STS-86
Encyclopedia
STS-86 was a Space Shuttle
Atlantis
mission to the Mir
space station. This was the last Atlantis mission before it was taken out of service temporarily for maintenance and upgrades, including the glass cockpit
.
was scheduled to replace C. Michael Foale onboard Mir. However, due to concerns about the minimum size restrictions of the Russian MIR Orlan EVA Spacesuit
, she was replaced by her backup, David Wolf. Wolf was originally scheduled to fly on the STS-89 mission to Mir and join the Mir 24 crew.
Docking mission carried a SPACEHAB double module for the docking with Mir, cargo transfer and an astronaut exchange. The shuttle previously Mir missions were STS-71
, STS-74
, STS-76
, STS-79
, STS-81
and STS-84
.
Highlights of the 10 day mission include five days of docked operations between Atlantis and Mir and the exchange of crew members Foale and Wolf to continue a permanent American presence of the Russia complex. A spacewalk is scheduled to retrieve the four Mir Environmental Effects Payloads which were attached to the Mir's docking module by Linda Godwin and Rich Clifford during STS-76 to characterize the environment surrounding the Mir space station. Atlantis will carry the SPACEHAB double module to support the transfer of logistics and supplies for Mir and the return of experiment hardware and specimens to Earth.
The seventh Mir docking mission continued the presence of a U.S. astronaut on the Russian space station
with the transfer of physician David A. Wolf to Mir. Wolf became the sixth U.S. astronaut in succession to live on Mir to continue Phase 1B of the NASA/Russian Space Agency cooperative effort.
Foale returned to Earth after spending 145 days in space, 134 of them aboard Mir. His estimated mileage logged was 58 million miles (93 million kilometers), making his the second longest U.S. space flight, behind Shannon Lucid's record of 188 days. His stay was marred by a collision 25 June between a Progress resupply vehicle and the station's Spektr module, damaging a radiator and one of four solar arrays on Spektr. The mishap occurred while Mir 23 Commander Vasili Tsibliev was guiding the Progress capsule to a manual docking and depressurized the station. The crew sealed the hatch to the leaking Spektr module, leaving inside Foale's personal effects and several NASA science experiments, and repressurized the remaining modules.
An internal space walk by Tsibliev and Mir 23 Flight Engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin
was planned to reconnect power cables to the three undamaged solar arrays, but during a routine medical exam 13 July Tsibliev was found to have an irregular heartbeat. Foale then began training for the space walk, but during one of the training exercises a power cable was inadvertently disconnected, leaving the station without power. On 21 July, it was announced that the internal space walk would not be conducted by the Mir 23 crew but their successors on Mir 24. On 30 July, NASA announced that Wendy Lawrence, originally assigned to succeed Foale on Mir, was being replaced by Wolf. The change was deemed necessary to allow Wolf to act as a backup crew member for the space walks planned over the next several months to repair Spektr. Unlike Wolf, Lawrence could not fit in the Orlan suit that is used for Russian space walks and she did not undergo space walk training.
Following their arrival at the station 7 August, Mir 24 Commander Anatoly Solovyev
and Flight Engineer Pavel Vinogradov conducted the internal space walk inside the depressurized Spektr module 22 August, reconnecting 11 power cables from the Spektr's solar arrays to a new custom-made hatch for the Spektr. During the space walk, Foale remained inside the Soyuz capsule attached to Mir, in constant communication with the cosmonauts as well as ground controllers.
On 5 September, Foale and Solovyev conducted a six-hour external extravehicular activity to survey damage outside Spektr and to try and pinpoint where the breach of the module's hull occurred. Two undamaged arrays were manually repositioned to better gather solar energy, and a radiation device left previously by Jerry Linenger was retrieved.
The docking of Atlantis and Mir took place at 3:58 pm EDT, 27 September, with the two mission commanders opening the spacecraft hatches at 5:45 pm Wolf officially joined the Mir 24 at noon EDT, 28 September. At the same time, Foale became a member of the STS-86 crew and began moving his personal belongings back into Atlantis. Wolf will be replaced by the seventh and last U.S. astronaut to transfer to Mir, Andrew S. W. Thomas, when the orbiter Endeavour
docks with the Russian space station during the STS-89
mission in January 1998.
