STS-60
Encyclopedia
STS-60 was the first mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir Program
, which carried Sergei K. Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a Space Shuttle. The mission used Space Shuttle Discovery
, which lifted off from Launch Pad 39A
on 3 February 1994 from Kennedy Space Center
, Florida. The mission carried the Wake Shield Facility
experiment and a SPACEHAB
module into orbit, and carried out a live bi-directional audio and downlink link-up with the cosmonauts aboard the Russian space station Mir
.
Shortly after reaching orbit, the STS-60 crew began checking Discovery’s systems and activating the commercially developed SPACEHAB
laboratory module and several of its experiments. The crew also activated one group of the payload bay Getaway Special
experiments.
SPACEHAB
module experiments that were activated included the Organic Separations payload, which is designed to investigate cell separation techniques for possible pharmaceutical and biotechnology processing, and the Equipment for Controlled Liquid Phase Sintering Experiment package, a furnace designed to explore the possibilities of creating stronger, lighter and more durable metals for use in bearings, cutting tools and electronics.
SPACEHAB middeck experiments that were activated included Immune-1, which will look at the immune systems of rats in orbit, and the Commercial Protein Crystal Growth package, which is attempting to grow large, well- ordered protein crystals so that their structures can be more easily studied. The crew sleep period then began at 6:10 pm EST.
At 6:30 am EST on 2/5/94 Discovery inadvertently flew through a cloud of wastewater ice crystals. Flight controllers determined that approximately one tablespoon of wastewater leaked out of a waste dump nozzle.
The Wake Shield Facility
deployment operation was canceled on Saturday. This delay was the result of several factors, including radio interference and an inability to read the Wake Shield's status lights when the orbiter's payload bay is in full sunlight. Deployment originally was scheduled for 10 am CST, but after grappling the free-flyer and lifting it out of the cargo bay and into the pre-deploy position, crew members and investigators on the ground were unable to tell whether power and transmitter status lights were giving the proper indications. After determining that the problem was not a systems failure, but difficulty in reading the status lights, the crew and flight controllers prepared for another release attempt. Interference between the radio transmitter on the Wake Shield Facility and the receiver on its payload bay carrier resulted in the one-day wave-off.
Wake Shield deployment was also cancelled on Sunday, 2/6/94 during its orbit 53 opportunity at 12:25 pm WSF and flight controllers worked problems with the Pitch and Roll sensors on WSF's Attitude, Direction and Control system. Astronaut N. Jan Davis
moved the wrist joint on the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) arm to try to point WSF's Horizon Sensor into the Sun
in an attempt to warm up the sensor's electronics package. The last deploy opportunity for Sunday was a 50-minute window beginning at 2:23 EST on orbit 54 and WSF was not ready for deployment. It was left mounted on the RMS during the crew sleep period while ground controllers considered their options. On its perch at the end of the RMS over night, WSF was able to grow 2 Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) thin films. The next deploy opportunity on 2/7/94 would have been orbit 67 but payload controllers and flight controllers determined that there would be insufficient time to safely develop contingency procedures in the event that WSF was unable to maintain stable attitude control without the use of its Horizon Sensor. It was decided that for the remainder of the mission, all WSF operations would take place at the end of the RMS and there would be no WSF free-flying operations on the mission.
On 2/7/94, work had been progressing in the SPACEHAB module on a number of experiments. These included the Three-Dimensional Microgravity Accelerometer (3-DMA) experiment, Astroculture Experiment (ASC-3), Bioserve Pilot Lab (BPL), Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus Experiment (CGBA), Commercial Protein Crystal Growth Experiment (CPCG), Controlled Liquid Phase Sintering (ECLiPSE-Hab), Immune Response Studies Experiment (IMMUNE-01), Organic Separation Experiment (ORSEP), Space Experiment Facility (SEF), Penn State
Biomodule (PSB) and the Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS) Experiment. Sergei K. Krikalev had been operating the SAMS experiment.
