STS 41-C

Flight Crew

CRIPPEN, Robert Laurel, 46, USN, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-1 (1981); STS-7 (1983)

SCOBEE, Francis Richard “Dick”, 44, USAF, pilot

HART, Terry Jonathan, 37, civilian, mission specialist 1

NELSON, George Driver, 33, civilian, mission specialist 2

VAN HOFTEN, James Douglas Adrianus, 39, civilian, mission specialist 3

Flight Log

Space Shuttle flights were seemingly becoming more and more audacious mission by mission. STS 41-C was to retrieve, repair and redeploy the Solar Maximum Mission, or Solar Max, a science satellite that had been launched in 1980 but had blown some fuses, spoiling its fine pointing ability and rendering it useless. It was a tough assign­ment for the Challenger crew, led by the inspiring Bob “Mr. Shuttle” Crippen. Challenger took off two days late from the Kennedy Space Center at 08:58 hrs local time. For the first time, the Shuttle made a direct insertion into 28.45° orbit, to conserve valuable OMS propellant for the intensive manoeuvres required for Solar Max rendezvous. Lower than anticipated SRB performance almost resulted in the use of the OMS engines to achieve the planned orbit, which would have cancelled the Solar Max portion of the flight. The crew reached a maximum altitude of 435 km (270 miles) during the mission.

Before Solar Max could be retrieved, Challenger’s payload bay had to be emptied of a rather unique cylindrical satellite which almost filled it completely. This was the Long Duration Exposure Facility, or LDEF, which was a 12-sided craft with 57 materials experiments mounted on the outside. LDEF was scheduled to be retrieved in 1985 to enable scientists to assess the effects of exposure to the space environment on

the different materials. Its deployment over the Kennedy Space Center, using the RMS, was a spectacular sight.

Crippen, his pilot Dick Scobee, and Challenger’s rendezvous radar, star trackers and computers, got to work on the Solar Max rendezvous, which was achieved effortlessly on 8 April. The rotating spacecraft was about 54 m (177 ft) away as mission specialist George Nelson (EV1), wearing an MMU, flew from Challenger. Attached to his chest was a T-pad docking device with which he was to attach himself to Solar Max, to steady it for an RMS grapple. But try as he may, while a soft-docking was achieved, Nelson could not make a hard dock with the satellite. In an effort to steady it manually, Nelson undocked and tried to hold the solar panels. Solar Max went even more out of control and the mission seemed doomed. The unhappy Nelson was recalled to Challenger.

Its solar panels now pointing away from the Sun, Solar Max was losing power, but ground engineers managed to bring it under some sort of control, so that Challenger, its mission extended one day, could attempt a direct RMS grab. Mission specialist Terry Hart’s one and only chance had to succeed and his deft handling worked. Solar Max was captured. During a record 7 hour 16 minute EVA on 11 April, Nelson and James van Hoften, who had assisted during the first 2 hour 57 minute EVA, repaired Solar Max, which was later redeployed to continue its mission. The repair to the satellite’s electronics and attitude control system was a great demon­stration of what a crew and the Shuttle could do. Van Hoften (EV2) was allowed a little go on the MMU, clocking up 28 minutes on Unit 3, compared with Nelson’s 42 minutes on Unit 2. It was during the STS 41-C EVAs that Nelson experienced a spacewalker’s worst nightmare (apart from a punctured pressure suit) – a minor urine contamination problem – in other words his waste collection device leaked. Fortu­nately, the liquid coolant garment (LCG) soaked up some of the liquid like a sponge, and though some helmet fogging was experienced, post-flight inspection revealed that no urine had entered the helmet. The fogging was a result of turning down the LCG after the astronaut felt cold as the urine was soaked up. The real danger of inhaling a small globule of any liquid in an EVA suit is that it could become trapped in the throat. The possibility of an astronaut being drowned by less than a teaspoon of liquid is a very real one. When Nelson returned to the airlock and crew compartment, the aroma of six hours perspiration in the suit coupled with the soaking urine reminded his crew members of “the inside of a toilet that had not been cleaned.’’ The smell was so bad that Nelson’s colleagues threatened to put him back outside for the remainder of the mission!

The icing on the cake was to be a landing back at the Kennedy Space Center but, as was the case with Crippen’s STS-7 mission, bad weather thwarted the attempt. Challenger came home after a one-orbit extension, on runway 17 at Edwards Air Force Base at T + 6 days 23 hours 40 minutes 7 seconds. “Mr. Shuttle’’ headed straight for the simulators for his next mission. Solar Max re-entered in 1990.

Milestones

98th manned space flight 42nd US manned space flight 11th Shuttle mission 5th flight of Challenger

1st satellite retrieval, in-orbit repair and redeployment

1st astronaut docking with satellite

19th US and 26th flight with EVA operations

Flight Crew

DZHANIBEKOV, Vladimir Aleksandrovich, 42, Soviet Air Force, commander, 4th mission

Previous missions: Soyuz 27 (1978); Soyuz 39 (1981); Soyuz T6 (1982) SAVITSKAYA, Svetlana Yevgenyevna, 35, civilian, flight engineer, 2nd mission Previous mission: Soyuz T7 (1982)

VOLK, Igor Petrovich, 47, civilian, research engineer

Flight Log

Lift-off of this Soyuz with a difference came at 23: 41 hrs local time at Baikonur. The commander was making his fourth flight, the flight engineer was the first woman to make two missions and the cosmonaut researcher was a Buran space shuttle pilot on a familiarisation trip. To cap it all, the commander and flight engineer made an EVA on the mission, the first by a female and the first by a man and a woman together. All these statistical firsts seemed to be linked to the fact that in three months’ time the US was to launch a Shuttle to perform all these facts and feats.

Soyuz T12 was not altogether a Khrushchev-style propaganda mission, since Vladimir Dzhanibekov, the commander, was giving Salyut 7 a once-over and training the resident crew in the updated repair techniques necessary to keep it operational and which had been developed since their launch. Docking with Salyut occurred on 18 July and seven days later, Dzhanibekov and Svetlana Savitskaya started a 3 hour 55 minute EVA, during which both operated welding equipment. A 30 kg (66 lb) portable electron beam welder was carried outside, together with the control panel, transformer and metal samples. Savitskaya started the cutting, soldering and welding tests and was followed by her commander.

At the end of the spacewalk, the cosmonauts retrieved some samples from the outside of Salyut. The rest of the mission included experiments with the French Cytos 3 biological unit. The visiting mission was a long one compared with those that went

before and ended at T + 11 days 19 hours 14 minutes 36 seconds. Maximum altitude during the 51.6° mission was 372 km (231 miles).

As Buran was still a state secret, the activities of Volk were quite vague. Volk had trained for a flight to Salyut 7 with Kizim and Solovyov but his mission had been delayed due to the problems Salyut was experiencing. After completing the T12 mission and shortly after landing, Volk piloted both the Tupolev 154 and MiG 25 with adapted Buran control systems in order to test the effects of a 12-day space flight on his piloting skills. This was a simulation of what a Buran pilot would have to experience upon returning the shuttle from orbit, something the Americans had been doing for the previous three years.

Milestones

99th manned space flight

57th Soviet manned space flight

50th Soyuz manned space flight

11th Soyuz T manned space flight

1st space flight by female on second mission

1st EVA by female

1st male-female EVA

9th Soviet and 27th flight with EVA operations Final manned space flight from Pad 31, Site 6

First manned flight of new Soyuz uprated booster (11A511U2) – Soyuz U2