STS-8
Encyclopedia
STS-8 was a NASA
Space Shuttle
mission which launched on 30 August 1983 and landed on 5 September; it conducted the first night launch and night landing of the program, and flew the first African-American astronaut, Guion Bluford
. The mission was a notable success, achieving all of its planned research objectives, but was marred by the subsequent discovery that a solid-fuel rocket booster
had almost malfunctioned catastrophically during the launch. STS-8 was the eighth Shuttle mission and the third flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger
.
The primary payload was INSAT-1B, an India
n communications and weather observation
satellite, which was released by the orbiter and boosted into a geostationary orbit
. The secondary payload, replacing a delayed NASA communications satellite, was a four-metric-ton dummy payload, intended to test the use of the shuttle's "Canadarm" remote manipulator system. Scientific experiments carried on board Challenger included the environmental testing of new hardware and materials designed for future spacecraft, the study of biological materials in electric fields under microgravity, and research into space adaptation syndrome
(also known as "space sickness"). The flight furthermore served as shakedown testing for the previously launched TDRS-1
satellite, which would be required to support the subsequent STS-9
mission.
) to fly with a crew of five, the largest carried by a single spacecraft up to that date. The crew was historically notable for the participation of Guion "Guy" Bluford, who became the first African-American to fly in space.
The commander, Truly, was the only veteran astronaut of the crew, having flown as the pilot on STS-2
in 1981 and for two of the Approach and Landing Tests
aboard Enterprise
in 1977. Prior to this, he had worked as a capsule communicator for all three Skylab
missions and the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Brandenstein, Gardner and Bluford had all been recruited in 1978, and been training for a mission since 1979. The mission had originally been planned for a crew of four, with Thornton added to the crew as a third mission specialist in December 1982, eight months after the crew was originally named. As with Truly, he was an Apollo-era recruit, having joined NASA in 1967. His participation on the mission included a series of tests aimed at gathering information on the physiological changes linked with Space Adaptation Syndrome
, more commonly known as "space sickness"; this had become a focus of attention in NASA, as astronauts succumbed to it during Shuttle missions.
The orbiter carried two EMUs
for use in case of an emergency spacewalk; if needed, they would be used by Truly and Gardner.
An early plan for STS-8, released in April 1982, had scheduled it for July 1983. It was expected to be a three-day mission with four crew members, and would launch INSAT-1-B, an Indian satellite, and TDRS-B
, a NASA communications relay satellite. However, following problems with the inertial upper stage
(IUS) used to deploy TDRS-A on the STS-6
mission, it was announced in May 1983 that the TDRS was not going to be flown. It was replaced in the manifest by the Payload Flight Test Article. After re-development of the IUS, TDRS-B was eventually re-manifested for the STS-51-L
mission, and was lost along with the Space Shuttle Challenger and its crew when the launch failed in January 1986.
The primary element of the STS-8 mission payload was INSAT-1B. It was the second in a series of multi-purpose weather and communications satellites to be operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO); the first, INSAT-1A, had been launched by a Delta rocket in April 1982, but had to be shut down shortly afterwards due to a failure of the onboard reaction control system
. The satellite was carried in the rear of the shuttle's payload bay, and was boosted into a geosynchronous transfer orbit by a Payload Assist Module
(PAM-D), a small solid rocket
upper stage, after its release from the orbiter. The satellite, with its upper stage, massed a total of 3377 kg (7,445 lb), with the cradle massing another 1102 kg (2,429.5 lb), and had cost around $50 million.
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The Payload Flight Test Article (PFTA) had been scheduled for launch in June 1984 on STS-16 in the April 1982 manifest, but by May 1983 it had been brought forward to STS-11. That month, when the TRDS missions were delayed, it was brought forward to STS-8 to fill the hole in the manifest. It was an aluminum structure resembling two wheels with a six-meter long central axle, ballasted with lead
to give it a total mass of 3855 kilograms (8,498.8 lb) (8,500 lb), which could be lifted by the "Canadarm" Remote Manipulator System—the Shuttle's "robot arm"—and moved around to help astronauts gain experience in using the system. It was stored in the midsection of the payload bay.
The orbiter carried the Development Flight Instrumentation (DFI) pallet in its forward payload bay; this had previously flown on Columbia
to carry test equipment. The pallet was not outfitted with any flight instrumentation, but was used to mount two experiments. The first studied the interaction of ambient atomic oxygen with the structural materials of the orbiter and payload, while the second tested the performance of a heat pipe designed for use in the heat rejection systems of future spacecraft.
Four Getaway Special
payloads were carried. One studied the effects of cosmic rays on electronic equipment. The second studied the effect of the gas environment around the orbiter using ultraviolet
absorption measurements, as a precursor to ultraviolet equipment being designed for Spacelab 2
. A third, sponsored by the Japan
ese Asahi Shimbun
newspaper, tried to use water vapor in two tanks to create snow crystals. This was a second attempt at an experiment first flown on STS-6
, which had had to be redesigned after the water in the tanks froze solid. The last was similar to an experiment flown on STS-3
, and studied the ambient levels of atomic oxygen by measuring the rates at which small carbon
and osmium
wafers oxidized
.