First joint U.S.-Russian extravehicular activity during a Shuttle mission, which was also the 39th in the Space Shuttle program, was conducted by Titov and Parazynski. During the five-hour, one-minute space walk on 1 October, the pair affixed a 121 pound (55 kilograms (121.3 lb)) Solar Array Cap to the docking module for future use by Mir crew members to seal off the suspected leak in Spektr's hull. Parazynski and Titov also retrieved four Mir Environmental Effects Payloads (MEEPS) from the outside of Mir and tested several components of the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER) jet packs. The space walk began at 1:29 pm EDT and ended at 6:30 pm
During the six days of docked operations, the joint Mir 24 and STS-86 crews transferred more than four tons of material from the SPACEHAB Double Module to Mir, including approximately 771 kilograms (1,699.8 lb) of water, experiment hardware for International Space Station Risk Mitigation experiments to monitor the Mir for crew health and safety, a gyrodyne, batteries, three air pressurization units with breathing air, an attitude control computer and many other logistics items. The new motion control computer replaced one that had experienced problems in recent months. The crew also moved experiment samples and hardware and an old Elektron oxygen generator to Atlantis for return to Earth. Undocking took place at 1:28 pm EDT, 3 October. After undocking, Atlantis performed a 46 minute flyaround visual inspection of Mir. During this maneuver, Solovyev and Vinogradov opened a pressure regulation valve to allow air into the Spektr module to see if STS-89 crew members could detect seepage or debris particles that could indicate the location of the breach in the damaged module's hull.
During the flight, Wetherbee and Bloomfield fired small jet thrusters on Atlantis to provide data for the Mir Structural Dynamics Experiment (MISDE), which measures disturbances to space station components and its solar arrays. Other experiments conducted during the mission were the Commercial Protein Crystal Growth investigation; the Cell Culture Module Experiment (CCM-A), the Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activation Monitor (CREAM) and the Radiation Monitoring Experiment-III (RME-III); the Shuttle Ionospheric Modification with Pulsed Local Exhaust (SIMPLE) experiment; and the Midcourse Space Experiment. Two NASA educational outreach programs were also conducted, Seeds in Space-II and KidSat.
Space Shuttle
The 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...
Atlantis
Space Shuttle Atlantis
The Space Shuttle Atlantis is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter in the Space Shuttle fleet belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration , the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States...
mission to the 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...
space station. This was the last Atlantis mission before it was taken out of service temporarily for maintenance and upgrades, including the glass cockpit
Glass cockpit
A glass cockpit is an aircraft cockpit that features electronic instrument displays, typically large LCD screens, as opposed to the traditional style of analog dials and gauges...
.
Crew
Crew notes
Wendy B. LawrenceWendy B. Lawrence
Wendy Barrien Lawrence is a retired U.S. Navy Captain, former helicopter pilot, an engineer, and a former NASA astronaut. She was the first female graduate of the US Naval Academy to fly in space and she has also visited the Russian Space Station Mir. She was a mission specialist on STS-114, the...
was scheduled to replace C. Michael Foale onboard Mir. However, due to concerns about the minimum size restrictions of the Russian MIR Orlan EVA Spacesuit
Orlan space suits
thumb|right|270px|Cosmonaut [[Maksim Surayev]] next to two Orlan-MK modelsAn Orlan space suit |sea eagle]]) is a series of semi-rigid one-piece space suit models designed and built by NPP Zvezda. They have been used for spacewalks in the Russian space program, the successor to the Soviet space...
, she was replaced by her backup, David Wolf. Wolf was originally scheduled to fly on the STS-89 mission to Mir and join the Mir 24 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: 114185 kilograms (251,734.8 lb)
- Payload: 8375 kilograms (18,463.7 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"...
: 354 kilometres (220 mi) - Apogee: 381 kilometres (236.7 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...
: 51.6° - 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...
: 91.9 min
7th Mir docking mission
- Docked: 27 September 1997, 19:58 UTC
- Undocked: 3 October 1997, 17:28:15 UTC
- Time Docked: 5 days, 21 h, 30 min, 15 s
Space walk
- Parazynski and Titov – EVA 1
- EVA 1 Start: 1 October 1997 – 17:29 UTC
- EVA 1 End: 1 – 22 October:30 UTC
- Duration: 5 hours, 01 minutes
Mission highlights
The seventh MirMir
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...
