STS-89

Int. Designation	1998-003A
Launched	22 January 1998
Launch Site	Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landed	31 January 1998
Landing Site	Runway 15, Shuttle Landing Facility, KSC, Florida
Launch Vehicle	OV-105 Endeavour/ET-90/SRB BI-093/SSME #1 2043; #2 2044; #3 2045
Duration	8 days 19hrs 46 min 54 sec Thomas 140 days 15hrs 12min 6sec (landing on STS-91)
Call sign	Endeavour
Objective	8th Shuttle-Mir docking mission; delivery of NASA 7 (Thomas) Mir EO-25 crew member; return of NASA 6 (Wolf) Mir EO-24 crew member

Flight Crew

WILCUTT, Terrence Wade, 48, USAF, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-68 (1994); STS-79 (1996)

EDWARDS Jr., Joe Frank, 39, USN, pilot

REILLY II, James Francis, 43, civilian, mission specialist 1

ANDERSON, Michael Phillip, 38, USAF, mission specialist 2

DUNBAR, Bonnie Jean, 48, civilian, mission specialist 3, payload commander,

5th mission

Previous missions: STS 61-A (1985); STS-32 (1990); STS-50 (1992); STS-71 (1995)

SHARIPOV, Salizhan Shakirovich, Russian Air Force, mission specialist 4 NASA 7 Mir resident crew member up only:

THOMAS, Andrew Sydney Withiel, 46, civilian, mission specialist 5, Mir EO-25 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 7, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-77 (1996)

NASA 6 Mir resident crew member down only:

WOLF, David Alan, 41, civilian, NASA mission specialist 5, Mir EO-24 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 6, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-58 (1993)

Flight Log

Dave Wolf’s 119-day residency aboard Mir during his 128-day mission attracted much less attention in the media than the tours of either Linenger or Foale. Wolf was

Salizan Sharipov (centre) signs the long-lived Mir roster on the base block of the space station. Some of the other Mir and Shuttle crew members look on: from left Thomas (back to camera), Solovyov, Wolf, Vinogradov, Edwards (partially obscured) and Dunbar

able to perform more science on board the station and his programme involved six areas of research – advanced technology, Earth science, fundamental biology, human life sciences, microgravity research and risk mitigation of ISS issues. In all there were 35 scientific studies and technology demonstrations comprising the NASA 6 science programme, some of which were continuations of experiments conducted by previous resident NASA astronauts. Wolf also completed a 6 hour 38 minute EVA on 14 January with veteran spacewalker Anatoly Solovyov.

Endeavour was chosen to fly the STS-89 mission instead of Discovery. Because of a schedule of work that needed to be completed on Mir, the Russians requested a postponement of the mission launch. It was initially moved from 15 January to 20 January and finally to 22 January. The docking with Mir occurred on 24 January and the exchange of American resident crew members was made the next day. For a while, it looked like Thomas might not be able to remain aboard Mir. Thomas’s Sokol pressure suit for use in the Soyuz would not fit properly and the crew exchange was allowed only after Wolf adjusted his suit to fit Thomas, as Wolf no longer needed it for his return on the Shuttle. Later, Thomas was able to make suitable adjustments to his own suit.

During the four days of joint operations, a total of 3,629 kg of scientific equip­ment, logistics and other hardware was transferred to Mir. Included in this transfer was over 730 kg of water. During the docked operations Bonnie Dunbar, on her

second visit to Mir and who could have conducted the second residence mission after Norman Thagard had the schedule been worked out early enough, acknowledged the upcoming 25th anniversary of the launch of Skylab, America’s only national space station to reach orbit. With ISS on the horizon, the Skylab programme, together with Mir and Salyut, had helped to develop techniques and procedures for endurance space flights which were still being referred to in preparation for the new station. Interest­ingly, Dunbar had been a flight controller during the de-orbiting of Skylab in 1979. Sharipov had only six months training for his Shuttle flight and had relatively few crew responsibilities during the mission. His primary responsibility was in Russian language liaison and in the transfer of logistics across to Mir. STS-89 undocked on 28 January and three days later, Soyuz TM25 docked at Mir to deliver a new resident crew, just hours before Endeavour touched down in Florida.

Milestones

204th manned space flight

119th US manned space flight

89th Shuttle mission

12th flight of Endeavour

8th Shuttle-Mir docking mission

40th US and 69th flight with EVA operations

10th SpaceHab mission (5th double module)

1st and only Endeavour-Mir docking