At 7:38 am EST on 2/8/94, Good Morning America
performed a live bi-directional audio and downlink video hookup between astronauts on board Discovery and 3 Cosmonauts on board the Soviet Space Station Mir. Discovery was over the Pacific ocean and Mir was over the southern United States. Afterwards, work progressed with SPACEHAB module and middeck experiments while Wake Shield continued operations at the end of the Remote Manipulator System. A slight problem developed with the status indicators on the 3-DMA experiment and the crew downlinked video to aid in troubleshooting. The astronauts ended Flight Day 6 at 7:10 pm EST.
Flight Day 7 (2/9/94) began at 3:20 am EST. ODERACS operations are scheduled for 9:55 am EST during Orbit 97 and BREMSAT deploy is scheduled for 2:50 pm EST but the deploy may be moved earlier in the orbit to provide better lighting conditions. WSF closeout was begun and a telemetry problem with the facility prevented the growth of the 6th and final thin film on board WSF. Five other thin films were grown throughout the mission before Wake Shield was berthed. WSF closeout was completed by 8:10 am EST.
At 7:58 am EST, Commander Charles F. Bolden reported to the ground that one of the Thermal Protection System (TPS) blankets around Discovery’s forward RCS thruster below Commander Bolden's cabin window was slightly peeled back. N. Jan Davis was directed to halt her power down and stowage of the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) arm and use the arm to perform a camera survey of the front left side of the orbiter. At 2:20 pm EST, the BREMSAT momentum wheel was spun up and BREMSAT was ejected into space at 2:23 pm EST at the rate of 3.4 ft/s (1 m/s).
On Flight Day 8 (2/10/94), the astronauts performed a number of operations to prepare Discovery for its trip home. These included Hot-Fire tests of all 44 Reaction Control Systems jets, Flight control system checkout, SAREX stow, CPCG Stow, ASC-3 Deactivation, ORSEP Deactivation, stowage of all non-essential cabin items and Ku-Band antenna stow.
Flight Day 9 (2/11/94) operations included the powerup of all critical orbiter entry systems (Group B powerup), SAMS deactivation, CAPL Deactivation and De-Orbit preps. Ground controllers gave Discovery a go to start SPACEHAB deactivation at 8:00 am EST and closeout was complete by 8:20 am EST. Landing at KSC runway 15 at 2:18:41 pm EST.
Shuttle-Mir Program
The Shuttle–Mir Program was a collaborative space program between Russia and the United States, which involved American Space Shuttles visiting the Russian space station Mir, Russian cosmonauts flying on the shuttle and an American astronaut flying aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to engage in...
, which carried Sergei K. Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a Space Shuttle. The mission used Space Shuttle Discovery
Space Shuttle Discovery
Space Shuttle Discovery is one of the retired orbiters of the Space Shuttle program of NASA, the space agency of the United States, and was operational from its maiden flight, STS-41-D on August 30, 1984, until its final landing during STS-133 on March 9, 2011...
, which lifted off from Launch Pad 39A
Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39
Launch Complex 39 is a rocket launch site at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida, USA. The site and its collection of facilities were originally built for the Apollo program, and later modified to support Space Shuttle operations. NASA began modifying LC-39 in 2007 to...
on 3 February 1994 from Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...
, Florida. The mission carried the Wake Shield Facility
Wake Shield Facility
]Wake Shield Facility is an experimental science platform that was placed in low-earth orbit by the Space Shuttle. It is a 3.7 meter diameter, free-flying stainless steel disk....
experiment and a SPACEHAB
SPACEHAB
Astrotech Corporation , formerly Spacehab Inc., is an aerospace company headquartered in Austin, Texas which provides commercial space products and services to NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, international space agencies, and global commercial customers...
module into orbit, and carried out a live bi-directional audio and downlink link-up with the cosmonauts aboard the Russian space station Mir
Mir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...
.
Crew
Mission parameters
- MassMassMass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
:- Orbiter landing with payload: 97448 kilograms (214,836.1 lb)
- Payload: 10231 kilograms (22,555.5 lb)
- PerigeePerigeePerigee is the point at which an object makes its closest approach to the Earth.. Often the term is used in a broader sense to define the point in an orbit where the orbiting body is closest to the body it orbits. The opposite is the apogee, the farthest or highest point.The Greek prefix "peri"...