Docking mission carried a SPACEHAB double module for the docking with Mir, cargo transfer and an astronaut exchange. The shuttle previously Mir missions were STS-71
STS-71
STS-71 was the third mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir Program, which carried out the first Space Shuttle docking to Mir, a Russian space station. The mission used Space Shuttle Atlantis, which lifted off from launch pad 39A on 27 June 1995 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida...
, STS-74
STS-74
STS-74 was a Space Shuttle Atlantis mission to the Mir space station. It was the fourth mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir Program, and it carried out the second docking of a space shuttle to Mir. Atlantis lifted off for the mission on 12 November 1995 from Kennedy Space Center launch pad 39A,...
, STS-76
STS-76
STS-76 was NASA's 76th Space Shuttle mission, and the 16th mission for Atlantis. STS-76 launched on 22 March 1996 at 3:13 am EST from Kennedy Space Center launch pad 39B...
, STS-79
STS-79
STS-79 was a Space Shuttle Atlantis mission to the Mir space station. It was the first shuttle mission to dock with Mir once it was fully assembled.-Crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass:**Spacehab-Double Module **Orbiter Docking System...
, STS-81
STS-81
STS-81 was a January 1997 Space Shuttle Atlantis mission to the Mir space station.-Crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass: *Perigee: *Apogee: *Inclination: 51.6°*Period: 92.2 min-Fifth Mir docking mission:...
and STS-84
STS-84
STS-84 was a manned spaceflight mission by Space Shuttle Atlantis to the Mir space station.-Crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass:**Orbiter landing with payload: **Spacehab-DM: ** Orbiter Docking System: **Cargo delivered to Mir:...
.
Highlights of the 10 day mission include five days of docked operations between Atlantis and Mir and the exchange of crew members Foale and Wolf to continue a permanent American presence of the Russia complex. A spacewalk is scheduled to retrieve the four Mir Environmental Effects Payloads which were attached to the Mir's docking module by Linda Godwin and Rich Clifford during STS-76 to characterize the environment surrounding the Mir space station. Atlantis will carry the SPACEHAB double module to support the transfer of logistics and supplies for Mir and the return of experiment hardware and specimens to Earth.
The seventh Mir docking mission continued the presence of a U.S. astronaut on the Russian space station
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
with the transfer of physician David A. Wolf to Mir. Wolf became the sixth U.S. astronaut in succession to live on Mir to continue Phase 1B of the NASA/Russian Space Agency cooperative effort.
Foale returned to Earth after spending 145 days in space, 134 of them aboard Mir. His estimated mileage logged was 58 million miles (93 million kilometers), making his the second longest U.S. space flight, behind Shannon Lucid's record of 188 days. His stay was marred by a collision 25 June between a Progress resupply vehicle and the station's Spektr module, damaging a radiator and one of four solar arrays on Spektr. The mishap occurred while Mir 23 Commander Vasili Tsibliev was guiding the Progress capsule to a manual docking and depressurized the station. The crew sealed the hatch to the leaking Spektr module, leaving inside Foale's personal effects and several NASA science experiments, and repressurized the remaining modules.
An internal space walk by Tsibliev and Mir 23 Flight Engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin
Aleksandr Lazutkin
Aleksandr Ivanovich Lazutkin is a Russian cosmonaut.He was selected as cosmonaut on March 3, 1992. His first spaceflight was Soyuz TM-25, on which he was the flight engineer.He is married and has two children....
was planned to reconnect power cables to the three undamaged solar arrays, but during a routine medical exam 13 July Tsibliev was found to have an irregular heartbeat. Foale then began training for the space walk, but during one of the training exercises a power cable was inadvertently disconnected, leaving the station without power. On 21 July, it was announced that the internal space walk would not be conducted by the Mir 23 crew but their successors on Mir 24. On 30 July, NASA announced that Wendy Lawrence, originally assigned to succeed Foale on Mir, was being replaced by Wolf. The change was deemed necessary to allow Wolf to act as a backup crew member for the space walks planned over the next several months to repair Spektr. Unlike Wolf, Lawrence could not fit in the Orlan suit that is used for Russian space walks and she did not undergo space walk training.
