Author Topic: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night  (Read 213319 times)

Offline Ares67

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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #480 on: 05/31/2015 09:31 pm »
Monday, September 5, 1983 (Landing Day) – Out of the Dark

“The crew has practiced night approaches to Edwards. Of course, they’ve never done the high altitude part of it. The only reference I have to how they are going to handle that is their second patch. I understand we’re going to have four sets of eyeballs out one window, and one out… I don’t know.”

- Flight Director Jay Greene, Sep. 4, 1983


YOU’VE COME TO JOURNEY’S END

“It was a nominal evening,” Flight Director Jay Greene reported during the evening change-of-shift briefing. “We put together the plan for tomorrow’s entry, and there was some minor juggling in an attempt to get some last minute TDRS testing done. But aside from that, everything is going just about the way it’s laid out in your preflight timeline.”

“Prior to sleep last night, we had two things going that were of some minor significance,” Greene said. “L3D, one of the aft RCS jets on the left-hand side, had picked up a leak about two days ago, and that leak continued for about 30 hours. During the night tonight… the temperature started coming up to the same temperature that all the other jets are running at, about 80 degrees. It was down, if I remember, somewhere around 50 to 60 degrees. So they’re all running at the same temperature, which indicates that what was previously a minor, but a concern that we had one leaking jet, has gone away. The jet’s leaks are cured, and that’s good news.”

“I guess Harold spoke to you all about GPC 1 and the two computers that split apart,” Greene continued. “We did all the troubleshooting steps and took the computer dumps on the GPC 1 computer, we got it… started again in sync with GPC 2, we operated on it all night long. Both computers are operating perfectly, so we have no problem in that area.”


PAO: This is Mission Control Houston, at five days, 16 hours, 37 minutes Mission Elapsed Time (6:09 p.m. CDT), just about an hour remaining in the shuttle’s, in the crew’s sleep period. Challenger is on orbit 72, just acquired by the ground station at Orroral Valley, and controllers didn’t look at the data. It’s a very brief pass of just over a minute and a maximum elevation of nine degrees over the horizon. And data indicates that all the onboard systems are healthy and there have been no caution and warning alarms at any time during the night. Flight control team continuing to draft an execute package and prepare it for the onboard teleprinter to advise the crew of changes in their activity schedules in preparation for entry and landing tomorrow. At Mission Elapsed Time five days, 16 hours, 38 minutes, this is Mission Control Houston.


“As far as the deorbit goes, just some data you might want,” said Jay Greene. “Ignition time for the deorbit burn is at six days, 15 minutes, which is about 1:47 Central Time. We get to entry interface at six days, 38 minutes; landing at Edwards is six days, one hour, eight minutes and 40 seconds, or about 2:40:40 on Central Daylight Time. The time, I hear, that is of some interest, is the crossing of the California coast. That will occur at 2:32:35 Central Daylight Time, and the location of that crossing will be at Santa Barbara. The entry is perfectly nominal; all the program test maneuvers are go. Edwards weather, when last we left it was clear, seven miles visibility and winds were maybe about eight knots. So, everything’s looking real good for an entry this morning.”


PAO: This is Mission Control Houston, at five days, 16 hours, 58 minutes Mission Elapsed Time (6:30 p.m. CDT). It’s about 31 minutes remaining in the crew’s sleep period. Nevertheless, CRT number 1 is turned on. Challenger is on orbit number 93 right over the South Pacific presently. They were acquiring K-band data through the TDRS system and were able to look at the downlink telemetry showing that the CRT number 1 is turned on. That is the Cathode Ray Tube position directly in front of the commander’s seat, so presumably at least Richard Truly is awake onboard Challenger. (…) There are no plans to communicate with the crew until the sleep period has officially ended.


Offline Ares67

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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #481 on: 05/31/2015 09:33 pm »
MARCHING INTO SUNSET






 
CapCom (Bryan O’Connor): Good morning, Challenger.

Truly: Good morning. You’ve got everybody marching around up here.

CapCom: Well, welcome to entry day. We’re going to be proud to have you down here on a national holiday today.

Truly: Well, thank you. We’re looking forward to it.

CapCom: And Richard, we’ve got about 30 seconds to go this pass; we’ll have a couple of notes for you at Indian Ocean. We’d like you to take a look at the CAP update. You’ll notice we’ve done a couple of things early this morning, and get started on those as soon as you can.

Truly: Sure.

CapCom: See you at Indian Ocean at 17 plus 46 (7:18 p.m. CDT).

Truly: Wilco. See you there.

CapCom: And Challenger, Houston. We’re with you now on TDRS.

Truly: Roger that.

PAO: This is Mission Control Houston at five days, 17 hours, 33 minutes Mission Elapsed…

Truly: If you’ve got those notes handy this would be a good time to pass them up.

CapCom: Okay. First of all, on the manual cabin atmosphere management, we’d like you to repress with nitrogen only per the orbit ops checklist, page 5-10, just like yesterday and the day before. But there’s a change on panel L2, O2/N2 controller valve, system 1 closed, system 2 opened. Rationale is that we did not receive data yesterday when this procedure was performed. If possible, we’d like to perform this procedure during a data pass – and we have good data now. Second thing, on panel R1, cryo O2 tank 3, heater Alpha to off, cryo H2 tank 3, heaters Alpha and Bravo 2 to off. And finally, we’d like for you to clear the star table this morning in order to gather current stars, a possibility we may get star of opportunity IMU align.

Truly: Roger. The cryo is done, the star table is clear, and I’m looking at the manual repress to see if I have any questions.

CapCom: Okay.

PAO: This is Mission Control Houston at Mission Elapsed Time of five days, 17 hours, 35 minutes (7:07 p.m. CDT). The wakeup call this morning was John Phillip Sousa’s “Semper Fidelis,” as performed by the Marine Corps Band, significant in that the CapCom Bryan O’Connor is a Marine Corps officer. And at the wakeup call three of the Cathode Ray Tubes were activated, and it was clear that the crew was up and around well in advance of the wakeup call this morning. We still have acquisition through TDRS. (…) Flight Director Gary Coen and his Entry Team of flight controllers have begun to arrive in the control center and are tagging up with their counterparts in preparation for the handover scheduled for 8:00. (…) Mission Elapsed Time five days, 17 hours, 52 minutes, this is Mission Control Houston.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston with you over Indian Ocean for six and a half minutes. Standing by.

Truly: Roger, Houston. Loud and clear.

CapCom: Read you the same… Challenger, Houston, we’ve just lost S-band data. How do you read on UHF?