Finally, in cooperation with the US Postal Service
, the mission also carried 260,000 postal covers
franked with $9.35 express mail stamps, which were to be sold to collectors, with the profits divided between the USPS and NASA. Two storage boxes were attached to the DFI pallet, with more stored in six of the Getaway Special canisters.
A number of other experiments were to be performed inside the orbiter crew compartment. Among these was the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System, being flown for the fourth time. This separated solutions of biological materials by passing electric fields through them; the experiment aimed at supporting research into diabetes treatments. A small animal cage was flown containing six rat
s; no animal experiment was carried out on the flight, but a student involvement project was planned for a later mission which would use the cage, and NASA wanted to ensure it was flight-tested. The student involvement project carried out on STS-8 involved William Thornton
using biofeedback
techniques, to try to determine if they worked in microgravity. A photography experiment would attempt to study the spectrum of a luminous atmospheric glow which had been reported around the orbiter, and determine how this interacted with firings of the reaction control system
.
The mission was also scheduled to carry out a series of tests with the TDRS-1
satellite which had been deployed by STS-6
, to ensure the system was fully operational before it was used to support the Spacelab 1 program on the upcoming STS-9
flight. The orbiter furthermore carried equipment to allow for encrypted transmissions, to be tested for use in future classified missions.
Preparation for the mission began on 3 June, with the assembly of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters (SRB) on the mobile launcher platform
. The boosters were stacked on 20 June 1983, and the external tank mated to the assembly on 23 June 1983. Challenger arrived at Kennedy Space Center
on 29 June 1983, and was transferred to the Orbiter Processing Facility
on 30 June. After post-flight maintenance and preparation for the new mission, including the installation of most flight payloads, the shuttle was transferred to the Vehicle Assembly Building
on 27 July 1983, and mated to the booster/tank stack. The stack was checked out on 29 & 30 July 1983, and moved to launch complex 39-A
on 2 August 1983. INSAT-1B was loaded into the orbiter when on the pad; the overall processing time from Challenger arriving at the Cape Canaveral to being ready for launch was only sixty-two days, a record for the program so far.
The launch had originally been scheduled for 4 August 1983, and later rescheduled for 20 August 1983. The requirement to conduct testing with the TDRS system
required a delay of ten days for the system to be ready, during which the stack remained on the launch pad. During the on-pad delay, a major tropical storm
hit the Florida
coastline, making landfall just south of the Kennedy Space Center on the morning of 25 August. The storm had only been identified two days earlier, and there was no time to roll Challenger back from the pad; the decision was made to secure the launch stack and ride out the storm.
Challenger finally launched at 06:32 UTC (02:32 EDT
) on 30 August 1983, after a final 17-minute delay due to thunderstorm
s near the launch site. The launch window extended from 06:15 to 06:49.
The launch, in darkness, was the first American night launch since Apollo 17
, and was watched by several thousand spectators. The unusual launching time was due to the tracking requirements for the primary payload, INSAT-1B; the program would not have another night launch until STS-61-B
in 1985. The crew had attempted to prepare for it by training in darkened simulators so as to keep their night vision
, but in practice it was discovered that the light of the solid-fuel rocket boosters made it virtually as bright as a day launch.
The launch was the first to use the newly-developed high-performance motor for the solid rocket boosters, which gave approximately 7% greater thrust, and the second-last to use the original standard-weight steel casings for the boosters. These had been replaced by a thinner case, saving some 1800 kilograms (3,968.3 lb), on STS-6
and STS-7
, but because of safety concerns the next two flights used the conventional cases.
After a successful insertion into a circular orbit at 296 kilometres (159.8 nmi), the first experiments began; the first two samples were run through the continuous electrophoresis system, and measurements were taken for the atmospheric luminosities study. A hydraulic circulation pump failed, but this was worked around and it proved to have no impact on operations.
The major event of the second day (31 August 1983) was the successful deployment of the INSAT-1B satellite, which took place at 7:48 UTC, with Challenger then maneuvering to avoid the firing of the booster motor forty minutes later. Other experimentation continued, though telemetry through TDRS
was lost for around three hours, requiring manual intervention. A fire alarm sounded in the morning, indicating signs of a fire in the avionics
compartment, but a second alarm remained silent and it was eventually determined to be a false alarm.
On the third and fourth days (1 & 2 September 1983), work began with the remote manipulator system and the payload test article, and communications testing through TDRS continued. The former was successful, but the latter lost contact on a number of occasions, due to problems at the White Sands
ground station. As a result, the crew had to be awakened early on 1 September 1983 in order to deal with the problem. A minor cabin pressure leak on 2 September 1983 was traced to the waste management system, and quickly controlled. The orbiter performed an orbital manuevering system firing on 2 September 1983 to place itself in a lower orbit, where the air density was higher and the oxygen interaction experiments would work more effectively.
On the fifth day (3 September 1983), testing of the remote manipulator system continued, including a number of optional "shopping list" tests, and the TDRS tests were carried out with more success. A live press conference was held late in the day, the first in-flight press conference since Apollo 17
. On the sixth day (4 September 1983), experiment runs were completed and the crew prepared to deorbit. Two systems failures were recorded on this last day, the most serious of which involved a synchronization failure in one of the onboard computers.
