STS-95 space shuttle mission with John Glenn: STS-95 space shuttle flight information, STS95 launch

STS-95 Discovery		92th Shuttle Mission
	Commander Curtis L. Brown Pilot Steven W. Lindsey Mission Specialist Scott E. Parazynski Mission Specialist Stephen K. Robinson Mission Specialist Pedro Duque (ESA) Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai (NASDA) Payload Specialist John H. Glenn

VEHICLE: Discovery /OV-103 (25th flight)
LAUNCH PAD: 39B
KSC LAUNCH DATE/TIME: October 29, 1998 2:19 p.m. EST
LAUNCH WINDOW: 2 hours 30 minutes
KSC LANDING DATE/TIME: November 7, 1998 12:04 p.m. EST
MISSION DURATION: 8 days, 21 hours, 45 minutes
ORBITAL ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 28.45 degrees/341 statute miles
Cargo Bay Payloads: SpaceHAB-SM (Spartan 201, HOST, IEH-03)

November 7, 1998 - The seven astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Discovery were awakened at 4:09 a.m. EST this morning to make final preparations for their return to Earth today. "La Cucaracha," a well-known Spanish song, was played for Mission Specialist Pedro Duque at the request of his wife, Consuelo.

Discovery had a successful deorbit burn of the shuttle orbiter's maneuvering engines which started at 10:53 a.m. EST and lasted for 4 minutes 40 seconds. Main gear touchdown occurred at 12:03:30 p.m. EST. Nose gear touchdown occurred at 12:03:40 p.m. EST and wheelstop occurred at 12:04:30 p.m. EST.

For Payload Specialist Glenn, the landing was a gentler return home than he experienced more than 36 years ago when he splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean in his Friendship 7 capsule after becoming the first American to orbit the Earth. Glenn experienced only about 3 g's of gravitational force during today's reentry, half of what he experienced during his Mercury capsule mission in 1962. "One G and I feel fine," Glenn exclaimed from the middeck following Discovery's wheelstop on Runway 3-3 at the Kennedy Space Center.

November 6, 1998 - Discovery's astronauts were awakened at 4:40 a.m. EST this morning to begin their final full day in orbit and make preparations to assure that Discovery is ready for entry and landing. Today's wake-up song was "Voyage into Space," an original composition written for John Glenn by composer and pianist Peter Nero, a long-time friend of the Glenns.

If weather and spacecraft systems cooperate, Discovery will touch down at KSC at 12:04 a.m. EST after having flown 134 orbits of the Earth. Deorbit ignition of the shuttle orbiter's maneuvering engines will occur at 10:53 a.m. EST. Discovery will follow a ground track taking it across Texas and Louisiana before it sweeps out over the Gulf of Mexico and into Florida.

There are two landing opportunities to KSC Saturday and two to Edwards Air Force Base, California. Discovery has a second chance to land at KSC at 1:47 p.m. EST or could land at Edwards at either 1:35 p.m. or 3:17 p.m. Weather at Edwards was predicted to be good on Saturday but unacceptable on Sunday. KSC weather will be marginal both days. Earlier Friday, entry Capcom Susan Still told Discovery Commander Curt Brown that the plan would be to try both opportunities into KSC before considering the Edwards landing.

If Discovery lands Saturday, the seven astronauts will spend the night at the landing site before returning to Houston mid-day on Sunday to a welcome at Ellington Field.

November 5, 1998 - The Moody Blues awakened Discovery's seven astronauts at 5:15 a.m. EST this morning for their eighth day of on-orbit science activities. The song, "I Know You're Out There Somewhere," was chosen by Commander Curt Brown's family.

With the Spartan solar science satellite again secured in its berth in Discovery's payload bay, the astronauts will turn their full attention to some of the more than 80 experiments on board. They also will begin shutting down some of the experiments and facilities in anticipation of their return to Earth on Saturday morning.

