1988 American crewed spaceflight to deploy TDRS-3, and "Return to Flight" after STS-51-L
STS-26
TDRS-C
and its
IUS
in the payload bay of
Discovery
|
Names
| Space Transportation System
-26
STS-26R
|
---|
|
Mission type
| Return to Flight and
TDRS-C deployment
|
---|
Operator
| NASA
|
---|
COSPAR ID
| 1988-091A
|
---|
SATCAT
no.
| 19547
|
---|
Mission duration
| 4 days, 1 hour, 0 minute, 11 seconds (achieved)
|
---|
Distance travelled
| 2,703,000 km (1,680,000 mi)
|
---|
Orbits completed
| 64
|
---|
|
|
|
Spacecraft
| Space Shuttle
Discovery
|
---|
Launch mass
| 115,487 kg (254,605 lb)
|
---|
Landing mass
| 88,078 kg (194,179 lb)
|
---|
Payload mass
| 21,082 kg (46,478 lb)
|
---|
|
|
|
Crew size
| 5
|
---|
Members
| |
---|
|
|
|
Launch date
| September 29, 1988, 15:37:00
UTC
|
---|
Rocket
| Space Shuttle
Discovery
|
---|
Launch site
| Kennedy Space Center
,
LC-39B
|
---|
Contractor
| Rockwell International
|
---|
|
|
|
Landing date
| October 3, 1988, 16:37:11 UTC
|
---|
Landing site
| Edwards Air Force Base
,
Runway 17
|
---|
|
|
|
Reference system
| Geocentric orbit
|
---|
Regime
| Low Earth orbit
|
---|
Perigee altitude
| 301 km (187 mi)
|
---|
Apogee altitude
| 306 km (190 mi)
|
---|
Inclination
| 28.45°
|
---|
Period
| 90.60 minutes
|
---|
|
|
- Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (ADSF)
- Aggregation of Red Blood Cells (ARC)
- Earth-Limb Radiance Experiment (ELRAD)
- Isoelectric Focusing Experiment (IFE)
- Infrared Communications Flight Experiment (IRCFE)
- Mesoscale Lightning Experiment (MLE)
- Orbiter Experiments Autonomous Supporting Instrumentation System (OASIS)
- Phase Partitioning Experiment (PPE)
- Physical Vapor Transport of Organic Solids (PVTOS-2)
- Protein Crystal Growth (PCG)
- Two Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP)
- Voice Control Unit (VCU)
|
STS-26 mission patch
Back row:
John M. Lounge
,
David C. Hilmers
,
George D. Nelson
Front row:
Richard O. Covey
and
Frederick H. Hauck
|
STS-26
was the 26th
NASA
Space Shuttle
mission and the seventh flight of the orbiter
Discovery
. The mission launched from
Kennedy Space Center
,
Florida
, on September 29, 1988, and landed four days later on October 3, 1988. STS-26 was declared the "Return to Flight" mission, being the first mission after the
Space Shuttle
Challenger
disaster
of January 28, 1986. It was the first mission since
STS-9
to use the original
Space Transportation System
(STS) numbering system, the first to have all its crew members wear
pressure suits
for launch and landing since
STS-4
, and the first mission with bailout capacity since STS-4. STS-26 was also the first U.S. space mission with an all-veteran crew since
Apollo 11
, with all of its crew members having flown at least one prior mission.
The mission is technically designated
STS-26R
, as the original STS-26 designation previously belonged to
STS-51-F
(also known as
Spacelab-2
). Likewise all flights with the STS-26 through STS-33 designations would require the
R
in their documentation to avoid conflicts in tracking data between the old and new flight designations.
[1]
Crew
[
edit
]
The crew roster for STS-26 was based on the original crew assignment for
STS-61-F
, which would have launched the
Ulysses
probe from
Challenger
in 1986.
Ulysses
was eventually launched on
STS-41
. Hauck, Lounge and Hilmers were all assigned to that flight, with
Roy D. Bridges Jr.
as pilot. Bridges never flew again after the
Challenger
disaster, but would eventually become the director of
Langley Research Center
(LRC).
