Engineering:STS-49

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Short description: 1992 American crewed spaceflight to Intelsat 603 and maiden flight of Shuttle Endeavour
STS-49
Three Crew Members Capture Intelsat VI - GPN-2000-001035.jpg
Hieb, Akers, and Thuot assist in capturing the Intelsat 603 satellite from its derelict orbit.
NamesSpace Transportation System-49
Mission typeIntelsat-603 satellite repair
OperatorNASA
COSPAR ID1992-026A
SATCAT no.21963
Mission duration8 days, 21 hours, 17 minutes, 38 seconds
Distance travelled5,948,166 km (3,696,019 mi)
Orbits completed141
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftSpace Shuttle Endeavour
Launch mass116,390 kg (256,600 lb) [1]
Landing mass91,279 kg (201,236 lb)
Payload mass16,984 kg (37,443 lb) [2]
Crew
Crew size7
Members
  • Daniel Brandenstein
  • Kevin P. Chilton
  • Richard Hieb
  • Bruce E. Melnick
  • Pierre J. Thuot
  • Kathryn C. Thornton
  • Thomas Akers
Start of mission
Launch dateMay 7, 1992, 23:40:00 UTC
RocketSpace Shuttle Endeavour
Launch siteKennedy Space Center, LC-39B
ContractorRockwell International
End of mission
Landing dateMay 16, 1992, 20:57:38 UTC[3]
Landing siteEdwards Air Force Base,
Runway 22
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric orbit
RegimeLow Earth orbit
Perigee altitude268 km (167 mi)
Apogee altitude341 km (212 mi)
Inclination28.32°
Period90.60 minutes
Instruments
  • Air Force Maui Optical Station (AMOS)
  • Commercial Protein Crystal Growth (CPCG)
  • Ultraviolet Plume Imager (UVPI)
Sts-49-patch.png
STS-49 mission patch
STS-49 crew 2.jpg
Thornton, Melnick, Thuot, Brandenstein, Chilton, Akers, Hieb
← STS-45 (46)
STS-50 (48) →
 

STS-49 was NASA's maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which launched on May 7, 1992. The primary goal of its nine-day mission was to retrieve an Intelsat VI satellite, Intelsat 603, which failed to leave Low Earth orbit two years before, attach it to a new upper stage, and relaunch it to its intended geosynchronous orbit. After several attempts, the capture was completed with the only three-person extravehicular activity (EVA) in space flight history.[4] It would also stand until STS-102 in 2001 as the longest EVA ever undertaken.

Crew

Position Astronaut
Commander Daniel Brandenstein
Fourth and last spaceflight
Pilot Kevin P. Chilton
First spaceflight
Mission Specialist 1 Richard Hieb
Second spaceflight
Mission Specialist 2 Bruce E. Melnick
Second and last spaceflight
Mission Specialist 3 Pierre J. Thuot
Second spaceflight
Mission Specialist 4 Kathryn C. Thornton
Second spaceflight
Mission Specialist 5 Thomas Akers
Second spaceflight

Spacewalks

  • Thuot and Hieb – EVA 1
  • EVA 1 Start: May 10, 1992 – 20:40 UTC
  • EVA 1 End: May 11, 1992 – 00:23 UTC
  • Duration: 3 hours, 43 minutes
  • Thuot and Hieb – EVA 2
  • EVA 2 Start: May 11, 1992 – 21:05 UTC
  • EVA 2 End: May 12, 1992 – 02:35 UTC
  • Duration: 5 hours, 30 minutes
  • Thuot, Hieb and Akers – EVA 3
  • EVA 3 Start: May 13, 1992 – 21:17 UTC
  • EVA 3 End: May 14, 1992 – 05:46 UTC
  • Duration: 8 hours, 29 minutes
  • Thornton and Akers – EVA 4
  • EVA 4 Start: May 14, 1992 – ~21:00 UTC
  • EVA 4 End: May 15, 1992 - ~05:00 UTC
  • Duration: 7 hours, 45 minutes

Crew seating arrangements

Seat[5] Launch Landing Space Shuttle seating plan.svg
Seats 1–4 are on the Flight Deck. Seats 5–7 are on the Middeck.
S1 Brandenstein Brandenstein
S2 Chilton Chilton
S3 Hieb Thuot
S4 Melnick Melnick
S5 Thuot Hieb
S6 Thornton Thornton
S7 Akers Akers

Mission highlights

The Intelsat 603 satellite, stranded in an unusable orbit since launch aboard a Commercial Titan III launch vehicle in March 1990, was captured by crewmembers during an extravehicular activity (EVA) and equipped with a new perigee kick motor. The satellite was subsequently released into orbit and the new motor fired to put the spacecraft into a geosynchronous orbit for operational use.