Truly: Loud and clear, Bryan.

CapCom: Roger. You the same. And Challenger, Houston, we’ve got S-band data back.

Truly: Okay.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, ten seconds to LOS. We’ll see you at Yarragadee at 18 plus 02.

Truly: Okay, nine minutes at Yarragadee.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, standing by at Yarragadee for seven minutes.

Truly: (…) Roger. I guess you all don’t have data here, but the manual repress is complete. And I’m not looking at the page number, but I did have one question in the deorbit prep. When we set up the DPS config for deorbit prep, I was a little surprised, in addition to swapping strings between 1 and 4, that you also didn’t swap the other things like CRTs and so forth.

CapCom: Stand by… Challenger, Houston… Richard, in answer to your question about restringing…

Truly: Go ahead.

CapCom: Roger. We thing it would be reasonable to put CRT 1 on GPC 4, if you’d like to do that. Also, we were going to talk to you later about this, but in the same light, we think it would be prudent to assign the downlister to GPC 2.

Truly: Okay, I agree it would be easier for me to remember just we swap the ones and fours, and I’d prefer to do that and having the downlist on number 2, if that’s what you’d like as your comm.

CapCom: Roger, concur. (…) And we’re about to go LOS. We’ll see you next at Orroral in about two minutes, 18 plus 11 (7:43 p.m. CDT).

Truly: Roger that. See you there.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, with you at Orroral for two minutes.

Truly: Roger that, Bryan. Loud and clear.

CapCom: Read you the same, and we’re standing by.

Truly: Okiedoke.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, we’re going LOS; we’ll see you next at TDRS at 18 plus 25. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll see you over the States at 18 plus 46.

Truly: Okay, TDRS or the States. See you, Bryan.

PAO: Mission Control Houston, Loss of Signal at Orroral, next station on the ground in 32 minutes will be Merritt Island Launch Area, or MILA ground station, unless we do have TDRS lock up. And that’s approximately 11 minutes away. Challenger now on… nearing the end of orbit 93, the crew beginning to do the final stowage and preparation for landing tomorrow morning at Edwards Air Force Base. And some four hours prior to entry, they will switch from the Crew Activity Plan in the flight data file to the deorbit prep handbook, from that to the entry checklist. At five days, 18 hours, 15 minutes (7:47 p.m. CDT), this is Mission Control Houston.

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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #482 on: 05/31/2015 09:33 pm »

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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #483 on: 05/31/2015 09:34 pm »
IMU HICCUP

“And so I was all set to come over here and tell you that everything is ops normal, and just as I was about to unplug, we picked up a TDRS acquisition, and I don’t know if you’ve all heard it, but Dick reported that IMU number 2 went to standby out of the operate mode at about, local time was about 18:50,” said Flight Director Jay Greene, obviously getting a little bit lost in time… “No, I’m sorry, 18:15 elapsed time; it was about ten till seven this evening. I’m sorry, let me change that again: It was ten till eight this evening.”


CapCom: Challenger, Houston, with you TDRS for 51 minutes.

Truly: Roger, Houston. And we need to discuss IMUs.

CapCom: Roger. Go ahead.

Truly: Okay. At a time of 18:19, we got a BCE STRG 2 IMU (Bus Control Element string 2 Inertial Measurement Unit). We deselected the IMU, tried an I/O (Input/Output) reset, and no joy; went to the mal in the malfunction procedure, page 5-23, started in block 21; we went to block 22, 23, 24, 25, stand by… 24, 26, 30, 32 and 35. In other words, we cycled power on the MDM (Multiplexer/Demultiplexer), looked at the other four, and it looks like the IMU 2 is down.

CapCom: Roger. We’re looking at the data.

Truly: Okay. And if you’d like to retry any of that while you have data, Bryan, I’ll be glad to. I wanted to go as far as I could before AOS just to give you as much head start as I could.

CapCom: Okay, sir, we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Truly: Okay. And Bryan, Guy says to pass on that the sunshields opened up nominally at 18:25.

CapCom: Roger. Good news.

Truly: And Houston, CDR. We’re going to delay stowing the Ku-band while you’re AOS TDRS.

CapCom: Roger. Challenger, Houston, we’ll probably go LOS for a few seconds while we switch over to Ku.

Truly: Roger.


Jay Greene pointed out, “The real positive point of all of this is that on Flight 7, had Dick come up over Orroral and told us that his IMU went belly up, we would have had to wait till we got to the West Coast before can look at any data, or help him in any way. In this case, we got TDRS up, we decided we needed some high data rates, so we got the Ku-band antenna up; we got the data into the MOCR, and we had guys looking at it within five minutes of Dick reporting the problem.”


CapCom: Challenger, Houston, with you on Ku-band.

Truly: Roger. Read you loud and clear.

CapCom: Read you the same. And if you don’t have anything else for us, the planning shift is going to sign off, hand over to the Entry Team. We wish you a good entry this morning.

Truly: Thank you, Bryan, and thank that whole team. You guys have done a super mission for us. See you later.

CapCom: Roger. Good luck.

CapCom (John Blaha): Challenger, Houston, the Entry Team’s with you and we have a question, reference your IMU 2 alignment.

Truly: Roger, John. Go ahead.

CapCom: Roger. Richard, if you could just check spec 21 and make sure maybe you didn’t in advertently put IMU 2 into standby.

Truly: The… when I first looked… Well, first of all, the switch was not bumped; IMU 2 switch is on. I checked it on, and it’s still on. When I first looked at spec 21, I had a missing and a standby indication. I tried an I/O reset, and there was no joy. We cycled power, tried an I/O reset, and at that time there was no joy and it was still in standby. I see now that it is back in operate, so I’m assuming that the power cycle on the MDM is what cured it.

CapCom: Roger. We copy, Richard.
 
Truly: And the IMU was deselected for the procedure.

CapCom: Roger. We copy, Richard.

Truly: Does that answer your question, or am I going around it?

CapCom: No, that’s good. We’ll see if GNC has another fault for you.

Truly: Okay. If I’m reading my data right now, looking at spec 21, IMU is back in operate and all we’d have to do would be to reselect it to get it back. I’ve got data on it… And Houston, CDR, I was hasty in saying how good the IMU is. Obviously the angles that… I was looking at the delta x, y and z and not the angles. It looks like it have caged itself and may need an IMU-to-IMU alignment.

CapCom: Roger. Okay, Richard, here is another question from GNC. At the time IMU 2 went down, we’d like to know if spec 21 was called up and were you in the process of selecting an IMU for alignment.