Covey was the
CAPCOM
operator during the
STS-51-L
launch who uttered the words, "
Challenger
, go at throttle up", shortly after which the orbiter disintegrated. He also would have been the CAPCOM operator for the canceled STS-61-F mission during launch and landing.
Mission summary
[
edit
]
Space Shuttle
Discovery
lifted off from
Launch Complex 39B
,
Kennedy Space Center
, at 11:37:00 a.m.
EDT
on September 29, 1988, 975 days after the
Challenger
disaster.
The launch was delayed by one hour and thirty-eight minutes due to unseasonable and unusual light winds, and the need to replace fuses in the cooling systems of two crew members' flight suits. The suits were repaired, and a waiver was issued for the wind conditions after officials determined there was a sufficient safety margin for wind loads on the orbiter's wing leading edges. At T-1:30, it was proposed that the launch be delayed at T-0:31 due to a cabin air pressure issue. It was quickly determined that the cabin pressure had been increased slightly by the activation of the oxygen systems in the crew's flight suits, and the launch was conducted without further delay. The shuttle crew, all veteran astronauts, included Commander Frederick H. "Rick" Hauck, Pilot Richard O. Covey, and Mission Specialists John M. "Mike" Lounge, George D. "Pinky" Nelson and David C. Hilmers.
The primary payload for the STS-26 mission,
TDRS-C
, was successfully deployed, and 11 scheduled mid-deck scientific and technological experiments were carried out. The orbiter sustained only minor
Space Shuttle thermal protection system
tile damage, and the redesigned post-
Challenger
solid rocket boosters
showed no signs of leakage or overheating at any of the joints.
Two minor problems occurred during the flight. After ascent, the Flash Evaporator System for cooling the orbiter iced up and shut down, increasing the crew cabin temperature to approximately 31 °C (88 °F). The problem was resolved on Flight Day 4 and cooler temperatures resulted. A
Ku-band
antenna for communications was deployed on Flight Day 2, but it failed to respond properly and had to be stowed for the remainder of the mission.
During STS-26,
Discovery
became the first spacecraft to fly in space equipped with a VCU (Voice Control Unit), a computer capable of recognising and responding to human speech. The VCU was created by
SCI Systems
in
Huntsville, Alabama
, and was based on technology licensed from the
Votan
company. This
speech recognition
system controlled the cameras and monitors that were used by the crew to monitor the
Canadarm
mechanical arm mounted in the cargo bay. Because of the experimental nature of speech recognition at the time, this system was not used for any critical operations. Initial problems almost sidelined the tests when the voice templates that were created prior to liftoff were found to have less than 60% recognition for one crew member and less than 40% recognition for another. This problem was corrected by retraining the templates. It was retested and found to be operational with a recognition success rate of over 96%. It was concluded that
weightless
conditions caused a fundamental change in human speech, making the templates created prior to liftoff virtually useless.
Besides conducting the mission's various experiments, crew members practiced suiting up in new partial-pressure "launch-and-entry" flight suits, and also practiced the unstowing and attaching of the new crew escape system. On October 2, 1988, the day before the mission ended, the five-man crew paid tribute to the seven crew members lost in the
Challenger
disaster.
Discovery
landed on Runway 17,
Edwards Air Force Base
,
California
, at 12:37:11 p.m. EDT on October 3, 1988, after a mission duration of approximately 4 days, 1 hour, 0 minute, and 11 seconds. Capsule Communicator Blaine Hammond Jr. welcomed the crew, saying it was "a great ending to a new beginning".
Payloads and experiments
[
edit
]
TDRS-C, which became TDRS-3 in orbit, and its attached
Inertial Upper Stage
(IUS), were deployed from
Discovery
'
s cargo bay six hours and 13 minutes into the flight. The first stage of the IUS placed TDRS-3 in a transfer orbit, and the second stage placed it in a
geosynchronous orbit
on September 30, 1988. TDRS-3 moved into position over the
Pacific Ocean
south of
Hawaii
at 171° west
longitude
. It joined
TDRS-1
in tracking Earth-orbiting spacecraft; a sister satellite,
TDRS-B
, was lost in the
Challenger
accident. Also in the payload bay was the Orbiter Experiments Autonomous Supporting Instrumentation System (OASIS). OASIS recorded environmental data on the orbiter and the TDRS payload during various inflight phases.