After using the Electronic Nose one last time to test the shuttle's air quality, Brown will deactivate it for the duration of the mission. The Electronic Nose is a miniaturized electronic air quality monitoring system that mimics the way the human nose detects changes in the air. European Space Agency Mission Specialist Pedro Duque also will do a final shutdown of the Microgravity Science Glovebox and stow equipment associated with the facility.

Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski will check on the fish in the Vestibular Function Experiment Unit (VFEU). By studying how the balance organs of oyster toadfish in the VFEU adapt to microgravity, scientists hope to gain important insights about similar functions in humans and apply this information to develop therapies for equilibrium disorders on Earth.

Preliminary weather forecasts indicate generally favorable weather to support Saturday's landing, which was moved up 4 minutes, at 12:06 p.m. EST at the Kennedy Space Center. Remnants of tropical storm Mitch has passed through the area and move off Florida's east coast, allowing good weather for landing on Saturday.

November 4, 1998 - Music from Japan awakened Discovery's astronauts at 5:50 a.m. EST this morning. "Wakaki Chi," a cheering song from Keio University where Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai received her medical degree, was played in recognition of the phone call she receive from Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Minister of State for Science and Technology, Yutaka Takeyama.

The astronauts will once again remove the Spartan solar science satellite from its berth in Discovery's payload bay for several hours of data collection. Mission Specialist Steve Robinson, assisted by Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski, will again test the Orbiter Space Vision System. OSVS uses special markings on Spartan and the shuttle cargo bay to provide an alignment aid for the arm's operator using shuttle television images. It will be used extensively on the next Space Shuttle flight in December as an aid in using the arm to join together the first two modules of the International Space Station.

November 3, 1998 - Discovery's astronauts began the second half of their flight at 6:25 a.m. EST this morning to the sounds of Stevie Ray Vaughn's "If the House is A-Rockin," in honor of Mission Specialist Steve Robinson. Robinson is known as "Stevie Ray Robinson" by the other members of the astronaut band known as "Max Q".

The SPARTAN satellite was captured and returned to its berth this afternoon, successfully completing its two-day solar science mission. The rendezvous began with Commander Curt Brown firing Discovery's orbital maneuvering engines to drop Discovery's orbit, accelerating it ahead of the SPARTAN. After closing the distance, Brown and pilot Steve Lindsey maneuvered Discovery in close as Mission Specialist 1 Steve Robinson operated the 50-foot robot arm. With MS2 Scott Parazynski assisting, Robinson directed the arm to a smooth grapple of the satellite at 3:45 p.m. EST. SPARTAN was placed in its berth in Discovery's cargo bay a short time later.

Spartan will be used again tomorrow for data collection, once again being unberthed from its payload bay cradle for a few hours so that cameras can be pointed at a series of targets on the spacecraft. Those cameras will test the Space Vision System that uses remote camera views to provide a robot arm operator with the ability to view areas that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Other crew members will continue work with several of the on-board science experiments. Japanese Space Agency Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai and fellow Payload Specialist John Glenn, along with Parazynski and European Space Agency Mission Specialist Pedro Duque, will undergo another series of blood draws. They will then take small amounts of the amino acids alanine and histidine, which contain special tracer molecules, 12 hours before another blood draw. This research is part of the Protein Turnover Experiment that may benefit people on Earth who suffer from weakened muscles or loss of bone mass. Duque, Mukai and Glenn also will collect urine samples as part of the study.

November 2, 1998 - Discovery's astronauts were awakened at 7 a.m. EST this morning by Andy Williams' rendition of the 1962 Academy Award winning song, "Moon River." Annie Glenn requested the song as a tribute to the longstanding friendship between Williams and her husband, Payload Specialist John Glenn. The seven crew members are looking forward to some free time today, following yesterday's successful deployment of the Spartan solar physics satellite, which will study the outer layers of the sun's atmosphere until it is retrieved by Discovery tomorrow.

Work will continue today with a wide variety of science experiments on board, although at a somewhat slower pace. Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai and Glenn, each of whom wore an electrode net on their heads, as well as other measuring devices, during last night's sleep period, will complete some cognitive performance tests as part of their participation in the sleep study. The cognitive tests will include measurements of how quickly they respond to light cues on a lap-top computer.