While on orbit, Challenger made a number of altitude and attitude adjustments, in order to test the behavior of a Shuttle orbiter and to perform some experiments in different thermal conditions. By exposing or shading areas from the sun in an unusual way, it was possible to induce particularly warm or cold conditions and observe any resulting problems.
, California, at 121:28 mission elapsed time
. On the original plan, this would have been at 7:44 UTC on 4 September 1983, before accounting for the last-minute launch delay; in the event, this was put back by one day to allow for further communications testing, and Challenger touched down at 07:40:33 UTC (00:40:33 PDT), 5 September 1983, on Runway 22 at Edwards AFB, on the morning of the seventh day of the mission. As with the launch, this was the first night landing of the program. The Shuttle orbiters had no on-board lights, due to the difficulty of designing landing lights to survive re-entry, and so the runway was lit by high-intensity xenon arc lamps to guide the orbiter in. There was no pressing operational requirement for a night landing, but there was a desire to prove it was possible. Footage of the landing was shown in the 1986 film SpaceCamp
.
in 1986; the only major contemporary public criticism came from NASA's Soviet counterparts. As a result of this incident, the flight of STS-9
was delayed for a month while the nozzles of its boosters were changed.
Post-flight inspection of the thermal protection system tiles found seven major debris impacts and forty-nine minor impacts, of which three and twenty-six respectively were on the orbiter's underside. This was the lowest incidence of major tile damage until at least STS-74
, and compares very favorably with the program average of twenty-three major impacts to the underside. It was the first Shuttle flight with no significant problems reported for the thermal protection system. Three windows were removed from the orbiter due to pitting and hazing.
A total of thirty-three in-flight anomalies were eventually reported. As well as the issues above, STS-8's more minor problems ranged from faulty thermostats to an unusually high amount of dust in the cabin.
Overall, the crew successfully completed all fifty-four of the planned mission test objectives. While the INSAT deployment was a success, the satellite had problems unfolding its solar array once in geostationary orbit, and was not fully operational until the middle of September. Once functional, however, it provided satisfactory service for seven years, returning 36,000 images of Earth and broadcasting television to thousands of remote Indian villages. The Payload Flight Test Article evaluation found that the Canadarm remote manipulator system was capable of moving bulky masses with some accuracy, to a precision of 5 cm and one degree of alignment.
The TDRS-1
program was overall less successful, with the satellite suffering several computer failures and an overall loss of telemetry for several hours. In all, the orbiter was able to use the satellite for 65 of the planned 89 orbits, and could make successful use of the connection on about forty. The continuous-flow electrophoresis
equipment functioned as planned, processing several hundred times more material than would have been possible on Earth, and the Asahi Shimbun crystal experiment, flown for the second time, was able to produce snow
crystals after the canister was redesigned.
Thornton's research into space adaptation sickness noted that the astronauts had escaped severe cases, with none suffering loss of motor control
; Gardner suffered a "mild case", but was still able to manage effectively, while Brandenstein—who had suffered from induced motion sickness during training operations—was entirely unaffected. The symptoms were found to abate within three days of launch.
. 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.
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
Space Shuttle
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...
mission which launched on 30 August 1983 and landed on 5 September; it conducted the first night launch and night landing of the program, and flew the first African-American astronaut, Guion Bluford
Guion Bluford
Guion Stewart “Guy” Bluford, Jr. , is an engineer, retired Colonel from the United States Air Force and a former NASA Astronaut. He participated in four Space Shuttle flights between 1983 and 1992...
. The mission was a notable success, achieving all of its planned research objectives, but was marred by the subsequent discovery that a solid-fuel rocket booster
Solid rocket booster
Solid rocket boosters or Solid Rocket Motors, SRM, are used to provide thrust in spacecraft launches from the launchpad up to burnout of the SRBs. Many launch vehicles include SRBs, including the Ariane 5, Atlas V , and the NASA Space Shuttle...
had almost malfunctioned catastrophically during the launch. STS-8 was the eighth Shuttle mission and the third flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger
Space Shuttle Challenger
Space Shuttle Challenger was NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, Columbia having been the first. The shuttle was built by Rockwell International's Space Transportation Systems Division in Downey, California...
.
The primary payload was INSAT-1B, an India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n communications and weather observation
Weather satellite
The weather satellite is a type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be either polar orbiting, seeing the same swath of the Earth every 12 hours, or geostationary, hovering over the same spot on Earth by orbiting over the equator while...
satellite, which was released by the orbiter and boosted into a geostationary orbit
Geostationary orbit
A geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator , with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero. An object in a geostationary orbit appears motionless, at a fixed position in the sky, to ground observers...
. The secondary payload, replacing a delayed NASA communications satellite, was a four-metric-ton dummy payload, intended to test the use of the shuttle's "Canadarm" remote manipulator system. Scientific experiments carried on board Challenger included the environmental testing of new hardware and materials designed for future spacecraft, the study of biological materials in electric fields under microgravity, and research into space adaptation syndrome
Space adaptation syndrome
Space adaptation syndrome or space sickness is a condition experienced by around half of space travelers during adaptation to weightlessness. It is related to motion sickness, as the vestibular system adapts to weightlessness.- Cause and remedy :...
