1995 American crewed spaceflight to Mir
This article is about Space Shuttle mission STS-71. For the hominid fossil, see
STS 71
.
STS-71
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Names
| Space Transportation System
-71
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Mission type
| Shuttle-Mir
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Operator
| NASA
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COSPAR ID
| 1995-030A
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SATCAT
no.
| 23600
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Mission duration
| 9 days, 19 hours, 23 minutes, 9 seconds
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Distance travelled
| 6,600,000 kilometres (4,100,000 mi)
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Orbits completed
| 153
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Spacecraft
| Space Shuttle
Atlantis
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Payload mass
| 12,191 kilograms (26,877 lb)
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Crew size
| 7 up
8 down
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Members
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Launching
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Landing
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Launch date
| June 27, 1995, 19:32:19
(
1995-06-27UTC19:32:19Z
)
UTC
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Launch site
| Kennedy
LC-39A
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Landing date
| July 7, 1995, 14:55:28
(
1995-07-07UTC14:55:29Z
)
UTC
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Landing site
| Kennedy
SLF Runway 15
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Reference system
| Geocentric
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Regime
| Low Earth
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Perigee altitude
| 342 kilometres (213 mi)
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Apogee altitude
| 342 kilometres (213 mi)
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Inclination
| 51.6 degrees
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Period
| 88.9 min
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Docking port
| Kristall
forward
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Docking date
| June 29, 1995, 13:00:16 UTC
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Undocking date
| July 4, 1995, 11:09:42 UTC
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Time docked
| 4 days, 22 hours, 9 minutes 26 seconds
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Left to right ? Seated: Dezhurov, Gibson, Solovyev; Standing: Thagard, Strekalov, Harbaugh, Baker, Precourt, Dunbar, Budarin
|
As the third mission of the US/Russian
Shuttle-Mir Program
,
STS-71
became the first
Space Shuttle
to dock with the Russian
space station
Mir
. STS-71 began on June 27, 1995, with the launch of
Space Shuttle
Atlantis
from
launchpad 39A
at the
Kennedy Space Center
in Florida. The Shuttle delivered a relief crew of two cosmonauts
Anatoly Solovyev
and
Nikolai Budarin
to the station and recovered
Increment
astronaut
Norman Thagard
.
Atlantis
returned to Earth on July 7 with a crew of eight. It was the first of seven straight missions to
Mir
flown by
Atlantis
, and the second Shuttle mission to land with an eight-person crew after
STS-61-A
in 1985.
For the five days the Shuttle was docked to
Mir
they were the largest spacecraft in orbit at the time. STS-71 marked the first docking of a Space Shuttle to a space station, the first time a Shuttle crew switched members with the crew of a station, and the 100th crewed space launch by the United States. The mission carried
Spacelab
and included a logistical resupply of
Mir
. Together the Shuttle and station crews conducted various on-orbit joint US/Russian life science investigations with Spacelab along with the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment-II (SAREX-II) experiment.
Crew
[
edit
]
Mission highlights
[
edit
]
The primary objectives of this flight were to rendezvous and perform the first docking between the
Space Shuttle
and the Russian
Space Station
Mir
on June 29. In the first U.S.-Russian (
Soviet
) docking in twenty years,
Atlantis
delivered a relief crew of two
cosmonauts
Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin to
Mir
.
[1]
Other prime objectives were on-orbit joint United States of America-Russian
life sciences
investigations aboard
SPACELAB
/Mir, logistical resupply of the Mir and recovery of US
astronaut
Norman E. Thagard.
Secondary objectives included filming with the
IMAX
camera and the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment-II (SAREX-II) experiment.
[1]
STS-71 was the 100th U.S. human space launch conducted from Cape Canaveral, the first U.S. Space Shuttle-Russian Space Station docking and joint on-orbit operations; largest spacecraft ever in orbit; and the first on-orbit changeout of Shuttle crew.
The rendezvous sequence began at 15:32:19 EDT with a lift-off in-plane with Mir's orbit, at the opening of the 10 minute 19 second launch window. Ascent was nominal with no OMS 1 burn required.
[1]
The OMS 2 burn, initiated at 42 minutes 58 seconds Mission Elapsed Time, adjusted the orbit to 160 x 85.3 nautical miles. It was the lowest ever perigee altitude flown by an orbiter.
[2]
This facilitated a very rapid initial catch up rate with Mir of about 880 nautical miles per orbit.
[3]
Almost three hours later the orbit was raised to more typical values of 210 x 159 nautical miles by the OMS 3 burn.
Docking occurred at 9 am EDT, June 29, using R-Bar or Earth radius vector approach, with
Atlantis
closing in on Mir from directly below. R-bar approach allows natural forces to brake the orbiter's approach more than would occur along standard approach directly in front of the space station; also, an R-bar approach minimizes the number of orbiter jet firings needed for approach. The manual phase of the docking began with
Atlantis
about a half-mile (800 m) below Mir, with Gibson at the controls on aft flight deck. Stationkeeping was performed when the orbiter was about 75 metres (246 ft) from
Mir
, pending approval from Russian and U.S. flight directors to proceed. Gibson then maneuvered the orbiter to a point about 10 metres (33 ft) from
Mir
before beginning the final approach to station. Closing rate was close to the targeted 0.1 foot per second (30 mm/s), being approximately 0.107 foot per second (33 mm/s) at contact. Interface contact was nearly flawless: less than 25 millimetres (0.98 in) lateral misalignment and an angular misalignment of less than 0.5 degrees per axis. No braking jet firings had been required.
