1998 in spaceflight
Encyclopedia
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Deep-space rendezvous
| Date (GMT Greenwich Mean Time Greenwich Mean Time is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. It is arguably the same as Coordinated Universal Time and when this is viewed as a time zone the name Greenwich Mean Time is especially used by bodies connected with the United... ) |
Spacecraft | Event | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 January | Lunar Prospector Lunar Prospector The Lunar Prospector mission was the third selected by NASA for full development and construction as part of the Discovery Program. At a cost of $62.8 million, the 19-month mission was designed for a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon, including mapping of surface composition and possible... |
Selenocentric orbit Lunar orbit In astronomy, lunar orbit refers to the orbit of an object around the Moon.As used in the space program, this refers not to the orbit of the Moon about the Earth, but to orbits by various manned or unmanned spacecraft around the Moon... injection |
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| 23 January | NEAR NEAR Shoemaker The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous - Shoemaker , renamed after its 1996 launch in honor of planetary scientist Eugene M. Shoemaker, was a robotic space probe designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA to study the near-Earth asteroid Eros from close orbit over a... |
Flyby of the Earth | Closest approach: 540 kilometres (335.5 mi) |
| 10 February | Galileo | 5th flyby of Europa Europa (moon) Europa Slightly smaller than Earth's Moon, Europa is primarily made of silicate rock and probably has an iron core. It has a tenuous atmosphere composed primarily of oxygen. Its surface is composed of ice and is one of the smoothest in the Solar System. This surface is striated by cracks and... |
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| 29 March | Galileo | 6th flyby of Europa | |
| 26 April | Cassini Cassini-Huygens Cassini–Huygens is a joint NASA/ESA/ASI spacecraft mission studying the planet Saturn and its many natural satellites since 2004. Launched in 1997 after nearly two decades of gestation, it includes a Saturn orbiter and an atmospheric probe/lander for the moon Titan, although it has also returned... |
1st flyby of Venus Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows... |
Gravity assist |
| 13 May | AsiaSat 3/HGS 1 comsat Communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunications... |
1st flyby of the Moon Moon The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more... |
Accidental moon mission; Closest approach: 6200 kilometres (3,852.5 mi) |
| 31 May | Galileo | 7th flyby of Europa | |
| 1 June | AsiaSat 3/HGS 1 | 2nd flyby of the Moon | Closest approach: 34300 kilometres (21,313.1 mi) |
| 21 July | Galileo | 8th flyby of Europa | |
| 26 September | Galileo | 9th flyby of Europa | |
| 22 November | Galileo | 10th flyby of Europa | |
| 20 December | Nozomi | 1st flyby of the Earth | |
| 23 December | NEAR | Flyby of 433 Eros 433 Eros 433 Eros is a near-Earth asteroid discovered in 1898, and the first asteroid to be orbited by a probe . It is an S-type asteroid approximately 34.4×11.2×11.2 km in size, the second-largest NEA after 1036 Ganymed, and belongs to the Amor group.Eros is a Mars-crosser asteroid, the first known... |
Closest approach: 3827 kilometres (2,378 mi) |
EVAs
| Start Date/Time | Duration | End Time | Spacecraft | Crew | Function | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 January 23:08 |
3 hours 6 minutes |
9 January 02:14 |
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... EO-24 |
 Anatoly SolovyevAnatoly 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 :... Pavel Vinogradov |
Repaired the damaged airlock sealing system, used the Strela boom to move across Mir and recover an American optical monitoring experiment. Checked the integrity of cable connects to several antennas. | |
| 14 January 21:12 |
3 hours |
15 January 01:04 |
Mir EO-24 | Anatoly Solovyev David Wolf |
Continued to make more repairs to the airlock hatch on Kvant-2 and used a handheld photo-reflectometer to inspect the exterior surface of the station. | |
| 1 April 13:35 |
6 hours 40 minutes |
20:15 | Mir EO-25 |  Talgat MusabayevTalgat Musabayev Talgat Amangeldyuly Musabayev , is a Kazakh test pilot and former cosmonaut who flew on three spaceflights. His first two spaceflights were long-duration stays aboard the Russian space station Mir. His third spaceflight was a short duration visiting mission to the International Space Station, which... Nikolai BudarinNikolai Budarin Nikolai Mikhailovich Budarin is a Russian cosmonaut, a veteran of three extended space missions aboard the Mir Space Station and the International Space Station... |