(also known as "space sickness"). The flight furthermore served as shakedown testing for the previously launched TDRS-1
TDRS-1
TDRS-1, known before launch as TDRS-A, is an American communications satellite which is operated by NASA as part of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. It was constructed by TRW and launched by on its maiden flight, STS-6. While on the pad, problems were detected with the Shuttle's main...
satellite, which would be required to support the subsequent STS-9
STS-9
STS-9 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission which carried the first Spacelab module into orbit to conduct space-based scientific experiments. It was the sixth mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia, and was Columbia's last flight until STS-61-C in January 1986...
mission.
Crew
This mission had a crew of five, with three mission specialists. It was the second mission (after STS-7STS-7
STS-7 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission, during which Space Shuttle Challenger deployed several satellites into orbit. The shuttle launched from Kennedy Space Center on 18 June 1983, and landed at Edwards Air Force Base on 24 June. STS-7 was the seventh shuttle mission, and was Challengers second...
) to fly with a crew of five, the largest carried by a single spacecraft up to that date. The crew was historically notable for the participation of Guion "Guy" Bluford, who became the first African-American to fly in space.
The commander, Truly, was the only veteran astronaut of the crew, having flown as the pilot on STS-2
STS-2
STS-2 was a Space Shuttle mission conducted by NASA, using the Space Shuttle Columbia. The mission launched on 12 November 1981. It was the second shuttle mission overall, and was also the second mission for Columbia...
in 1981 and for two of the Approach and Landing Tests
Approach and Landing Tests
-Crew 2:This crew later flew on STS-2.-Shuttle Carrier Aircraft:In addition to the two assigned shuttle crews, who would alternate crewing the orbiter, a single flight crew was attached to the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the entire program:...
aboard Enterprise
Space Shuttle Enterprise
The Space Shuttle Enterprise was the first Space Shuttle orbiter. It was built for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program to perform test flights in the atmosphere. It was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield, and was therefore not capable of spaceflight...
in 1977. Prior to this, he had worked as a capsule communicator for all three Skylab
Skylab
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of...
missions and the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Brandenstein, Gardner and Bluford had all been recruited in 1978, and been training for a mission since 1979. The mission had originally been planned for a crew of four, with Thornton added to the crew as a third mission specialist in December 1982, eight months after the crew was originally named. As with Truly, he was an Apollo-era recruit, having joined NASA in 1967. His participation on the mission included a series of tests aimed at gathering information on the physiological changes linked with Space Adaptation Syndrome
Space adaptation syndrome
Space adaptation syndrome or space sickness is a condition experienced by around half of space travelers during adaptation to weightlessness. It is related to motion sickness, as the vestibular system adapts to weightlessness.- Cause and remedy :...
, more commonly known as "space sickness"; this had become a focus of attention in NASA, as astronauts succumbed to it during Shuttle missions.
The orbiter carried two EMUs
Extravehicular Mobility Unit
The Space Shuttle/International Space Station Extravehicular Mobility Unit is an independent anthropomorphic system that provides environmental protection, mobility, life support, and communications for a Space Shuttle or International Space Station crew member to perform extra-vehicular activity...
for use in case of an emergency spacewalk; if needed, they would be used by Truly and Gardner.
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 Liftoff: 110108 kilograms (242,746.6 lb)
- Orbiter Landing: 92508 kilograms (203,945.2 lb)
- Payload: 12011 kilograms (26,479.7 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"...
: 348 kilometres (216.2 mi) - Apogee: 356 kilometres (221.2 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...
: 28.5° - 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...
: 90.6 min
Mission plan and payloads
TDRS-B
TDRS-B was an American communications satellite, which was to have formed part of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. It was destroyed when the disintegrated 73 seconds after launch....
, a NASA communications relay satellite. However, following problems with the inertial upper stage
Inertial Upper Stage
The Inertial Upper Stage , originally known as the Interim Upper Stage, is a two-stage solid-fueled booster rocket developed by the U.S...
(IUS) used to deploy TDRS-A on the STS-6
STS-6
STS-6 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission conducted using Space Shuttle Challenger, carrying the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-1, into orbit. Launched on 4 April 1983, STS-6 was the sixth shuttle mission and the first of the ten missions flown by Challenger...
mission, it was announced in May 1983 that the TDRS was not going to be flown. It was replaced in the manifest by the Payload Flight Test Article. After re-development of the IUS, TDRS-B was eventually re-manifested for the STS-51-L
STS-51-L
STS-51-L was the twenty-fifth flight of the American Space Shuttle program, which marked the first time an ordinary civilian, schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, had flown aboard the Space Shuttle. The mission used Space Shuttle Challenger, which lifted off from the Launch Complex 39-B on 28 January...
mission, and was lost along with the Space Shuttle Challenger and its crew when the launch failed in January 1986.
