a little frustrating to the orbiting astronaut.
The original 31 July launch of STS-79 was delayed when the two SRBs were swapped as the adhesives used on them were the same as that on STS-78, where a hot – gas path into the J-joints on the motor field joints was discovered. The SRB set intended for STS-80, which used the older type of adhesive, was fitted to STS-79 while Atlantis was back in the VAB due to the weather threat from Hurricane Bertha. The new launch, set for 12 September, was further delayed to 16 September when Atlantis was rolled back to the VAB a second time due to the threat of Hurricane
Fran. The third launch attempt occurred on time, and though APU 2 powered down prematurely 13 minutes into the flight, mission management deemed it safe to continue with a nominal full-term mission.
The docking of STS-79 with Mir occurred on FD 3 (18 September) and a few hours after opening the hatches, Lucid and Blaha exchanged places, with Blaha becoming a member of the Mir resident crew (EO-22) and Lucid replacing him as MS4 on the Shuttle crew. During the five days of joint operations, over 1,600 kg of supplies were transferred to the space station, including food, water and three new experiments. About 900 kg of material was transferred back to the Shuttle, including experiment samples and unwanted equipment.
The crew also operated three experiments that remained in the Shuttle during their stay at Mir. One was an extreme translation furnace that allowed space-based processing up to 1,600°C. The second was a commercial protein crystal growth experiment, and the third was the Mechanics of Granular Materials experiment designed to study the behaviour of cohesionless granular material, which was particularly applicable to understanding how the surface of the Earth responds during earthquakes and landslides. The vernier jets of Atlantis were used near the end of the mission to lower the Shuttle’s orbit slightly. This was another test of operations planned for the upcoming Hubble service mission planned for 1997, in which the jets could refine and raise the orbit of the telescope while it was still in the payload bay.
When Lucid was approached by the team assigned to carry her off the Shuttle after her six-month mission, she dismissed them, determining to walk of the vehicle herself. This she managed to do, walking (with some assistance) to the Crew Transfer Vehicle.
Milestones
192nd manned space flight
109th US manned space flight
79th Shuttle mission
17th flight of Atlantis
4th Shuttle-Mir docking
6th SpaceHab mission (1st double module)
1st US resident crew exchange
New female world space flight endurance record (Lucid) 1st double rollback to VAB
Flight Crew
COCKRELL, Kenneth Dale, 46, civilian, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-56 (1993); STS-69 (1995)
ROMINGER, Kent Vernon, 40, USN, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-73 (1995)
JERNIGAN, Tamara Elizabeth, 37, civilian, mission specialist 1, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-40 (1991); STS-52 (1992); STS-67 (1995)
JONES, Thomas David, 41, civilian, mission specialist 2, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-59 (1994); STS-68 (1994)
MUSGRAVE, Story Franklin, 61, civilian, mission specialist 3, 6th mission Previous missions: STS-6 (1983); STS 51-F (1985); STS-33 (1989); STS-44 (1991); STS-61 (1993)
Flight Log
The original launch date for this mission of 31 October was slipped to 8 November due both to the removal of its SRBs to the STS-79 mission, and as a precaution due to concerns over Hurricane Fran. Engineers wanted more time to analyse the booster nozzles from STS-79 and with a 13 November Atlas launch planned, STS-80 was rescheduled for 15 November. Although the Atlas launch was scrubbed, STS-80 actually slipped further, to 19 November, in order to clear the bad weather that was predicted to lie around the Cape for several days. A three-minute delay to the launch was caused by concerns over hydrogen conditions in the aft engine compartment and when the SRBs were examined post-retrieval, they indicated some erosion – although far less than on STS-79.