Truly: Negative. As a matter of fact, I was shaving at the time. We got the message and I called up spec 21 after we got the message to check it, and when I called it up, it was in standby.

CapCom: Roger, we copy. Thank you, Richard… And Richard, we would like you to go ahead and do an IMU-to-IMU align using IMU number 3 as the good IMU, and align IMU 1 and 2 to 3, and then stop and let us look at the data.

Truly: Okay, I concur. We’ll align 1 and 2 using 3 as…

CapCom: And Richard, I copied. Align 1 and 2 using 3.

Truly: Roger, I understand. If I understand you right, we will align IMUs 1 and 2 using IMU 3 as a reference.

CapCom: Roger that, Richard.

Truly: Okay, the align is in progress; the torque time was 18 plus 41 plus 10 (8:13 p.m. CDT).

CapCom: Roger. Copy your torque time, Richard… And Challenger, Houston, if you need some more time to do the IMU align here, we can go ahead and delete the TDRS test maneuver – your call.

Truly: Stand by one. I was going to look at the update and see what our planned schedule was… Okay, Houston, I’ve done all I can do on the IMU-to-IMU align, now as a matter of fact, it just completed; so the IMU-to-IMU align is complete. I see wee… and of course that wiped any stars in the table. I’m assuming what you want us to do now is, right away per your update, is just go ahead and maneuver it an do this scheduled IMU align with stars 22 and 52. Correct?

CapCom: Stand by one, Richard.

Truly: Okay, the maneuver time is right now, so we need to decide to either go ahead and do it, or not.

CapCom: Roger, Richard. Go ahead and maneuver to IMU align attitude.

Truly: I agree. Okay, Houston, the maneuver is in progress and the star trackers in track mode.

CapCom: Roger. We copy, Richard.

Truly: John, I don’t know. I’ve given you about all the data that I have. It looked to me like the IMU may have just taken a power hit, a transient power hit, and recovered. But I don’t know.

CapCom: Roger. We copy, Richard… Richard, we think that is a possibility. We’re going to do a playback and take a look at it.

Truly: Okiedoke. Just let me know and we’ll press on.

CapCom: Yes, sir… Challenger, Houston, you can go ahead and align per the procedure and the CAP, but don’t put 2 back in until we call you.

Truly: I understand. Concur… And Houston, CDR. I was a little late but the high load duct heater is on.

CapCom: Roger, copy, Richard.

Truly: And we picked up a couple of stars that are in the table now.

CapCom: Roger.

PAO: Mission Control Houston. Change-of-shift briefing will start in about four minutes in the JSC briefing room, room 135, Building 2, with off-going Flight Director Jay Greene. Four minutes.

Truly: Okay, Houston. Star trackers did it again; 22 and 52 are in the table.

CapCom: Roger. We copy, Richard.

Truly: Okay, Houston. I’m going to torque at 18 plus 56 (8:28 p.m. CDT).

CapCom: Roger. We’re go and we like your stars.

Truly: Okay, Houston. The star align is complete and as far as I’m concerned, it’s your call on this TDRS test. If you want us to go ahead and maneuver to that attitude now, we’re on the way – your call.

CapCom: Roger. Stand by one, Richard.

Truly: Okay.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, you’re go. Stand by one, Richard…

Truly: …Houston, CDR, you were cut off. Say again.

CapCom: Roger, Richard. I was starting to tell you something, and then I had to stop. Stand by one and I’ll get back to you.

Truly: Okay. Okay, no problem.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, we showed that IMU 3 was not selected for the alignment, and we would like you to redo the star alignment with all three IMUs.

Truly: Oh, shoot, you’re right. And I’ll do it. Stand by… Okay, the stars are back in the table; looks like a better alignment this time. Anyway, I’m sorry about that. And I’ll go ahead and retorque it in just a second.

CapCom: Roger that, Richard. And you’re go for torque.

Truly: Okay, Houston, the align is complete. Tell GNC I owe him one. And now it’s your call on the TDRS attitude.

CapCom: Roger that… Challenger, Houston, you’re go for the TDRS test attitude.

Truly: Wilco… Okay, Houston, the maneuver’s in progress and now it’s your call on the stowing of the Ku-band.

CapCom: Roger. We copy, Richard. (…) Challenger, Houston, IMU 2 behavior looks very good to us now; you can reselect it. And just for your information, in about five minutes we intend to give you a go to stow the Ku-band.

Gardner: Thought you might say that. The payload bay lights are on and the cameras are all aimed to record it on VTR.

CapCom: Roger. Super, Dale… Challenger, Houston, we’re not certain the first part of our last transmission was sent up to you. Just confirm for us you copied to reselect IMU 2.

Truly: Negative. We did not receive that, but we did now, and we’ll reselect IMU 2.

CapCom: Roger that.

Truly: Okay, she’s stuck in, John.

CapCom: Roger that, Richard. Thanks… Challenger, Houston, we’re going LOS TDRS in one minute. You are go to stow the Ku-band in three minutes from now, and don’t stow it until three minutes from now. We will see you at Indian Ocean at 19 plus 20 (8:52 p.m. CDT), in five minutes.

Truly: Roger, understand. We’ll stow the Ku-band after LOS. Thank you.


NASA’s STS-8 Inflight Anomaly, or IFA report read, “IMU-2 operated normally for the remainder of the flight. The most probable cause of the IMU dropping out of ’operate’ is a transient failure in the command path from MDM FF2 to the IMU. The specific path in question can almost certainly by narrowed to the single ’operate’ discrete that originates in the MDM (from GPC software). Although the discrete originates in the MDM, it is also plausible that the transient occurred within the IMU side of the interface. The entire discrete interface was investigated thoroughly during postflight testing at KSC. Extensive closed-loop and open-loop tests were performed to verify the command path including flexing of interconnecting cables. The open-loop tests were structured to maximize detection of any MDM transient anomalies during a 3-hour interval as the MDM warmed up from a ‘cold start.’

“Experience has shown that certain types of transient phenomena occur more readily during such thermal transitions. Experience has also shown that most transient conditions are extremely difficult to repeat even during extensive environmental testing at the vendor.” The IFA report concluded, “Given the low probability of repeating the anomaly at even the MDM or IMU vendor and the redundancy inherent in three IMUs, no further action is warranted at this time. Fly OV-099 as is for STS-11 and subsequent flights. There is no evidence of any generic condition that would impact OV-102 for STS-9.”