The primary element of the STS-8 mission payload was INSAT-1B. It was the second in a series of multi-purpose weather and communications satellites to be operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation
Indian Space Research Organisation
The Indian Space Research Organisation is an independent Indian governmental agency established in 1969 for the research and development of vehicles and activities for the exploration of space within and outside of Earth’s atmosphere. Headquartered in Bangalore...
(ISRO); the first, INSAT-1A, had been launched by a Delta rocket in April 1982, but had to be shut down shortly afterwards due to a failure of the onboard reaction control system
Reaction control system
A reaction control system is a subsystem of a spacecraft whose purpose is attitude control and steering by the use of thrusters. An RCS system is capable of providing small amounts of thrust in any desired direction or combination of directions. An RCS is also capable of providing torque to allow...
. The satellite was carried in the rear of the shuttle's payload bay, and was boosted into a geosynchronous transfer orbit by a Payload Assist Module
Payload Assist Module
frame|PAM-D with the [[Phoenix |Phoenix]] spacecraft. The [[Star 48|Star 48-B]] engine is shown being spun, fired, [[Yo-yo de-spin|yo-yo de-spun]] and jettisoned.thumb|SBS-3 satellite with PAM-D stage inside the space shuttle...
(PAM-D), a small solid rocket
Solid rocket
A solid rocket or a solid-fuel rocket is a rocket engine that uses solid propellants . The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used by the Chinese in warfare as early as the 13th century and later by the Mongols, Arabs, and Indians.All rockets used some form of...
upper stage, after its release from the orbiter. The satellite, with its upper stage, massed a total of 3377 kg (7,445 lb), with the cradle massing another 1102 kg (2,429.5 lb), and had cost around $50 million.
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
to give it a total mass of 3855 kilograms (8,498.8 lb) (8,500 lb), which could be lifted by the "Canadarm" Remote Manipulator System—the Shuttle's "robot arm"—and moved around to help astronauts gain experience in using the system. It was stored in the midsection of the payload bay.
The orbiter carried the Development Flight Instrumentation (DFI) pallet in its forward payload bay; this had previously flown on Columbia
Space Shuttle Columbia
Space Shuttle Columbia was the first spaceworthy Space Shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. First launched on the STS-1 mission, the first of the Space Shuttle program, it completed 27 missions before being destroyed during re-entry on February 1, 2003 near the end of its 28th, STS-107. All seven crew...
to carry test equipment. The pallet was not outfitted with any flight instrumentation, but was used to mount two experiments. The first studied the interaction of ambient atomic oxygen with the structural materials of the orbiter and payload, while the second tested the performance of a heat pipe designed for use in the heat rejection systems of future spacecraft.
Four Getaway Special
Getaway Special
Getaway Special was a NASA program that offered interested individuals, or groups, opportunities to fly small experiments aboard the Space Shuttle...
payloads were carried. One studied the effects of cosmic rays on electronic equipment. The second studied the effect of the gas environment around the orbiter using ultraviolet
Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...
absorption measurements, as a precursor to ultraviolet equipment being designed for Spacelab 2
Spacelab
Spacelab was a reusable laboratory used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory consisted of multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier and other related hardware housed in the Shuttle's cargo bay...
. A third, sponsored by the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese Asahi Shimbun
Asahi Shimbun
The is the second most circulated out of the five national newspapers in Japan. Its circulation, which was 7.96 million for its morning edition and 3.1 million for its evening edition as of June 2010, was second behind that of Yomiuri Shimbun...
newspaper, tried to use water vapor in two tanks to create snow crystals. This was a second attempt at an experiment first flown on STS-6
STS-6
STS-6 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission conducted using Space Shuttle Challenger, carrying the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-1, into orbit. Launched on 4 April 1983, STS-6 was the sixth shuttle mission and the first of the ten missions flown by Challenger...
, which had had to be redesigned after the water in the tanks froze solid. The last was similar to an experiment flown on STS-3
STS-3
STS-3 was NASA's third Space Shuttle mission, and was the third mission for the Space Shuttle Columbia. It was the first shuttle launch with an unpainted external tank, and the only mission to land at the White Sands Space Harbor near Las Cruces, New Mexico.-Crew:-Backup crew:-Mission...
, and studied the ambient levels of atomic oxygen by measuring the rates at which small carbon
Carbon
Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
and osmium
Osmium
Osmium is a chemical element with the symbol Os and atomic number 76. Osmium is a hard, brittle, blue-gray or blue-blacktransition metal in the platinum family, and is the densest natural element. Osmium is twice as dense as lead. The density of osmium is , slightly greater than that of iridium,...
wafers oxidized
Redox
Redox reactions describe all chemical reactions in which atoms have their oxidation state changed....
.
Finally, in cooperation with the US Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
, the mission also carried 260,000 postal covers
Cover (philately)
In philately, the term cover pertains to the outside of an envelope or package with an address, typically with postage stamps that have been cancelled and is a term generally used among stamp and postal history collectors. The term does not include the contents of the letter or package, although...
franked with $9.35 express mail stamps, which were to be sold to collectors, with the profits divided between the USPS and NASA. Two storage boxes were attached to the DFI pallet, with more stored in six of the Getaway Special canisters.