The mission was a successful demonstration of the deployment and retrieval of two separate free-flying research spacecraft. The ORFEUS-SPAS II was deployed on FD 1 and became a two-week independent mission before retrieval on FD 15. The mission of the satellite was devoted to astronomical observations at very short
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MS Tom Jones uses the controls at the aft flight deck of Columbia to conduct tests with the captured WSF, seen though the window on the end of the RMS at frame centre wavelengths, using three primary scientific instruments and a secondary payload. The primary instruments were the ORFEUS 2.4 m focal length telescope, the Far UV spectrograph and the Extreme UV Spectrograph. The secondary payload was the Interstellar Medium Absorption Profile Spectrograph. The objective was to investigate the nature of hot stellar atmospheres and the cooling mechanisms of white dwarf stars, to determine the nature of accretion disks around collapsed stars, to investigate supernova remnants and interstellar media, and to examine potential star-forming regions. During the two-week mission, no significant problems were reported and all mission goals were achieved. Some 422 observations of about 150 astronomical objects were conducted, including the Moon, nearby stars, distant stars in the Milky Way, stars in other galaxies, active galaxies and quasar 3C273. With more sensitive instruments giving better quality data, almost twice as much information and data was obtained than on the first ORFEUS flight.
On FD 4 the WSF-3 was deployed. This time it was highly successful and achieved the maximum seven growths of thin film semi-conductor material, with the satellite performing almost flawlessly. It was retrieved during FD 7 for return to Earth. As with most Shuttle missions, the flight also carried a range of mid-deck and payload bay experiments that formed part of the secondary payloads and objectives.
Two planned six-hour EVAs by Jernigan (EV1) and Jones (EV2), designed to gather further knowledge and experience in preparation for the ISS programme, had to be abandoned when a stuck EVA hatch thwarted attempts to leave the airlock during EVA 1. Despite crew attempts during the mission to discover the cause, it was not until Columbia was back on the ground that engineers discovered that a small screw had become loose in the internal assembly and had lodged in an actuator, the gearbox-type device that operated the linkage to secure the hatch. When a new actuator was installed, the hatch worked perfectly. Though unable to complete the EVAs, the crew did still manage to evaluate a new pistol grip tool – resembling a hand-held drill – in the mid-deck during the mission.
The two-day waive-off for landing due to weather conditions in Florida resulted in this mission becoming the longest in Shuttle history and gave the crew an extra opportunity to look at the view out of the window. For Musgrave, this was particularly poignant, as this would be his last flight. He was fully appreciative of the chance to take a leisurely view of the Earth from orbit, knowing he would not be returning for a seventh mission. A condition of his being able to fly this mission was that he would retire from the active flight list when it was over. Musgrave set a record of six space Shuttle flights (equalling John Young’s career space flight record of Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle flights) and became the oldest person in space at the age of 61. He also became the only astronaut to fly on each of the five Shuttles capable of orbital flight, including twice on Challenger.
Milestones
193rd manned space flight
110th US manned space flight
80th Shuttle mission
21st flight of Columbia
New Shuttle mission duration record
3rd flight of Wake Shield Facility
Musgrave becomes the oldest person in space, aged 61
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Int. Designation
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1999-069A
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Launched
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19 December 1999
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Launch Site
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Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
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Landed
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27 December 1999
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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-103 Discovery/ET – 101/SRB BI-099/SSME #1 2053;
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#2 2043; #3 2049
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Duration
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7 days 23 hrs 10 min 47 sec
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Call sign
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Discovery
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Objective
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3rd Hubble Servicing Mission (HST-SM 3A)
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Flight Crew
BROWN Jr., Curtis Lee, 43, USAF, commander, 6th mission
Previous missions: STS-47 (1992); STS-66 (1994); STS-77 (1996); STS-85 (1997);
STS-95 (1998)
KELLY, Scott Joseph, 35, USN, pilot
SMITH, Steven Lee, 40, civilian, mission specialist 1, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-68 (1994); STS-82 (1997)
CLERVOY, Jean-Francois Andre, 41, civilian, ESA mission specialist 2,
3rd mission
Previous missions: STS-66 (1994); STS-84 (1997)
GRUNSFELD, John Mace, 41, civilian, mission specialist 3, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-67 (1995); STS-81 (1997)
FOALE, Colin Michael, 42, civilian, mission specialist 4, 5th mission Previous missions: STS-45 (1992); STS-56 (1993); STS-63 (1995); STS-84/86 (1997)
NICOLLIER, Claude, 55, civilian, ESA mission specialist 5, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-46 (1992); STS-61 (1993); STS-75 (1996)
Flight Log
This mission faced nine scrubs or delays due to mechanical issues or the weather, before finally reaching orbit. The mission had been scheduled for June 2000, but when the third of six gyroscopes on Hubble had failed, the service mission was divided into two separate Shuttle missions and the first was advanced. STS-103 was now due to fly in October 1999 and the second mission would follow in 2001. In mid-August, Shuttle management decided to inspect the wiring of the Shuttle fleet after the incidents during the STS-93 launch in July. As a result, STS-103 had a new launch date of 23 October, but the amount of work required to complete the repairs saw the launch put back further to 19 November. This gave NASA the option of launching either STS-103 or
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Astronauts Mike Foale (left) and Claude Nicollier (in the RMS) install a Fine Guidance Sensor into a protective enclosure in the payload bay during the second EVA
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the Space Radar Topography Mission (STS-99) first. On 13 November, Hubble was placed in safe mode when a fourth gyroscope failed. It was left pointing its arrays constantly at the Sun to generate electrical power, pending the service mission.