Offline Ares67

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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #484 on: 05/31/2015 09:35 pm »
TIN CLOCK

CapCom: Challenger, Houston’s with you at Indian Ocean for six minutes.

Bluford: Roger, Houston, read you loud and clear, and we’re in the midst of Ku-band down.

CapCom: Roger, we copy, Guy.

Truly: Houston, CDR. Do you perhaps have an approximate TIG time?

CapCom: Roger that, Richard… Richard, the approximate deorbit TIG time is six days, 00:15:30.

Truly: Okiedoke. Thanks a million, we appreciate it.

CapCom: Roger that… Challenger, Houston, we show that antenna is stowed.

PAO: (…) Meanwhile, here in Mission Control Houston the weather office has completed their briefing, initial briefing to Flight Director Gary Coen on end-of-mission weather at Edwards Air Force Base. The satellite photo of the western United States that was on the weather office display showed the entire California and western region severe clear with a thin layer of clouds offshore. And things look good at Edwards as far as wind conditions, predicted wind conditions at landing time tomorrow morning for a left-hand overhead approach to Runway 22.

(…) Ordinarily we would have had acquisition through TDRS at this time. However, the prime computer at White Sands is being shifted over to the backup computer, which takes fifteen or twenty minutes. We’re configured aboard the spacecraft for TDRS acquisition. Therefore, Buckhorn in ten minutes will not be able to receive data from the spacecraft or voice. However, at Merritt Island Launch Area in fifteen minutes, we should be back in contact with Challenger and hopefully by then TDRS will be back online. This is Mission Control Houston, five days, 20 hours, four minutes (9:36 p.m. CDT)…


CapCom: Challenger, Houston’s with you at MILA and Bermuda for ten minutes.

Truly: Roger, Houston. Loud and clear. How me?

CapCom: Roger. Loud and clear, Richard.

Truly: And Houston, we’re doing well onboard the… stand by… And Houston, CDR, things are going well onboard. We’ve completed, we believe, all the actions in the CAP and we’re just doing some final packing up and getting squared away to be ready to go into the deorbit prep on time.

CapCom: Roger. We copy, Richard.

PAO: (…) Mission Control Houston, Loss of Signal at Bermuda, reacquisition through Dakar in three and a half minutes, at which station the Mission Control Center will give a go for payload bay door closing. Commander Dick Truly reported at Merritt Island Launch Area pass that they were going to the deorbit prep checklist on time, had stowed the Crew Activity Plan. And just prior to LOS at Bermuda, MCC passed up to the crew some new times for IMU star align attitudes, closing times of when those stars would be visible to the star tracker.

And on the subject of timing, accurate timing is taken for granted these days with quartz digital watches, atomic clocks in laboratories and routine slicing of time into milliseconds and nanoseconds. The master timing entered aboard the orbiter Challenger has a drift rate of less than one part in a billion per day.

Not everyone has always demanded such exquisite accuracy in time keeping. Joshua Slocum, in his book “Sailing Alone Around the World” describes how he used an old tin clock, bought for one dollar in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, to keep Greenwich Mean Time for computing his position during the three-year voyage. “My tin clock and only time piece had by now lost its minute hand,” writes Slocum, “but after I boiled her, she told the hours. And that was near enough on a long stretch.”

Acquisition coming up at Dakar in a minute and a half; Mission Control Houston, at day five, 20 hours, 33 minutes (10:05 p.m. CDT).

 
http://joshuaslocum.com/The-One-Doller-Clock



Joshua Slocum: New World Columbus






PAO: Flight Director Gary Coen, polling the different console positions here in MCC for the recommendations of go for payload bay door closing. And it appears that all stations are go for payload bay door closing. Prior to LOS, the CapCom will pass that to the crew.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, you’re go for payload bay door closing.

Brandenstein: Roger, Houston. Thanks a lot. We’re go for payload bay door closing.

CapCom: Roger that.

Truly: And Houston, CDR, we’re going to put the CAPs up and start into the deorbit prep.

CapCom: Roger, we copy… Challenger, Houston, we’re going LOS 30 seconds; we will see you at Yarragadee at 21 plus 09 (10:41 p.m. CDT).

Truly: Roger, John. See you there.

PAO: This is Mission Control Houston, TDRS apparently is back towards the end of the acquisition area the next several minutes. (…) Port payload bay door is closed at this time… Mission Control Houston, Loss of Signal at the edge of the TDRS coverage. The port payload bay door was closed and latched prior to LOS at TDRS. And as we lost contact, the starboard payload bay was coming closed. Next station in 13 minutes is Yarragadee, where we ought to get confirmation that both doors are closed and latched. Five days, 20 hours, 55 minutes (22:27 p.m. CDT), this is Mission Control Houston.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston’s with you at Yarragadee for six and a half minutes.

Truly: Roger, John.

Brandenstein:  And Houston, Challenger, we got the payload bay doors closed. (…) And they looked about as straight as an arrow just before the starboard door came closed.

CapCom: Roger. We copy, Dan. Thank you very much.

Truly: Houston, CDR… Houston, CDR.

CapCom: Roger, go ahead.

Truly: Roger, thank you for that excellent entry summary that you gave us on the teleprinter. There was one question that I had that was kind of implied, but wasn’t stated explicitly. What is the status of Lakebed 17 at Edwards?

CapCom: Roger. Stand by, Richard. I’ll work up an answer for you.

Truly: Roger, no hurry. But that was an excellent summary. Appreciate it.

CapCom: Roger, Richard. 17 is dry, usable and in good shape.

Truly: Roger. Thank you, John.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, we’re going LOS in twenty seconds; we’ll see you at Hawaii at 21 plus 35 (11:07 p.m. CDT).

Brandenstein: Roger, Houston. See you there.

CapCom: Roger that, Dan.

PAO: This is Mission Control Houston. Loss of Signal at Yarragadee, Hawaii in 18 minutes. Over the last twenty years here in Mission Control, Eugene Kranz, the JSC Director of Mission Operations, has been a legend in his own time for his attire in brocade vests back when he was a flight director. Tonight he’s wearing a red, white and blue striped brocade vest. Next station Hawaii in 17 minutes. At five days, 21 hours, 18 minutes (10:50 p.m. CDT), Mission Control Houston.


At about 11:02 p.m. CDT, RCS thruster F3D oxidizer injector temperature dropped below 30 degrees Fahrenheit and the jet was deselected for the remainder of the flight. “We had a forward number 3 down jet failed,” reported Dan Brandenstein. “Went through a mal procedure, auto deselected and we’re waiting for you to look at injector temps.” Loss of the thruster posed no problem, so John Blaha replied, “We show that it is an oxidizer leak. There is no action; leave it deselected.”


