STS-44

Flight Crew

GREGORY, Frederick Drew, 50, USAF, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS 51-B (1985); STS-33 (1989)

HENRICKS, Terence Thomas “Tom”, 39, USAF, pilot VOSS, James Shelton, 42, US Army, mission specialist 1 MUSGRAVE, Franklin Story, civilian, mission specialist 2, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-6 (1983); STS 51-F (1985); STS-33 (1989) RUNCO Jr., Mario, 39, USN, mission specialist 3 HENNEN, Thomas John, 39, US Army, payload specialist 1

Flight Log

STS-44 deployed one of NORAD’s (North American Air Defence Command) Tactical Warning and Attack Assessment System satellites. This series of space-borne detector systems has been used and upgraded since 1970 and provides detection and reports of real time space launches, missile launches and nuclear detonations across the globe using infrared sensors to detect the heat from missile plumes or nuclear explosions. This satellite, codenamed “Liberty”, was deployed six hours after a spectacular night launch. This came after the 19 November launch was scrubbed due to the failure of one of five gyroscopes in the Redundant Inertial Measurement Unit of IUS-14. A replacement was fitted and the launch rescheduled for 24 November.

The day after the deployment of “Liberty”, the crew of Atlantis were awoken by a special message from actor Patrick Stewart, better known as Jean-Luc Picard, Captain of the Star Ship USS Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation. “Picard” reminded the crew of their ten-day mission “to explore new methods of remote sensing and observation of the planet Earth. To seek out new data on radiation in space and

a new understanding on the effects of microgravity on the human body. To boldly go where… 255 men and women have gone before.”

Tom Hennen, the US Army PS, operated the Terra Scout package which was sponsored by the US Army Intelligence Center. This suite of experiments was designed to allow a trained imagery analyser to observe targets of military interest from the vantage point of the Shuttle in orbit. For this mission, there would be thirty such targets. The Military Man-in-Space Experiment was designed to evaluate the ability of a space-borne observer to gather important information about ground troops, equipment and facilities. In addition to Hennen’s Terra Scout package, there was also a range of monitoring and observation experiments, used to record aspects of the flight of a Shuttle in orbiter. The Shuttle Activation Monitor (SAM) measured the radiation environment on board the orbiter and its effect on gamma ray detectors. The Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activation Monitor (CREAM) gathered data on cosmic rays and radioactivity on board the vehicle, while the third-generation Radi­ation Monitoring Equipment (RME) measured ionising radiation aboard the orbiter and the crew’s exposure to it. In addition, the USAF Maui Optical System used an electrical-optical system located on the Hawaiian island to observe Shuttle jet firings, water dumps and encounters with atomic oxygen. The Interim Operations Contam­ination monitor in the cargo bay of Atlantis had already proven successful, measuring contamination in the payload bay during launch. Finally, the Ultraviolet Plume

Instrument (UPI) sensor in a US DoD satellite located in geosynchronous orbit attempted to observe Atlantis as a method of fine-tuning the sensor.

In addition to continuing observations of the Earth and weather phenomena, the crew undertook a range of experiments as part of an on-going programme of medical investigations. These studies were connected to studying the effects of weightlessness on crew members and methods of counteracting such effects. The programme, origin­ally planned for ten days, was designed to provide baseline data for the future extended-duration orbiter medical programme on missions lasting between 12 and 17 days from 1992. The treadmill suffered a bearing failure and exercises had to be modified to include squatting actions, using the back muscles rather than those in the legs. For the first time, Dr. Musgrave was able to perform medical experiments in space – on his previous missions, he had fulfilled the role of flight engineer looking after the orbiter. This time, he could call upon his surgical and medical skills as he was not assigned to either orbiter or EVA duties.

On FD 7, one of three Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) failed. Strict flight rules meant that the orbiter would have to land as soon as possible, and at Edwards rather than the planned landing at the Cape to take advantage of the wide runways. Although the Shuttle will fly perfectly well with just two IMUs operating, if another failure had occurred, it would have posed a serious risk to the navigational systems and would have left the orbiter with no back-up unit. With the mission now designated a Minimum Duration Flight (MDF), the crew were bitterly disappointed at having to come home three days early. Despite the early return of STS-44 and some difficulties with on-orbit equipment, the mission still achieved almost 90 per cent of its pre-mission objectives.

Milestones

146th manned space flight

74th US manned space flight

44th Shuttle mission

10th Atlantis mission

9th DoD Shuttle mission

2nd declassified DoD Shuttle mission

1st NCO to fly in space (Hennen)