The capture required three EVAs: a planned one by astronauts Thuot and Hieb who were unable to attach a capture bar to the satellite from a position on the RMS (Canadarm); a second unscheduled but identical attempt the following day; and finally an unscheduled but successful hand capture by Thuot, Hieb and Akers as commander Brandenstein delicately maneuvered the orbiter to within a few feet of the 4,215 kg (9,292 lb) communications satellite. An Assembly of Station by EVA Methods (ASEM) structure was erected in the cargo bay by the crew to serve as a platform to aid in the hand capture and subsequent attachment of the capture bar. A planned EVA also was performed by astronauts Thornton and Akers as part of the ASEM experiment to demonstrate and verify maintenance and assembly capabilities for Space Station Freedom. The ASEM space walk, originally scheduled for two successive days, was cut to one day because of the lengthy Intelsat retrieval operation.

Other "payloads of opportunity" experiments conducted included: Commercial Protein Crystal Growth (CPCG), Ultraviolet Plume Imager (UVPI) and the Air Force Maui Optical Station (AMOS) investigation. The mission was extended by two days in order to complete all the mission objectives.

On flight day 7, the Ku-band antenna lost its pointing capability. It had to be stowed manually during the final EVA.[3]

The following records were set during the STS-49 mission:[6]

  • First flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour
  • First (and only) EVA involving three astronauts.
  • Second and fourth longest EVAs to date: 8 hours, 29 minutes, 7 hours, and 45 minutes. (Longest EVA to date was during STS-102 in 2001: 8 hours 56 minutes; third longest EVA was during STS-61 in 1993: 7 hour 54 minutes)
  • First Shuttle mission to feature four EVAs.
  • The second longest EVA time for a single Shuttle mission: 25 hours and 27 minutes, or 59:23 person hours. (The longest is STS-61 with 35 hours and 28 minutes)
  • First Shuttle mission requiring three rendezvous with an orbiting spacecraft.
  • First use of a drogue chute during a Shuttle landing.

Wake-up Calls

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the Project Gemini, and first used music to wake up a flight crew during Apollo 15.[7] A special musical track is chosen for each day in space, often by the astronauts' families, to have a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or in reference to the day's planned activities.

Day Song Artist/Composer Played For
Day 2 "God Bless the U.S.A." Lee Greenwood
Day 3 "Rescue Me" Fontella Bass
Day 4 "Theme from Winnie the Pooh" Kathy Thornton (from her Children on Mother's Day)
Day 5 "Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky)" Bill Conti
Day 6 "Kokomo" The Beach Boys
Day 7 No song
Day 8 "I wake up with a smile on my face" Boxcar Willie
Day 9 "Son of a Son of a Sailor" Jimmy Buffett

Gallery

  • Thuot during one of the capture attempts

  • Re-deployment of Intelsat 603

  • ASEM is manipulated by the Canadarm; Thornton and Akers during EVA 4.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Space Shuttle Missions Summary". NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-49.html.  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. ↑ "Space Shuttle Missions Summary". NASA. https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/reference/TM-2011-216142.pdf.  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Robert W. Fricke (July 1992). "STS-49: Space shuttle mission report". NASA. p. 17 of report. https://www.scribd.com/document/52710703/STS-49-Space-Shuttle-Mission-Report.  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. ↑ "Facts about spacesuits and spacewalks". June 3, 2013. http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/spacesuits/facts/facts-index.html.  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ↑ "STS-49". Spacefacts. http://spacefacts.de/mission/english/sts-49.htm. 
  6. ↑ "STS-49". NASA. 2001. http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-49/mission-sts-49.html.  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  7. ↑ Fries, Colin. "Chronology of wakeup calls". https://history.nasa.gov/wakeup%20calls.pdf.  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

External links



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