[4]
Docking occurred about 216 nautical miles (400 kilometres (250 mi)) above
Lake Baikal
region of the Russian Federation. The Orbiter Docking System (ODS) with Androgynous Peripheral Docking System served as the actual connection point to a similar interface on the docking port on Mir's
Kristall
module. ODS, located in the forward payload bay of
Atlantis
, performed flawlessly during the docking sequence.
When linked,
Atlantis
and Mir formed the largest spacecraft ever in orbit, with a total mass of about 225
metric tons
(almost one-half million pounds), orbiting some 218 nautical miles (404 kilometres (251 mi)) above the Earth. After hatches on each side opened, STS-71 crew passed into
Mir
for a welcoming ceremony. On the same day, the Mir 18 crew officially transferred responsibility for the station to the Mir 19 crew, and the two crews switched spacecraft.
For the next five days, about 100 hours in total, joint U.S.-Russian operations were conducted, including biomedical investigations, and transfer of equipment to and from
Mir
. Fifteen separate biomedical and scientific investigations were conducted, using the Spacelab module installed in the aft portion of
Atlantis
'
s payload bay, and covering seven different disciplines: cardiovascular and pulmonary functions; human metabolism; neuroscience; hygiene, sanitation and radiation; behavioral performance and biology; fundamental biology; and microgravity research. The Mir 18 crew served as test subjects for investigations. Three Mir 18 crew members also carried out an intensive programme of exercise and other measures to prepare for re-entry into gravity environment after more than three months in space.
Numerous medical samples as well as disks and cassettes were transferred to
Atlantis
from
Mir
, including more than 100 urine and saliva samples, about 30 blood samples, 20 surface samples, 12 air samples, several water samples and numerous breath samples taken from
Mir
18 crew members. Also moved was a broken Salyut-5 computer. Transferred to
Mir
were more than 450 kilograms (990 lb) of water generated by the orbiter for waste system flushing and electrolysis; specially designed spacewalking tools for use by the
Mir
19 crew during a spacewalk to repair a jammed solar array on the Spektr module; and transfer of oxygen and nitrogen from Shuttle's environmental control system to raise air pressure on the station, to improve
Mir
'
s consumables margin.
The spacecraft undocked on July 4, following a farewell ceremony, with the Mir hatch closing at 3:32 pm EDT. July 3 and hatch on Orbiter Docking System shut 16 minutes later. Gibson compared separation sequence to a "cosmic" ballet: Prior to the
Mir
-
Atlantis
undocking, the
Mir
19 crew temporarily abandoned station, flying away from it in their Soyuz spacecraft so they could record images of
Atlantis
and
Mir
separating. Soyuz unlatched at 6:55 am EDT, and Gibson undocked
Atlantis
from
Mir
at 7:10 am EDT. Whilst both spacecraft were undocked from
Mir
, the station suffered a computer malfunction and started to drift in attitude. The
Mir
19 crew performed a hasty re-docking, monitored by
Atlantis
. They subsequently replaced computer hardware allowing them to regain attitude control.
The returning crew of eight equaled the largest crew (
STS-61-A
, October 1985) in Shuttle history. To ease their re-entry into gravity environment after more than 100 days in space,
Mir
18 crew members Thagard, Dezhurov and Strekalov lay supine in custom-made recumbent seats installed prior to landing in the orbiter middeck.
Inflight problems included a glitch with General Purpose Computer 4 (GPC 4), which was declared failed when it did not synchronize with GPC 1; subsequent troubleshooting indicated it was an isolated event, and GPC 4 operated satisfactorily for the remainder of mission.
During the SAREX portion of the flight, the crew contacted several schools. One was Redlands High School in Redlands, California. Charlie Precourt was able to contact students, former students and technicians that built the communications package. A cross polarized, dual band yagi antenna array and automatic rotor was installed on the roof of the electronics classroom. A dual band radio was installed inside the radio room of the classroom. The contact window lasted about 10 minutes, during which time, about twelve people were able to ask questions. While most were basic or technical questions, one was peculiar. "What would happen of you sneezed inside your helmet?" Precourt answered that you'd probably, "spray your face shield a little bit.." and carry on.
External tank
[
edit
]
The
external tank
used on this mission (ET-70)
[5]
was involved in a historic
marine salvage
court case.
[6]
The tank was being delivered by barge in November 1994, when the tow vehicle encountered issues in
Hurricane Gordon
. Their
mayday
signal was picked up by the oil tanker Cherry Valley, which responded and towed the tug and its cargo to safety.
[7]
Under the tradition of marine salvage, NASA offered $5 million to the crew of the tanker as a reward, but the
United States Department of Justice
reduced the offer to $1 million.
[7]
The tanker company and crew sued and were awarded $6.4 million, believed to be the largest such award in U.S. history.
[7]
This was reduced to $4.125 million on appeal.
[6]
The crew split the award with their employer. At least one crew member was able to use his cut of the proceeds to buy a house, which he calls "the house that NASA bought."
[7]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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Completed flights
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Status
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On display
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1986?1990
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1991?1995
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1996?2000
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Completed
(crews)
| 1970s
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1980s
|
- 1981
- 1982
- 1983
- 1984
- 1985
- 1986
- 1988
- 1989
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1990s
|
- 1990
- 1991
- 1992
- 1993
- 1994
- 1995
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
- 1999
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2000s
|
- 2000
- 2001
- 2002
- 2003
- 2005
- 2006
- 2007
- 2008
- 2009
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2010s
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Cancelled
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Orbiters
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- †
indicates failure missions.
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January
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February
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March
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April
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May
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June
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July
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August
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September
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October
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November
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December
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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).
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