Glenn and Mukai will don the electrode net again before turning in this evening. The electrodes are connected to a digital sleep recorder that monitors brain waves, eye movements, muscle tension, body movements and respiration. Mukai will swallow a capsule containing either melatonin or a placebo as part of the study before going to sleep.

November 1, 1998 - Tom Chapin's "This Pretty Planet" awakened Discovery's seven astronauts at 7:35 a.m. EST today to begin their fourth day of science activities. The song was requested by pilot Steve Lindsey's wife, Diane.

Mission Specialist Steve Robinson, using Discovery's robotic arm, lifted the Spartan satellite from the shuttle's cargo bay and released it into orbit at 1:59 p.m. EST. A few minutes later, after a maneuver by the satellite indicated it was operating properly, Commander Curt Brown fired Discovery's jets to move away. Brown maintained a distance from six to 10 statute miles from the satellite for about nine hours while several tests of an experimental communications system on Spartan were conducted, using the Shuttle as a relay station.

Just before the crew went to bed this evening, Brown fired Discovery's jets to further separate from Spartan, slowly moving out to a distance of more than 30 miles from the satellite. Spartan is scheduled to be retrieved by the Shuttle at 3:45 p.m. EST on Tuesday.

Discovery's astronauts also will continue a battery of medical studies as they explore how the human body adapts to the weightless environment of space and how those changes compare with those seen as part of the aging process on Earth.

October 31, 1998 - The crew was awakened at 8:10 a.m. EST to the sounds of "Cachito," a song about parenthood. Mission Specialist Pedro Duque, 35, and his wife, Consuelo, recently had a baby. The crew will go to bed at 11:35 p.m. EST.

Payload Specialist John Glenn, 77, will begin providing the 10 blood samples and 16 urine samples needed to look into the effects of space flight on his body. Researchers want to better understand how the removal of gravity affects balance and perception, immune system response, bone and muscle density, metabolism and blood flow, and sleep. Duque also will provide blood samples, which will be taken by Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski and Payload Specialist Chiai Mukai, both trained physicians.

The blood draws are part of the Protein Turnover in Space Flight study, which will track the balance between protein building and breakdown, the two parts of protein turnover that contribute to muscle atrophy. The astronauts in the experiment take small amounts of the amino acids alanine and histidine, which contain a special tracer molecules, 12 hours before each blood draw. This research may help benefit people on Earth who suffer from weakened muscles or loss of bone mass.

October 30, 1998 - Flight Day 2 began at 8:45 a.m. EST today when the crew was awakened to the sounds of Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World," played for Mission Specialist 2 Scott Parazynski from his wife, Gail. Discovery's astronauts will spend their first full day in space supporting wide-ranging activities, from releasing a small communications satellite to studying the behavior of materials at an atomic level.

In addition, regularly scheduled exercise sessions and routine housekeeping chores also will occupy the crew's first full day on orbit, which promises to be a busy one for all seven members of the STS-95 crew.

Early this afternoon, the crew released the Petite Amateur Naval Satellite, or PANSAT, which is now trailing Discovery by about 27 miles, increasing that distance by about 9 miles with each orbit. PANSAT, developed by the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, will remain in orbit and test innovative technologies to capture and transmit radio signals that normally would be lost because the original signals were too weak or contained too much interference.

Perth, Australia once again turned on the lights of their city just as they did 36 years ago for John Glenn's first flight. Glenn said that Perth must have grown since the lights were bigger and brighter this time even though he is father away in a higher orbit.