: 348 kilometres (216.2 mi) - Apogee: 351 kilometres (218.1 mi)
- InclinationInclinationInclination in general is the angle between a reference plane and another plane or axis of direction.-Orbits:The inclination is one of the six orbital parameters describing the shape and orientation of a celestial orbit...
: 56.4° - PeriodOrbital periodThe orbital period is the time taken for a given object to make one complete orbit about another object.When mentioned without further qualification in astronomy this refers to the sidereal period of an astronomical object, which is calculated with respect to the stars.There are several kinds of...
: 91.5 min
Mission highlights
After External Tank separation and main engine cutoff, a 2.5 min OMS burn was initiated at 7:52 am EST that circularized Discovery’s orbit from a 40 by 190 nautical mile (74 by 352 kilometres (218.7 mi)) orbit to 190 by 190 nautical miles (353 by 352 kilometres (218.7 mi)). Shortly after liftoff, pilot Kenneth S. Reightler Jr. experienced problems with his portable headset. The problem was traced to the Headset Interface Unit (HIU) and that unit was swapped out with a flight spare. The payload bay doors were opened and around 8:45 am EST the crew was given a go for on-orbit operations.Shortly after reaching orbit, the STS-60 crew began checking Discovery’s systems and activating the commercially developed SPACEHAB
SPACEHAB
Astrotech Corporation , formerly Spacehab Inc., is an aerospace company headquartered in Austin, Texas which provides commercial space products and services to NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, international space agencies, and global commercial customers...
laboratory module and several of its experiments. The crew also activated one group of the payload bay Getaway Special
Getaway Special
Getaway Special was a NASA program that offered interested individuals, or groups, opportunities to fly small experiments aboard the Space Shuttle...
experiments.
SPACEHAB
Astrotech Corporation , formerly Spacehab Inc., is an aerospace company headquartered in Austin, Texas which provides commercial space products and services to NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, international space agencies, and global commercial customers...
module experiments that were activated included the Organic Separations payload, which is designed to investigate cell separation techniques for possible pharmaceutical and biotechnology processing, and the Equipment for Controlled Liquid Phase Sintering Experiment package, a furnace designed to explore the possibilities of creating stronger, lighter and more durable metals for use in bearings, cutting tools and electronics.
SPACEHAB middeck experiments that were activated included Immune-1, which will look at the immune systems of rats in orbit, and the Commercial Protein Crystal Growth package, which is attempting to grow large, well- ordered protein crystals so that their structures can be more easily studied. The crew sleep period then began at 6:10 pm EST.
At 6:30 am EST on 2/5/94 Discovery inadvertently flew through a cloud of wastewater ice crystals. Flight controllers determined that approximately one tablespoon of wastewater leaked out of a waste dump nozzle.
The Wake Shield Facility
Wake Shield Facility
]Wake Shield Facility is an experimental science platform that was placed in low-earth orbit by the Space Shuttle. It is a 3.7 meter diameter, free-flying stainless steel disk....
deployment operation was canceled on Saturday. This delay was the result of several factors, including radio interference and an inability to read the Wake Shield's status lights when the orbiter's payload bay is in full sunlight. Deployment originally was scheduled for 10 am CST, but after grappling the free-flyer and lifting it out of the cargo bay and into the pre-deploy position, crew members and investigators on the ground were unable to tell whether power and transmitter status lights were giving the proper indications. After determining that the problem was not a systems failure, but difficulty in reading the status lights, the crew and flight controllers prepared for another release attempt. Interference between the radio transmitter on the Wake Shield Facility and the receiver on its payload bay carrier resulted in the one-day wave-off.