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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #485 on: 05/31/2015 09:36 pm »

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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #486 on: 05/31/2015 09:37 pm »
A GULF OF NIGHT

PAO: Mission Control Houston, Loss of Signal through Bermuda, Dakar in five and a half minutes. During the stateside pass the deorbit maneuver PADs were read up to the crew – the time of ignition, the attitude burn time, all of the numbers the crew needs for setting up the Orbital Maneuvering System engines for the deorbit burn, which now is some two hours, 11 minutes away. The total reduction in velocity is 278.5 feet per second, which gives a theoretical perigee of 22 miles below the surface of the Earth, which of course brings the orbiter into the atmosphere and captured for deceleration, or dynamic deceleration and landing at Edwards tomorrow morning. Dakar in four minutes; at five days, 22 hours, five minutes, this is Mission Control Houston.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, with you through Dakar and Ascension for eight and a half.

Truly: Roger, Houston. And I’m in bubble 11. We just took GPCs 1 and 2 to Ops 3 and things are going normally.

CapCom: Roger, copy. (…) Challenger, Houston, with you through TDRS for six and a half.

Truly: Roger, Houston… Okay, Houston, the DPS entry config bubble 11 is complete. No problems.

CapCom: Roger, copy… And Challenger, Houston, I’ve got a couple of steps I’d like you to pick up there in bubble 11.

Truly: Go ahead.

CapCom: Roger, Dick. When you transition GPCs 1, 2, 3 and 4 to GNC Ops 3, down there at the bottom by CRT 3, the four steps for the BFS and BFC, we need you to do those four steps. That’s starting with BFS, GNC, OPS 000 PRO.

Truly: Okay, understand. So we missed those.

CapCom: Roger.

Truly: Okay, Houston, we did that, and we dropped the targets when we did it. So we’ll have to retype them or you reuplink them for us into the BFS.

CapCom: Okay, stand by… And Challenger, we never did put them into the BFS and we’ll do that later.

Truly: Okay, Houston. Thanks.

CapCom: (…) And we’re sending the targets to the BFS right now.

Truly: Okay, thanks a lot. And if you’ll bear with us, Dan and I are going to get off comm and go don our stuff. And Dale will be monitoring comm.

CapCom: Okay. And the targets are in… And Challenger, Houston, we’re losing you on TDRS. Configure LOS. We’ll have you on UHF through Botswana for another four minutes… And Challenger, Houston, with you on UHF through Botswana for three and a half. Did you copy my configure LOS?

Gardner: Roger. Configure LOS.

CapCom: Thank you, Dale… Challenger, Houston, we’re 40 seconds to LOS; we’ll see you at Yarragadee at 22 plus 44 (12:17 p.m. CDT)… Challenger, Houston, we’ll see you at Yarragadee at 22:44.

Gardner: Roger. See you there, Guy.

PAO: Mission Control Houston, Loss of Signal at Botswana, Yarragadee in twelve minutes. One hour and 44 minutes away from ignition, deorbit ignition. That will bring Challenger back into the atmosphere, coasting toward the first night landing in the Space Shuttle program. Night take offs and landings have been routine in aviation for many years. In spaceflight, Apollo 17 was launched at night, and the Apollo 8 Command Module returned from a lunar orbit mission in the predawn darkness to splash down in the Pacific. Challenger’s night landing Monday at Edwards Air Force Base is expected to be routine also, with all the radio navigation aids and glide slope lighting aids available to the crew for lining up on final approach.

Early aviators had to depend on unreliable wireless equipment and perhaps an occasional mountaintop beacon fire along the ground track. As aviation matured, beacon fires were replaced by electric rotating beacons and low frequency radio beams with Morse code signals to tell pilots whether they were to the right or the left or on the beam.

In his short novel “Night Flight,” French aviator author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry describes the thoughts that tumble through the minds of a night mail plane pilot in South America, when aviation was young. He writes, “The quiet land would bear its sleeping farms and flocks and hills, and all the flotsam swirling in the shadows would lose its menace. If it were possible, how gladly he would swim towards the strand of daylight. Sometimes indeed, when daybreak came, it seemed like convalescence after illness. What use to turn his eyes toward the East, home of the Sun. Between them lay a gulf of night so deep that he could never clamber up again.”

Yarragadee in ten minutes; this is Mission Control at five days, 22 hours, 33 minutes (12:05 a.m. CDT).



So, have you ever wondered how NASA Public Affairs Officers spend their free time? Well, this one obviously enjoyed reading a good book or two... just my cup of tea.

:)


Night Flight - Vol de Nuit (1979)






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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #487 on: 05/31/2015 09:39 pm »
IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR

CapCom: And Richard, I’ve got updates to the deorbit burn flight rules and the entry go/no-go checklist whenever you want to talk about those.

Truly: Okay. If you could wait a little bit, I’d appreciate it.

CapCom: Sure thing. And we’re here with you at Yarragadee for about five minutes.

Truly: We’re trying to get into the seats…

CapCom: Rog.

Truly: Houston, CDR. On panel L2, verify that you do want the O2/N2 controller valve system 1 open and system 2 closed per page 3-4.

CapCom: And that’s affirmative, Richard.

Truly: Okay… Houston, CDR, I’m ready to take your notes whenever you have them.

CapCom: Okay. Have you got the deorbit burn flight rules card out?

Truly: Yes sir, sure do. I’m looking at it.

CapCom: Okay. First of all you can scratch through the first two columns there under “yes” and “yes,” since we do not have one orbit late available.

Truly: Roger. I understand.

CapCom: And then down, under OMS, the second and third lines, we can delete the line “ignition,” “neither engine ignites,” along with deleting the line “both engines fail.” And that’s because you do have RCS down mode capability.

Truly: Okay. And that is if we can get it started at TIG plus 2 or earlier, is that correct?

CapCom: That’s affirmative, Richard.

Truly: Okay.

CapCom: And let me give you a note on that, too. You know you’ve got the jet L3D that was leaking and now seems to be good, and if it’s necessary to reselect that jet due to another jet failure, we’d like you to first toggle RM and then reselect that jet. And if you get a subsequent leak message, then you can go ahead and leave it deselected.

Truly: Okay, I understand, Guy.

CapCom: And we’ll see you at Hawaii at 23:09 (12:41 a.m. CDT).