A number of other experiments were to be performed inside the orbiter crew compartment. Among these was the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System, being flown for the fourth time. This separated solutions of biological materials by passing electric fields through them; the experiment aimed at supporting research into diabetes treatments. A small animal cage was flown containing six rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s; no animal experiment was carried out on the flight, but a student involvement project was planned for a later mission which would use the cage, and NASA wanted to ensure it was flight-tested. The student involvement project carried out on STS-8 involved William Thornton
William E. Thornton
William Edgar Thornton is a former NASA Astronaut. Thornton was born in Faison, North Carolina, and is married with two sons to the former Elizabeth Jennifer Fowler of Hertfordshire, England.-Education:...
using biofeedback
Biofeedback
Biofeedback is the process of becoming aware of various physiological functions using instruments that provide information on the activity of those same systems, with a goal of being able to manipulate them at will...
techniques, to try to determine if they worked in microgravity. A photography experiment would attempt to study the spectrum of a luminous atmospheric glow which had been reported around the orbiter, and determine how this interacted with firings of the reaction control system
Reaction control system
A reaction control system is a subsystem of a spacecraft whose purpose is attitude control and steering by the use of thrusters. An RCS system is capable of providing small amounts of thrust in any desired direction or combination of directions. An RCS is also capable of providing torque to allow...
.
The mission was also scheduled to carry out a series of tests with the TDRS-1
TDRS-1
TDRS-1, known before launch as TDRS-A, is an American communications satellite which is operated by NASA as part of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. It was constructed by TRW and launched by on its maiden flight, STS-6. While on the pad, problems were detected with the Shuttle's main...
satellite which had been deployed by STS-6
STS-6
STS-6 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission conducted using Space Shuttle Challenger, carrying the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-1, into orbit. Launched on 4 April 1983, STS-6 was the sixth shuttle mission and the first of the ten missions flown by Challenger...
, to ensure the system was fully operational before it was used to support the Spacelab 1 program on the upcoming STS-9
STS-9
STS-9 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission which carried the first Spacelab module into orbit to conduct space-based scientific experiments. It was the sixth mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia, and was Columbia's last flight until STS-61-C in January 1986...
flight. The orbiter furthermore carried equipment to allow for encrypted transmissions, to be tested for use in future classified missions.
Launch preparations
Mobile Launcher Platform
The Mobile Launcher Platform or MLP is one of three two-story structures used by NASA to support the Space Shuttle stack during its transportation from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center as well as serve as the vehicle's launch platform...
. The boosters were stacked on 20 June 1983, and the external tank mated to the assembly on 23 June 1983. Challenger arrived at Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...
on 29 June 1983, and was transferred to the Orbiter Processing Facility
Orbiter Processing Facility
An Orbiter Processing Facility was one of three hangars where U.S. space shuttle orbiters underwent maintenance between flights. All three such facilities, OPF-1, OPF-2 and OPF-3, were located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at Launch Complex 39.They were located west of the Vehicle...
on 30 June. After post-flight maintenance and preparation for the new mission, including the installation of most flight payloads, the shuttle was transferred to the Vehicle Assembly Building
Vehicle Assembly Building
The Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center was used to assemble and house American manned launch vehicles from 1968-2011. It is the fourth largest building in the world by volume...
on 27 July 1983, and mated to the booster/tank stack. The stack was checked out on 29 & 30 July 1983, and moved to launch complex 39-A
Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39
Launch Complex 39 is a rocket launch site at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida, USA. The site and its collection of facilities were originally built for the Apollo program, and later modified to support Space Shuttle operations. NASA began modifying LC-39 in 2007 to...
on 2 August 1983. INSAT-1B was loaded into the orbiter when on the pad; the overall processing time from Challenger arriving at the Cape Canaveral to being ready for launch was only sixty-two days, a record for the program so far.
The launch had originally been scheduled for 4 August 1983, and later rescheduled for 20 August 1983. The requirement to conduct testing with the TDRS system
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System
The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System is a network of American communications satellites and ground stations used by NASA for space communications. The system was designed to replace an existing network of ground stations that had supported all of NASA's manned flight missions...
required a delay of ten days for the system to be ready, during which the stack remained on the launch pad. During the on-pad delay, a major tropical storm
Hurricane Barry (1983)
Hurricane Barry was the fourth tropical depression, second hurricane and named storm of the inactive 1983 Atlantic hurricane season. Developing out of a tropical wave on August 23, Barry quickly strengthened off the coast of Florida, reaching an initial peak intensity with winds of 60 mph...
hit the Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
coastline, making landfall just south of the Kennedy Space Center on the morning of 25 August. The storm had only been identified two days earlier, and there was no time to roll Challenger back from the pad; the decision was made to secure the launch stack and ride out the storm.
Launch
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
) on 30 August 1983, after a final 17-minute delay due to thunderstorm
Thunderstorm
A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm, a lightning storm, thundershower or simply a storm is a form of weather characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere known as thunder. The meteorologically assigned cloud type associated with the...
s near the launch site. The launch window extended from 06:15 to 06:49.
The launch, in darkness, was the first American night launch since Apollo 17
Apollo 17
Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, with a three-member crew consisting of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 remains the...