All the mission's mid-deck experiments were deemed to have been performed successfully. However, there were some glitches with two of the five materials science experiments. In the Protein Crystal Growth (PCG) experiment, two of the 11
proteins
processed ? including an
enzyme
believed to be key to the replication of
AIDS
? did not produce crystals suitable for analysis. Also, there were some equipment problems with the Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (ADSF), an experiment to investigate the melting and solidification of various materials in
zero-gravity
.
The materials processing experiments included two Shuttle Student Involvement Projects, one on
titanium
grain formation and the other on controlling
crystal growth
with a membrane. Another materials science experiment, the Physical Vapor Transport of Organic Solids-2 (PVTOS-2), was a joint project of NASA's Office of Commercial Programs and the
3M
company.
Three
life sciences
experiments were conducted, including one on the aggregation of
red blood cells
, intended to help determine if microgravity can play a beneficial role in clinical research and medical diagnostic tests. Two further experiments involved atmospheric sciences, while one was in communications research.
List of payloads
[
edit
]
Primary payload
[
edit
]
- NASA's TDRS-C satellite, attached to an Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), became the second
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System
(TDRSS) deployed. After deployment, the IUS propelled the satellite into a geosynchronous orbit.
Secondary payloads
[
edit
]
- Physical Vapor Transport of Organic Solids (PVTOS-2)
- Protein Crystal Growth (PCG)
- Infrared Communications Flight Experiment (IRCFE)
- Aggregation of Red Blood Cells (ARC)
- Isoelectric Focusing Experiment (IFE)
- Mesoscale Lightning Experiment (MLE)
- Phase Partitioning Experiment (PPE)
- Earth-Limb Radiance Experiment (ELRAD)
- Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (ADSF)
- Two Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP) experiments
- Voice Control Unit test and evaluation (VCU)
Damage to thermal protection
[
edit
]
Discovery
suffered severe damage to its thermal protection tiles in the underwing area. Post-flight analysis showed that the impact of a 30 cm (12 in) long piece of cork insulation during ascent was the culprit. The origin of the debris was the forward field joint on the right-hand SRB. The damage was such that, during re-entry, the thermal protection tile eroded almost completely.
[2]
A similar chain of events ultimately led to the
loss of
Columbia
fifteen years later.
Wake-up calls
[
edit
]
NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the
Project Gemini
, and first used music to awaken a flight crew during
Apollo 15
.
[3]
Each track is specially chosen, often by the astronauts' families, and usually has a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or is applicable to their daily activities.
[3]
Kathryn D. Sullivan
chose the wakeup music for STS-26, including a contribution from
Robin Williams
, who provided a pastiche of his
Good Morning, Vietnam
radio greeting.
[4]
Gallery
[
edit
]
-
Discovery
launches from Kennedy Space Center.
-
A view of the shuttle's cargo bay
-
The tilt table in its deploy position
-
The release of the TDRS
-
The
Hawaiian Islands
imaged from orbit.
-
-
Jebel Marra
,
Sudan
, imaged from orbit.
-
Discovery
landing at the end of STS-26.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Jenkins, Dennis R. (2016). "Chapter 18 - Destiny Fulfilled - The Intended Purpose".
Space Shuttle: Developing an Icon - 1972-2013
. Vol. III: The Flight Campaign. Forest Lake, Minnesota: Specialty Press. p. 130.
ISBN
978-1580072496
.
- ^
Young, John W.
; Hansen, James R. (September 16, 2012). "Chapter 22: On a Wing and a Prayer".
Forever Young: A Life of Adventure in Air and Space
. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. p. 336.
ISBN
978-0813042091
.
- ^
a
b
Fries, Colin (March 13, 2015).
"Chronology of Wakeup Calls"
(PDF)
.
History Division
. NASA.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on January 5, 2021
. Retrieved
January 5,
2021
.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
.
- ^
Sullivan, Kathryn D.
(November 5, 2019).
Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut's Story of Invention
. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
ISBN
978-0262043182
.
External links
[
edit
]
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- †
indicates failure missions.
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Launches are separated by dots ( ? ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ).
Crewed flights
are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
|