Truly: Okay, see you there.

PAO: Mission Control Houston, Loss of Signal at Yarragadee, Hawaii in 17 minutes and possibly TDRS lockup at about the same time. Challenger now one hour and 24 minutes away from ignition of the deorbit burn; that will bring it to a night landing at Edwards Air Force Base at approximately 2:40 a.m. Central Daylight Time. At five days, 22 hours, 51 minutes Mission Elapsed Time, this is Mission Control Houston...


And while Challenger Commander Dick Truly, talking to Entry CapCom Guy Gardner, made sure all switches in the cockpit were set right for the upcoming deorbit burn, Astronaut Bob Crippen, flying NASA 947, reported to the second Entry CapCom John Blaha, “Weather’s no factor. You can see the lights of L.A. and Bakersfield and all through the Valley here. And the winds are essentially light and variable all the way up.” He added, “We have not completed the approach, however of what we’ve looked at, the lights look good and the TACAN looks good, and we haven’t really got a good check on the MLS yet.”


PAO: Loss of Signal at Hawaii, Buckhorn station at Edwards Air Force Base in three minutes. At Edwards, Robert Crippen is doing a weather scouting flight in NASA 947, which is one of the Shuttle Training Aircraft. He reports from his vantage point that he can see the lights in the Los Angeles Basin up to San Joaquin Valley, Bakersville and other city lights. The weather is absolutely no factor for this morning’s landing, and the winds are light and variable at all levels. Mission Control, at five days, 23 hours, 16 minutes (12:48 a.m. CDT)… Mission Control Houston, we have acquisition at this time through Buckhorn. Fifty-seven minutes remaining until ignition for the deorbit burn on this orbit.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, with you through Buckhorn for seven minutes.

Truly: Roger, Houston, loud and clear. (…) Okay, Houston, gimbal check looks good onboard.

CapCom: Roger.

Brandenstein: And Houston, Challenger, are you ready to watch the APU prestart.

CapCom: Roger, Dan, go ahead. We’re ready.

Brandenstein: Okay… Hey, Houston, the APU prestart’s complete.

CapCom: Roger, we concur. And it looks good, Dan.

Brandenstein: Roger. It looked good up here.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, the gimbal check all looked good to us, too.

Truly: Roger that.

CapCom: And Challenger, Houston, we’re about 30 seconds to LOS, configure LOS; we’ll see you at MILA in about two minutes… Challenger, Houston, with you through MILA, configure AOS.

Truly: You got it, Houston.

CapCom: Roger. And you’ve got a state vector coming up and I’ve got a switch back on panel R12 for you.

Truly: Okay, I understand the state vector is on the way up. And call out the switch.

CapCom: Right, the supply water dump isol valve to close.

Truly: Wilco. That’s in work.

CapCom: Roger. Thank you.

Truly: Okay, it’s closed.

CapCom: Copy, thank you… And Challenger, Houston, you got the new state vector in both the primary and the backup, and you’ll need to reload them.

Truly: Okiedoke.

CapCom: And Challenger, Houston, we see the solutions and they both look good.

Truly: Roger, Houston.

CapCom: And Challenger, I’ve got a note for your entry checklist there. The hydraulic fluid thermal conditioning at EI minus 11 is not required. That’s on page 3-30.

Truly: Roger. I understand. Delete the hydraulic fluid thermal conditioning on page 3-30.

CapCom: That’s affirmative, Richard.

Truly: And Houston, CDR. We have completed the OMS burn prep on page 3-6. You might check our configuration, and we’re sitting in the checklist waiting on TIG minus 25 for vent door close.

CapCom: Okay, thank you. We’ll look at it.

Truly: Okay.

CapCom: And Challenger, Houston, your configuration is looking good.

Truly: Super.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, we’ll be handing over to TDRS in about one minute. If we miss you there, we’ll have you at Ascension at 23:47 (1:19 a.m. CDT).

Truly: Okiedoke.

CapCom: NASA 947, Houston. How do you read?

Crippen: Houston, NASA 946, reading you loud and clear. John, we have no update to that previous report. We’re just now taking off in 946.

CapCom: Roger, copy that, Crip. And if you’d like, I’ll wait and catch you at LOS Ascension.

Crippen: Roger. That’s affirmative. We’ll talk to you LOS Ascension.

CapCom: Roger that, 23:52. See you then, Crip. And the spaceship is looking good.

PAO: Mission Control Houston, Shuttle Training Aircraft 946 taking off at Edwards Air Force Base for another weather survey. The picture of the Shuttle Training Aircraft piloted by Bob Crippen is now on an infrared imaging system loaned to NASA by the Department of Defense.

CapCom: (…) And Challenger, Houston, with you through Ascension for five and a half minutes.

Truly: Roger Houston, loud and clear.

CapCom: Roger, you too… Challenger, Houston, I’ve got a switch for you on R12 for me.

Truly: Okay, go ahead.

CapCom: Roger. We’ve got some water trapped between the supply water dump valve and the dump isol valve. So it won’t heat up and expand on entry, I’d like for you to take the dump valve and cycle it open for five seconds, then back closed.

Truly: Wilco. Stand by… Okay, Houston, we’ve accomplished that, and we’re looking at a real pretty ice shower.

CapCom: Roger. And the config looks good to us, too. Thank you.

Truly: Okay.

PAO: Mission Control Houston, infrared video of the Shuttle Training Aircraft making an approach at Edwards, a simulated shuttle landing approach…

CapCom: Roger, copy. And you are go for deorbit burn.

Truly: Roger, go for the deorbit burn. Thank you.

CapCom: Rog. And Crip’s flying around in the STA and he says you’ll have a real pretty sight, looking down at all the lights in California coming across.

Truly: Great. We’re looking forward to it.

PAO: On NASA Select television at this time a shot of the control room at Dryden Flight Research Center. (…) Mission Control Houston, deorbit burn in some 21 minutes and 40 seconds.

CapCom: NASA 946, Houston, how do you read?

Crippen: Roger, Houston, NASA 946, loud and clear, John. And we’ve completed approach to Runway 22 and weather still remains good. There may be a small amount of turbulence somewhere around 20,000 feet, but I believe that it will be no factor at all in the Challenger. The lights are all set up an looking good. MLS is sweet. We did get a disparity of about 1400 feet between TACAN and MLS that caused some overshoot coming on final, but I would not change runways for that. We’re going to set up now to look at Runway 17.

CapCom: Okay. And Crip, do you think we should advise Richard of that disparity between TACAN and MLS stats?