Installed a set of handrails and one of two foot restraints on the outside of the Spektr Spektr Spektr was the fifth module of the Mir Space Station. The module was designed for remote observation of Earth's environment containing atmospheric and surface research equipment... module in preparation for the repair of the damaged solar array. |
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| 6 April 13:35 |
4 hours 15 minutes |
17:50 | Mir EO-25 | Talgat Musabayev Nikolai Budarin |
Begin repair of the damaged Spektr solar panel. After installing a splint on the frayed panel, the spacewalkers had to quickly return to the airlock to handle a problem with station attitude control. | |
| 11 April 09:55 |
6 Hours 25 minutes |
16:20 | Mir EO-25 | Talgat Musabayev Nikolai Budarin |
Jettisoned the external thruster engine (VDU) that had been located at the top of the Sofora boom and recover an experiment from the Rapana structure. | Dismantling of the Rapana structure was not completed. |
| 17 April 07:40 |
6 Hours 33 minutes |
14:13 | Mir EO-25 | Talgat Musabayev Nikolai Budarin |
Removed two structures and secured them to exterior surfaces and repositioned the new thrust engine (VDU) for future use. | |
| 22 April 05:34 |
6 Hours 21 minutes |
11:55 | Mir EO-25 | Talgat Musabayev Nikolai Budarin |
Completed installation of the new VDU thruster unit on top of the Sofora boom. | |
20:00 |
30 minutes | 20:30 | Mir EO-26 | Gennady Padalka Gennady Padalka Gennady Ivanovich Padalka is a Russian Air Force officer and an RSA cosmonaut. As of June 2010, Gennady ranks sixth for career time in space due to his time on both Mir and the International Space Station.... Sergei AvdeyevSergei Avdeyev Sergei Avdeyev is a Russian engineer and cosmonaut.Avdeyev was born in Chapayevsk, Samara Oblast , Russian SFSR. He graduated from in 1979 as an engineer-physicist. From 1979 to 1987 he worked as an engineer for NPO Energiya... |
Internal spacewalk in the depressurised Spektr module to connect electrical and control cables to the solar array servo motor. | |
| 10 November 19:24 |
5 hours 54 minutes |
11 November 01:18 |
Mir EO-26 | Gennady Padalka Sergei Avdeyev |
Deployed Sputnik-41, deployed a French "meteorite trap" intended to catch some dust from the upcoming Leonids meteor shower. | |
| 7 December 22:10 |
7 hours 21 minutes |
8 December 05:31 |
STS-88 STS-88 -Mission parameters:*Weight*Liftoff: *Landing: *Perigee: *Apogee: *Orbital Period: 92.4min-Launch attempts:-Mission highlights:Node 1, named Unity, was the first space station hardware delivered by the space shuttle. It has two Pressurized Mating Adapters , one attached to either end... |
Jerry L. Ross Jerry L. Ross Jerry Lynn Ross is a United States Air Force officer and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, making him the record holder for most spaceflights .-Personal:Ross is married to the former Karen S. Pearson of Sheridan, Indiana. They have two children... |
Connected computer and electrical cables between the Unity node, the two mating adapters attached to either end of Unity, and the Zarya Zarya Zarya , also known as the Functional Cargo Block or FGB , was the first module of the International Space Station to be launched. The FGB provided electrical power, storage, propulsion, and guidance to the ISS during the initial stage of assembly... Functional Cargo Block (FGB). |
First ISS assembly EVA |
| 9 December 20:33 |
7 hours 2 minutes |
03:35 |
STS-88 ISS Endeavour |
Jerry L. Ross James H. Newman |
Installed two box-like antennas on the outside of the Unity module that are part of the S-band early communications system. | |
| 12 December 20:33 |
6 hours 59 minutes |
13 December 03:32 |
STS-88 ISS Endeavour |
Jerry L. Ross James H. Newman |
Checked on an insulation cover on a cable connection on the lower Pressurized Mating Adapter Pressurized Mating Adapter The International Space Station uses three Pressurized Mating Adapters to interconnect spacecraft and modules with different docking mechanisms. The first two PMAs were launched with the Unity module in 1998 aboard STS-88... (PMA-2) to make sure it was fully installed, attached EVA tools on the side of Unitys upper mating adapter (PMA-1) in preparation for future EVAs, and inspected Orbiter Space Vision System Advanced Space Vision System The Advanced Space Vision System is a computer vision system designed primarily for International Space Station assembly... targets on Unity. |
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