October 29, 1998 - The Shuttle Discovery blasted off into a cloudless sky at 2:19 p.m. EST, 19 minutes after the opening of the launch window, from the Kennedy Space Center to kick off a planned nine-day scientific research mission and to return John Glenn to space, 36 years, 8 months and nine days after he became the first American to orbit the Earth. The 19 minute delay was due do to a minor technical issue and 5 stray airplanes that entered the restricted air space around KSC. Commander Curt Brown, Pilot Steve Lindsey, and Mission Specialists Steve Robinson, Scott Parazynski and Pedro Duque, along with Payload Specialists Chiaki Mukai and Glenn will be on orbit less than nine minutes after launch, ready to begin activating Shuttle systems and experiments in the Spacehab module located in Discovery's cargo bay.

Overview - The primary objectives include conducting a variety of science experiments in the pressurized Spacehab module, the deployment and retrieval of the Spartan free-flyer payload, and operations with the HST Orbiting Systems Test (HOST) and the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker (IEH) payloads being carried in the payload bay.

The Spacehab module being flown on STS-95 is provided by SPACEHAB Inc. a private company which provide single or double module Spacehabs to support NASA's space flight efforts. The Spacehab system provides additional pressurized workspace for experiments, cargo and crew activities. Spacehab modules have supported various Shuttle science missions along with several of the joint Shuttle-Mir missions.

For STS-95 a single-module Spacehab will fly in the forward portion of Discovery's payload bay with the crew gaining access to the module through the airlock tunnel system. A variety of experiments sponsored by NASA, the Japanese Space Agency (NASDA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) will focus on life sciences, microgravity sciences and advanced technology during the flight.

The Spartan 201 free-flyer that will be deployed and retrieved using the Shuttle's mechanical arm and is designed to investigate physical conditions and processes of the hot outer layers of the Sun's atmosphere, or solar corona. While deployed from the Shuttle, Spartan will gather measurements of the solar corona and solar wind. Information collected during this mission will lead to a much better understanding of the solar winds that directly influence orbiting satellites and weather conditions on Earth which in turn impact television and phone communications. This is a reflight of the Spartan payload flown on Mission STS-87 in November 1997 which developed problems shortly after being deployed from the Shuttle.

The Hubble Space Telescope Orbiting Systems Test (HOST) platform is carrying experiments to validate components planned for installation during the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission and to evaluate new technologies in an earth orbiting environment. There are four experiments on the HOST platform. The NICMOS Cooling System will allow zero-g verification of a Reverse Turbo Brayton Cycle Cooler which should allow longer life operation than the current dewar system. The HST 486 Computer will allow the identification of any radiation susceptible parts in the DF-224 replacement and demonstrate hardware and software responses to Single Event Upsets (SEU's). Solid State Recorder will compare on-orbit operation of the flight spare solid state recorder with the current HST unit. Fiber Optic Line Test will use the same 4 kbps data stream that is sent to the orbiter's Payload Data Interrogator (PDI) and will be routed to a laptop computer for post-flight comparison.

The International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker (IEH) payload involves a half dozen different experiments mounted on a support structure being carried in Discovery's payload bay. The six experiments that make up the IEH payload are Solar Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker (SEH) payload that will obtain EUV and FUV fluxes that are required when studying the Earth's upper atmosphere; Ultraviolet Spectrograph Telescope for Astronomical Research (UVSTAR) payload designed to measures EUV fluxes which can be used to form images of extended plasma sources (ex. Jupiter, hot stars, etc.); STAR-LITE payload which will make observations of extended and diffused astrophysical targets; CONCAP-IV payload designed to grow thin films via physical vapor transport; Petite Amateur Navy Satellite (PANSAT) payload which is managed by the Department of Defense Space Test Program and involves a small deployable satellite that will store and transmit digital communications to PANSAT ground stations; and a Get-Away Special (GAS) payload which is still TBD.

Since the aging process and a space flight experience share a number of similar physiological responses, a series of experiments sponsored by NASA and the National Institute on Aging will be conducted during the STS-95 mission. The investigations will gather information which may provide a model system to help scientists interested in understanding aging. Some of these similarities include bone and muscle loss, balance disorders and sleep disturbances. Space biomedical researchers and gerontologists believe more research in these areas could help older people live more productive and active lives, and could reduce the number of individuals requiring long-term medical care in their later years.

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