, and was watched by several thousand spectators. The unusual launching time was due to the tracking requirements for the primary payload, INSAT-1B; the program would not have another night launch until STS-61-B
STS-61-B
STS-61-B was NASA's 23rd Space Shuttle mission, and its second using Space Shuttle Atlantis. The shuttle was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 26 November 1985. During STS-61-B, the shuttle crew deployed three communications satellites, and tested techniques of constructing...
in 1985. The crew had attempted to prepare for it by training in darkened simulators so as to keep their night vision
Night vision
Night vision is the ability to see in low light conditions. Whether by biological or technological means, night vision is made possible by a combination of two approaches: sufficient spectral range, and sufficient intensity range...
, but in practice it was discovered that the light of the solid-fuel rocket boosters made it virtually as bright as a day launch.
The launch was the first to use the newly-developed high-performance motor for the solid rocket boosters, which gave approximately 7% greater thrust, and the second-last to use the original standard-weight steel casings for the boosters. These had been replaced by a thinner case, saving some 1800 kilograms (3,968.3 lb), on STS-6
STS-6
STS-6 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission conducted using Space Shuttle Challenger, carrying the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-1, into orbit. Launched on 4 April 1983, STS-6 was the sixth shuttle mission and the first of the ten missions flown by Challenger...
and STS-7
STS-7
STS-7 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission, during which Space Shuttle Challenger deployed several satellites into orbit. The shuttle launched from Kennedy Space Center on 18 June 1983, and landed at Edwards Air Force Base on 24 June. STS-7 was the seventh shuttle mission, and was Challengers second...
, but because of safety concerns the next two flights used the conventional cases.
Orbital operations
The major event of the second day (31 August 1983) was the successful deployment of the INSAT-1B satellite, which took place at 7:48 UTC, with Challenger then maneuvering to avoid the firing of the booster motor forty minutes later. Other experimentation continued, though telemetry through TDRS
TDRS
A Tracking and Data Relay Satellite is a type of communications satellite that forms part of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System used by NASA and other United States government agencies for communications to and from independent "User Platforms" such as satellites, balloons, aircraft,...
was lost for around three hours, requiring manual intervention. A fire alarm sounded in the morning, indicating signs of a fire in the avionics
Avionics
Avionics are electronic systems used on aircraft, artificial satellites and spacecraft.Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems and the hundreds of systems that are fitted to aircraft to meet individual roles...
compartment, but a second alarm remained silent and it was eventually determined to be a false alarm.
On the third and fourth days (1 & 2 September 1983), work began with the remote manipulator system and the payload test article, and communications testing through TDRS continued. The former was successful, but the latter lost contact on a number of occasions, due to problems at the White Sands
White Sands
White Sands may refer to:*White Sands, New Mexico, United States*White Sands Missile Range, formerly the White Sands Proving Ground, a military installation in New Mexico hosting:** White Sands Test Center, operated by the United States Army...
ground station. As a result, the crew had to be awakened early on 1 September 1983 in order to deal with the problem. A minor cabin pressure leak on 2 September 1983 was traced to the waste management system, and quickly controlled. The orbiter performed an orbital manuevering system firing on 2 September 1983 to place itself in a lower orbit, where the air density was higher and the oxygen interaction experiments would work more effectively.
On the fifth day (3 September 1983), testing of the remote manipulator system continued, including a number of optional "shopping list" tests, and the TDRS tests were carried out with more success. A live press conference was held late in the day, the first in-flight press conference since Apollo 17
Apollo 17
Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, with a three-member crew consisting of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 remains the...
. On the sixth day (4 September 1983), experiment runs were completed and the crew prepared to deorbit. Two systems failures were recorded on this last day, the most serious of which involved a synchronization failure in one of the onboard computers.
While on orbit, Challenger made a number of altitude and attitude adjustments, in order to test the behavior of a Shuttle orbiter and to perform some experiments in different thermal conditions. By exposing or shading areas from the sun in an unusual way, it was possible to induce particularly warm or cold conditions and observe any resulting problems.
Landing
The mission plan called for a landing at Edwards Air Force BaseEdwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County, Los Angeles County, and San Bernardino County, California, in the Antelope Valley. It is southwest of the central business district of North Edwards, California and due east of Rosamond.It is named in...
, California, at 121:28 mission elapsed time
Mission Elapsed Time
Mission Elapsed Time is used by NASA during their space missions, most notably during their Space Shuttle missions. Because so much of the mission depends on the time of launch, all events after launch are scheduled on the Mission Elapsed Time. This avoids constant rescheduling of events in case...
. On the original plan, this would have been at 7:44 UTC on 4 September 1983, before accounting for the last-minute launch delay; in the event, this was put back by one day to allow for further communications testing, and Challenger touched down at 07:40:33 UTC (00:40:33 PDT), 5 September 1983, on Runway 22 at Edwards AFB, on the morning of the seventh day of the mission. As with the launch, this was the first night landing of the program. The Shuttle orbiters had no on-board lights, due to the difficulty of designing landing lights to survive re-entry, and so the runway was lit by high-intensity xenon arc lamps to guide the orbiter in. There was no pressing operational requirement for a night landing, but there was a desire to prove it was possible. Footage of the landing was shown in the 1986 film SpaceCamp
SpaceCamp
SpaceCamp is a 1986 American film based on a book by Patrick Bailey and Larry B. Williams and inspired by the U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. Directed by Harry Winer from a screenplay by Clifford Green and Casey T. Mitchell, the film stars Kate Capshaw, Kelly Preston, Larry B...