During the first weeks of December, seven new launch dates were set before the vehicle finally left the pad. The causes for the delays varied from the discovery of a 1.5-cm-long drill bit lodged in main engine #3 (the engine was replaced on the pad), to additional wiring damage in an umbilical between the Orbiter and ET, to the Thanksgiving holiday. There were also repairs to a dented LH main propulsion line, the inspection and verification of a number of welds in pressure lines, and problems with the weather. With the launch planned for 19 December, mission managers had decided to restrict the mission duration to eight days instead of the planned ten, to ensure that all flight and ground systems were secured for transition to year 2000. Shuttle computers are unable to operate over the change of year, and with the change to year 2000 expected to highlight additional glitches, NASA wanted to ensure it did not have a vehicle flying or linked to active ground systems at this time.
The first few days in the orbiter consisted of adjustments to the orbit and preparations for the work ahead. It took 30 orbits to reach the Hubble, which was captured by RMS on 21 December. Three EVAs were completed by the crew. Steve Smith (EV1) and John Grunsfeld (EV2) completed the first and third excursions, while Mike Foale (EV3) and ESA Astronaut Claude Nicollier (EV4) performed the mission’s second EVA. During EVA 1 (22 Dec, 8 hours 16 minutes), the astronauts replaced the three Rate Sensor Units which each contained two of the gyroscopes, and installed six cell-phone-sized Voltage/Temperature Improvement Kits between the telescope’s six ten-year-old batteries and its solar arrays. These would prevent overheating and overcharging of the batteries. EVA 2 (23 Dec, 8 hours 10 minutes) saw the astronauts install a new computer in the telescope which was 20 times faster than its older unit. They also installed a new fine-guidance sensor. The final EVA (24 Dec, 8 hours 8 minutes) included the installation of a transmitter to send scientific information from the telescope to the ground, replacing the one that had failed the year before. This was a delicate operation, as the transmitter was not part of the telescope and was not designed to be replaced by the astronauts. However, using specially designed tools, they achieved the task, demonstrating the value of utilising humans to effect repairs and servicing on units that otherwise could not be replaced or repaired. The final EVA also saw the installation of a solid state digital recorder, to replace one of the older mechanical reel-to-reel recorders.
Hubble was released back into orbit on Christmas Day 1999. This was only the third time that an American crew had been in space at Christmas aboard an American spacecraft. The first was the historic Apollo 8 mission around the Moon in 1968 and the second was during the third and final Skylab (SL-4) mission in 1973. In addition, astronauts John Blaha and Dave Wolf had spent Christmas and New Year aboard Mir with Russian colleagues in 1996 and 1997 respectively.
Milestones
214th manned space flight
126th US manned space flight
6th Shuttle mission
27th flight of Discovery
42nd US and 74th flight with EVA operations
3rd HST service mission
1st ESA astronaut to perform EVA from Shuttle (Nicollier)