Jan Davis
Nancy Jan Davis is a former American astronaut. A veteran of three space flights, Dr. Davis has logged over 673 hours in space. Dr. Davis is now retired from NASA.-Early life:She was born in Cocoa Beach, Florida, but considers Huntsville, Alabama, to be her hometown...
moved the wrist joint on the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) arm to try to point WSF's Horizon Sensor into the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
in an attempt to warm up the sensor's electronics package. The last deploy opportunity for Sunday was a 50-minute window beginning at 2:23 EST on orbit 54 and WSF was not ready for deployment. It was left mounted on the RMS during the crew sleep period while ground controllers considered their options. On its perch at the end of the RMS over night, WSF was able to grow 2 Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) thin films. The next deploy opportunity on 2/7/94 would have been orbit 67 but payload controllers and flight controllers determined that there would be insufficient time to safely develop contingency procedures in the event that WSF was unable to maintain stable attitude control without the use of its Horizon Sensor. It was decided that for the remainder of the mission, all WSF operations would take place at the end of the RMS and there would be no WSF free-flying operations on the mission.
On 2/7/94, work had been progressing in the SPACEHAB module on a number of experiments. These included the Three-Dimensional Microgravity Accelerometer (3-DMA) experiment, Astroculture Experiment (ASC-3), Bioserve Pilot Lab (BPL), Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus Experiment (CGBA), Commercial Protein Crystal Growth Experiment (CPCG), Controlled Liquid Phase Sintering (ECLiPSE-Hab), Immune Response Studies Experiment (IMMUNE-01), Organic Separation Experiment (ORSEP), Space Experiment Facility (SEF), Penn State
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
Biomodule (PSB) and the Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS) Experiment. Sergei K. Krikalev had been operating the SAMS experiment.
At 7:38 am EST on 2/8/94, Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
performed a live bi-directional audio and downlink video hookup between astronauts on board Discovery and 3 Cosmonauts on board the Soviet Space Station Mir. Discovery was over the Pacific ocean and Mir was over the southern United States. Afterwards, work progressed with SPACEHAB module and middeck experiments while Wake Shield continued operations at the end of the Remote Manipulator System. A slight problem developed with the status indicators on the 3-DMA experiment and the crew downlinked video to aid in troubleshooting. The astronauts ended Flight Day 6 at 7:10 pm EST.
Flight Day 7 (2/9/94) began at 3:20 am EST. ODERACS operations are scheduled for 9:55 am EST during Orbit 97 and BREMSAT deploy is scheduled for 2:50 pm EST but the deploy may be moved earlier in the orbit to provide better lighting conditions. WSF closeout was begun and a telemetry problem with the facility prevented the growth of the 6th and final thin film on board WSF. Five other thin films were grown throughout the mission before Wake Shield was berthed. WSF closeout was completed by 8:10 am EST.
At 7:58 am EST, Commander Charles F. Bolden reported to the ground that one of the Thermal Protection System (TPS) blankets around Discovery’s forward RCS thruster below Commander Bolden's cabin window was slightly peeled back. N. Jan Davis was directed to halt her power down and stowage of the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) arm and use the arm to perform a camera survey of the front left side of the orbiter. At 2:20 pm EST, the BREMSAT momentum wheel was spun up and BREMSAT was ejected into space at 2:23 pm EST at the rate of 3.4 ft/s (1 m/s).
On Flight Day 8 (2/10/94), the astronauts performed a number of operations to prepare Discovery for its trip home. These included Hot-Fire tests of all 44 Reaction Control Systems jets, Flight control system checkout, SAREX stow, CPCG Stow, ASC-3 Deactivation, ORSEP Deactivation, stowage of all non-essential cabin items and Ku-Band antenna stow.
Flight Day 9 (2/11/94) operations included the powerup of all critical orbiter entry systems (Group B powerup), SAMS deactivation, CAPL Deactivation and De-Orbit preps. Ground controllers gave Discovery a go to start SPACEHAB deactivation at 8:00 am EST and closeout was complete by 8:20 am EST. Landing at KSC runway 15 at 2:18:41 pm EST.
See also
- Space scienceSpace scienceThe term space science may mean:* The study of issues specifically related to space travel and space exploration, including space medicine.* Science performed in outer space ....
- Space shuttleSpace ShuttleThe Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
- List of space shuttle missions
- List of human spaceflights chronologically