Following their arrival at the station 7 August, Mir 24 Commander Anatoly Solovyev
Anatoly Solovyev
Anatoly Yakovlevich Solovyev is a former Soviet pilot, cosmonaut, and Colonel. Solovyev holds the world record on the number of spacewalks performed , and accumulated time spent spacewalking .- Family :...
and Flight Engineer Pavel Vinogradov conducted the internal space walk inside the depressurized Spektr module 22 August, reconnecting 11 power cables from the Spektr's solar arrays to a new custom-made hatch for the Spektr. During the space walk, Foale remained inside the Soyuz capsule attached to Mir, in constant communication with the cosmonauts as well as ground controllers.
On 5 September, Foale and Solovyev conducted a six-hour external extravehicular activity to survey damage outside Spektr and to try and pinpoint where the breach of the module's hull occurred. Two undamaged arrays were manually repositioned to better gather solar energy, and a radiation device left previously by Jerry Linenger was retrieved.
The docking of Atlantis and Mir took place at 3:58 pm EDT, 27 September, with the two mission commanders opening the spacecraft hatches at 5:45 pm Wolf officially joined the Mir 24 at noon EDT, 28 September. At the same time, Foale became a member of the STS-86 crew and began moving his personal belongings back into Atlantis. Wolf will be replaced by the seventh and last U.S. astronaut to transfer to Mir, Andrew S. W. Thomas, when the orbiter Endeavour
Space Shuttle Endeavour
Space Shuttle Endeavour is one of the retired orbiters of the Space Shuttle program of NASA, the space agency of the United States. Endeavour was the fifth and final spaceworthy NASA space shuttle to be built, constructed as a replacement for Challenger...
docks with the Russian space station during the STS-89
STS-89
STS-89 was a space shuttle mission to the Mir space station flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour, and launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 22 January 1998.-Crew:-Crew notes:...
mission in January 1998.
First joint U.S.-Russian extravehicular activity during a Shuttle mission, which was also the 39th in the Space Shuttle program, was conducted by Titov and Parazynski. During the five-hour, one-minute space walk on 1 October, the pair affixed a 121 pound (55 kilograms (121.3 lb)) Solar Array Cap to the docking module for future use by Mir crew members to seal off the suspected leak in Spektr's hull. Parazynski and Titov also retrieved four Mir Environmental Effects Payloads (MEEPS) from the outside of Mir and tested several components of the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER) jet packs. The space walk began at 1:29 pm EDT and ended at 6:30 pm
During the six days of docked operations, the joint Mir 24 and STS-86 crews transferred more than four tons of material from the SPACEHAB Double Module to Mir, including approximately 771 kilograms (1,699.8 lb) of water, experiment hardware for International Space Station Risk Mitigation experiments to monitor the Mir for crew health and safety, a gyrodyne, batteries, three air pressurization units with breathing air, an attitude control computer and many other logistics items. The new motion control computer replaced one that had experienced problems in recent months. The crew also moved experiment samples and hardware and an old Elektron oxygen generator to Atlantis for return to Earth. Undocking took place at 1:28 pm EDT, 3 October. After undocking, Atlantis performed a 46 minute flyaround visual inspection of Mir. During this maneuver, Solovyev and Vinogradov opened a pressure regulation valve to allow air into the Spektr module to see if STS-89 crew members could detect seepage or debris particles that could indicate the location of the breach in the damaged module's hull.
During the flight, Wetherbee and Bloomfield fired small jet thrusters on Atlantis to provide data for the Mir Structural Dynamics Experiment (MISDE), which measures disturbances to space station components and its solar arrays. Other experiments conducted during the mission were the Commercial Protein Crystal Growth investigation; the Cell Culture Module Experiment (CCM-A), the Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activation Monitor (CREAM) and the Radiation Monitoring Experiment-III (RME-III); the Shuttle Ionospheric Modification with Pulsed Local Exhaust (SIMPLE) experiment; and the Midcourse Space Experiment. Two NASA educational outreach programs were also conducted, Seeds in Space-II and KidSat.
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