.
Post-flight safety analysis
The launch was carried out with no obvious anomalies, but on 27 September 1983, during post-flight inspection of the solid rocket boosters, severe corrosion was discovered in the left-hand booster. The three-inch (8 cm)-thick resin lining protecting the rocket nozzle, which was designed to erode about half its thickness during firing, was found to have burned down to as little as 5 millimetre (0.196850393700787 in) in places. By some estimations, this left around 14 seconds of firing time before the nozzle would have ruptured, a situation which would have resulted in loss of control and the probable break-up of the spacecraft. It was later determined that this fault was due to the particular batch of resin used on this set of boosters. The burn-through problem was treated as a small mishap by the media, and did not receive significant interest until after the Challenger disasterSpace Shuttle Challenger disaster
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida at 11:38 am EST...
in 1986; the only major contemporary public criticism came from NASA's Soviet counterparts. As a result of this incident, the flight of STS-9
STS-9
STS-9 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission which carried the first Spacelab module into orbit to conduct space-based scientific experiments. It was the sixth mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia, and was Columbia's last flight until STS-61-C in January 1986...
was delayed for a month while the nozzles of its boosters were changed.
Post-flight inspection of the thermal protection system tiles found seven major debris impacts and forty-nine minor impacts, of which three and twenty-six respectively were on the orbiter's underside. This was the lowest incidence of major tile damage until at least 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,...
, and compares very favorably with the program average of twenty-three major impacts to the underside. It was the first Shuttle flight with no significant problems reported for the thermal protection system. Three windows were removed from the orbiter due to pitting and hazing.
A total of thirty-three in-flight anomalies were eventually reported. As well as the issues above, STS-8's more minor problems ranged from faulty thermostats to an unusually high amount of dust in the cabin.
Scientific results
The TDRS-1
TDRS-1
TDRS-1, known before launch as TDRS-A, is an American communications satellite which is operated by NASA as part of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. It was constructed by TRW and launched by on its maiden flight, STS-6. While on the pad, problems were detected with the Shuttle's main...
program was overall less successful, with the satellite suffering several computer failures and an overall loss of telemetry for several hours. In all, the orbiter was able to use the satellite for 65 of the planned 89 orbits, and could make successful use of the connection on about forty. The continuous-flow electrophoresis
Electrophoresis
Electrophoresis, also called cataphoresis, is the motion of dispersed particles relative to a fluid under the influence of a spatially uniform electric field. This electrokinetic phenomenon was observed for the first time in 1807 by Reuss , who noticed that the application of a constant electric...
equipment functioned as planned, processing several hundred times more material than would have been possible on Earth, and the Asahi Shimbun crystal experiment, flown for the second time, was able to produce snow
Snow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...
crystals after the canister was redesigned.
Thornton's research into space adaptation sickness noted that the astronauts had escaped severe cases, with none suffering loss of motor control
Motor control
Motor control are information processing related activities carried out by the central nervous system that organize the musculoskeletal system to create coordinated movements and skilled actions...
; Gardner suffered a "mild case", but was still able to manage effectively, while Brandenstein—who had suffered from induced motion sickness during training operations—was entirely unaffected. The symptoms were found to abate within three days of launch.
Wake-up calls
NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the Gemini program, and first used music to wake up a flight crew during Apollo 15Apollo 15
Apollo 15 was the ninth manned mission in the American Apollo space program, the fourth to land on the Moon and the eighth successful manned mission. It was the first of what were termed "J missions", long duration stays on the Moon with a greater focus on science than had been possible on previous...
. 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.
| Flight day | Song | Artist/Composer | Played for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 2 | "Georgia Tech Fight Song" | Richard Truly | |
| Day 3 | "Illinois Fight Song" | Dale Gardner Dale Gardner Dale Allan Gardner is a former NASA astronaut who flew two missions for NASA in the early 1980s.-NASA experience:... |
|
| Day 4 | "Penn State Fight Song" | Guy Bluford | |
| Day 5 | "University of North Carolina Fight Song University of North Carolina Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century... " |
William Thornton William E. Thornton William Edgar Thornton is a former NASA Astronaut. Thornton was born in Faison, North Carolina, and is married with two sons to the former Elizabeth Jennifer Fowler of Hertfordshire, England.-Education:... |
|
| Day 6 | "Tala Sawari" | Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent... |
INSAT |
| Day 7 | "Semper Fidelis Semper fidelis Semper Fidelis is Latin for "Always Faithful" or "Always Loyal". Well known in the United States as the motto of the United States Marine Corps , Semper Fidelis has served as a slogan for many families and entities, in many countries, dated to have been started no later than the 16th century... " |
John Philip Sousa John Philip Sousa John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J.... |