Crippen: No sir, I don’t believe so.

CapCom: Okay, we won’t; we’ll tell him that everything’s still nominal and like we have read up to him initially, if you agree with that… And 946, Houston, how do you read?

Crippen: 946, loud and clear. Go ahead, John.

CapCom: Roger, Crip. If that’s the end of your report right now, we’ll see you at LOS Botswana at 23:36 (1:08 a.m. CDT).

Crippen: See you there.


Offline Ares67

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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #488 on: 05/31/2015 09:40 pm »
THE DESCENT INTO NIGHT

PAO: Mission Control Houston, Challenger maneuvering at this time to the deorbit burn attitude which is heads down, tail toward the direction of flight, slightly pitched down. After the burn, the spacecraft will be pitched around to 40 degrees, nose up.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, with you UHF Botswana for two and a half.

Truly: Roger. Loud and clear.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, one minute to LOS. Have a good burn. We’ll see you at… over Guam at EI minus 9.

Truly: Roger. We’ll see you there.

CapCom: NASA 946, Houston. How do you read?

Crippen: Houston, NASA 946, loud and clear. We’ve completed approach to Runway 17. All conditions are good, lights look good, and really nothing else to report to you.  All conditions still go here.

CapCom: Roger that, Crip. Thanks a lot. And everything’s going well with the orbiter.

PAO: (…) Mission Control Houston. Ignition now ten minutes away for the deorbit burn that will bring Challenger back to a landing in the early morning hours at Edwards Air Force Base. The next contact with Challenger will be some nine minutes prior to entry into the atmosphere at Guam, and that’s 23 minutes from this point. Hawaii will likely be usable to make contact with the spacecraft because of the ionized sheath during blackout. Mission Control, at six days, zero hours, six minutes (1:38 a.m. CDT)


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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #489 on: 05/31/2015 09:43 pm »
The deorbit burn commenced at 1:47:30 a.m. CDT, at latitude 22.7 degrees south, longitude 86.3 degrees east, and lasted a total of two minutes 31 seconds.


PAO: Mission Control Houston, coming up on time of ignition of the deorbit burn… mark. The OMS engines should be burning at this time to bring Challenger back into the atmosphere. The burn lasts two minutes and 37 seconds. We should get a report from the crew later on at Guam tracking station some 13 minutes from now. It’ll be about nine minutes prior to entering the atmosphere at that time.

Meanwhile at Dryden Flight Research Center, the people out there in their control room are doing their thing. Shuttle Training Aircraft 946, piloted by Bob Crippen, has made one run of a simulated orbiter landing on Runway 22 and another one on the lakebed runway, on Runway 17. The infrared imaging system, shown earlier tracking the Shuttle Training Aircraft, will be used as the orbiter approaches and lands at Dryden. At six days, zero hours, 16 minutes (1:48 a.m. CDT), this is Mission Control Houston.


 CapCom: NASA 946, Houston. Do you have any changes to report?

Crippen: Houston, NASA 946, that’s a negative. Everything here… everything here is still go (...)

CapCom: Roger that, Crip. And thanks a lot for your help tonight. [/i]

PAO: (…) This is Mission Control Houston, 50 seconds away from acquisition through Guam. On the descending track of Challenger, as it nears atmospheric entry in the western Pacific, Guam should have acquisition in about 30 seconds. We should get from the crew at that time a report on how the deorbit burn went.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, with you through Guam for five minutes.

Truly: Roger, Houston. Loud and clear. Burn was on time and nominal; residuals were zero, and we’re sitting waiting to go to 304.

CapCom: Roger, copy. Sounds good… And Challenger, configure AOS.

PAO: Data telemetered through Guam show that all three Auxiliary Power Units are running at normal turbine speed of about 100 percent rated speed.

Truly: We are still configured AOS (garble).

CapCom: That’s affirmative.

Truly: We’re really skimming along out here… Okay, Houston, we’re in 304.

CapCom: Roger, we’re looking.

Truly: PTIs (Programmed Test Inputs) are enabled.

CapCom: Roger… Challenger, we’re at 30 seconds to LOS, configure LOS. We’ll see you  about Mach 11.

Truly: You bet. See you there.

CapCom: Roger. And everything’s looking good.

Truly: Same onboard, Houston. The airspeed indicator is just beginning to tickle.

PAO: This is Mission Control Houston, Loss of Signal at Guam, some four minutes now until… three minutes until the Challenger shall start entering the atmosphere at 400,000 feet. Dick Truly reported that the ignition of the deorbit burn was on time, totally nominal with no trim residuals to be maneuvered out. We’re some 32 minutes now away from predicted touchdown on Runway 2-2 at Edwards; at six days, zero hours, 36 minutes, this is Mission Control Houston… Mission Control Houston, Challenger now two minutes into the atmospheric entry… Mission Control Houston, Challenger now entering the communications blackout; predicted exit from blackout will be at 55 minutes, 39 seconds past the hour, elapsed time hour that is.

This is Mission Control Houston; Challenger still in blackout for about the next eight minutes. In Mission Control, the Flight Dynamics Officer displays have been shown, or are being shown on the front display screens, including one that shows the predicted ground track as against the different Mach numbers as the orbiter decelerates in its approach to the west coast. Concentric radiating circles indicating Mach 14, Mach 12, Mach 10, Mach 8, 6, 5, 4 et cetera, all the way into Edwards. We have reports that Hawaii has visual contact with the orbiter, but is unable to punch through the ionization sheath surrounding the spacecraft during the blackout period...



“As we reentered the Earth’s atmosphere, we began to feel the effects of gravity and saw the fiery plasma of hot air outside the front windows of the orbiter,” Guy Bluford said. “Dale took pictures of the hot plasma as it enveloped us and he would occasionally hand me the camera. I could feel the camera getting heavier and heavier as we got closer to home.”


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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #490 on: 05/31/2015 09:44 pm »

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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #491 on: 05/31/2015 09:45 pm »
PAO: Out at Edwards Air Force Base the NASA convoy of vehicles that will go to service the orbiter after landing have been directed to turn off their headlights to avoid any unnecessary glare in the eyes of the crew as they do their final approach and landing. Five minutes remaining in the predicted blackout period… Mission Control Houston, two minutes remaining in the predicted blackout period. We now have C-band contact with the Challenger. Flight Dynamics Officer reports the spacecraft is slightly north of the ground track, now down to Mach 12, altitude 178,000 feet.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, configure AOS.

Truly: Roger, Houston. Loud and clear.

CapCom: You are loud and clear also. The energy, ground track and nav are all go.

Truly: Roger that. We’re coming through Mach 11 at 250,000 feet.

CapCom: Roger that.

Truly: Okay, Houston, coming through Mach 8 at about 222,000 feet. All the PTIs look real good and stable so far, very well done.

CapCom: Roger, copy.

Truly: And TACANs look good onboard.

CapCom: Challenger, take TACANs.

Truly: Wilco. Taking TACANs.

CapCom: And Challenger, Houston, be advised we show your altitude readouts to be quite a bit high; we’re showing you coming through 138,000 now.

Truly: Roger that.

PAO: Range 200 nautical miles.

Truly: Okay, Houston, I’ve got the Channel Islands and the coast in sight. And how does our energy look?

CapCom: Energy looks good.

Truly: Okay.

PAO: Mach 6, 124,000 feet, 140 nautical miles.


Shuttle chief General James Abrahamson explained later, “Dick said we had just great visibility tonight and he could see the lights from a long, long way off as he was coming into the coast. From the air the xenon lights, because of course it’s very dark in this whole area of the basin, show up just as a strong, strong beacon from a long way out… It helped us all to have the infrared system to kind of track it during the last phase,” said Abrahamson. “Dick didn’t have any help at all from the Moon… Had he waited until 4:30 this morning, he would have had a seven-percent Moon to help him. It’s very black out here.”


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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #492 on: 05/31/2015 09:52 pm »
UNDER THE WIDE AND STARRY SKY

Reid Collins (CBS News/Edwards AFB): Here on the high plateau which is the Mojave Desert, on which is Edwards Air Force Base and the Dryden test flight center, an eerie silence is all that can be heard. Not a bird is stirring, hardly the air dare move, as Runway 22 stands glaring out there across us on the desert lakebed. The night has bushels full of stars cast above it. And they’re approaching the coast of Santa Barbara. We expect to go aloft now; let’s see if we can bring in some of the crew’s sounds. They were a little bit high; they were a little bit hot in their energy management. We’ll find out if they can dampen that out in the last minutes…

PAO: Velocity 4600 feet per second…

Collins: Still travelling well past the speed of sound. That was the voice of Terry White at Mission Control in Houston, Texas, where this flight is controlled…

PAO: Air data probes are out on the spacecraft, now down to 110,000 feet in altitude.

Collins: Still 110,000 feet high, they should have crossed the coastline, they should see California, they should see Los Angeles down to the right of them, the glow of that city; Bakersfield on up to the left of them. And they should be able to see this lighted field, this Runway 22…

PAO: Sink rate at about 300 feet per second…

Collins: Sinking down still at an attack angle of some 40 degrees, they’ve gone through the main regiment, the main punishment of it all, the entry interface, the S-band blackout, the tremendous heat. They still may be glowing, however, they still may be seeing glow above them as the spacecraft…

PAO: About 95 nautical miles from touchdown.

Collins: It is a scarce eight minutes from the time they reach the coastline to the time they’ll make…

PAO: 95,000 feet altitude.

Truly: The air data looks good onboard.

Collins: We hear the readout onboard. The air data looks good to them, the computers are reading out…

CapCom: Roger, Challenger. Take air data.

Collins: They now can accept the air data that the air speed indicators that they’ve deployed indicate to them inside the cockpit. TACAN is one of the means of navigation right now, familiar to most air…

PAO: Challenger’s ground track slightly north of the predicted track.

Truly: Challenger to Houston, air data went in just about 2.9 (garble).

CapCom: Roger. And at your convenience we’d like a vector transfer to backup.

Truly: Wilco.

Collins: A little bit farther north than they had planned to be; they can dampen those out by rolling and getting rid of some of the over energy if they have too much of it.

PAO: Velocity 2400 feet per second, altitude 80,000 feet.

Truly: And the vector’s in the backup.

CapCom: Roger. Thank you.

Collins: In a few minutes they’ll be coming over us, some 50,000 feet up. We’ll be listening.

PAO: Range 50 miles.

Collins: Still 50 miles from this site, still coming in well past the speed of sound. When they’ll break the sound barrier we expect to hear two loud cracks on this desert floor.

Truly: Okay, Houston, Dan and I both have a good HUD (Head-Up Display).

CapCom: Roger. Sounds good.

Collins: The Head-Up Display, they both have one, displayed in the windshield of the craft itself. So they don’t have to look down in the cockpit, although they plan to do a great deal of that… Scarce four and a half minutes from scheduled landing.

PAO: Coming through 70,000 feet in altitude, velocity 1631 feet per second, sink rate 284 feet per second.

Collins: Truly will describe a wide ark, a circle, the Heading Alignment Circle, an imaginary circle. He’ll fly south of here, come around the Leuhman Ridge, descend, get into his descent profile, the 19 degree attack. Then he’ll flare it up over the lights that we see.

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, I’ve got new surface winds and altimeter… surface winds, 190 at 5, altimeter two-niner-eight-four.

PAO: Range to go, 31 miles.

Truly: …2984, copy.

CapCom: Read back correct.

Collins: So they’ve set the altimeter; they’re becoming an aircraft really, no longer a missile in space, but a flying plane… And we just saw a shooting star out over Runway 22 – not really over it, thousands and thousands of miles away, as it burned up in our atmosphere.

PAO: Coming down through 52,000 feet altitude, velocity 1039 feet per second.

Collins: We’re looking for her out there; she may be glowing.

PAO: Range 25 nautical miles to acquisition of the Heading Alignment Circle.

Collins: And we may see some of the yaw thrusters which still are activated, perhaps pulsing. The spacecraft has no running lights.

PAO: 45,000 feet.

Collins: We’re listening for the sound barrier cracks.

PAO: 21 miles range.

Collins: That should be her signal call.

PAO: 40,000 feet.

Collins: Two loud reports… We have them now! That’s her call sign; she is coming in, down through 40,000, now subsonic. – Where is she up there? We can’t see a thing, save bushels full of stars. But we know she’s there. On the alignment circle…


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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #493 on: 05/31/2015 09:55 pm »
PAO: Challenger now has intersected the Heading Alignment Circle, altitude 31,000 feet.

Collins: Out past us now, describing that wide circle (garble).

PAO: 17 miles to go, airspeed 267 knots.

Collins: Coming around the ridge.

PAO: 22,400 feet, nine miles range.

Collins: Still streaking in toward us now. He should be on his final.

PAO: 260 knots.

Collins: He makes a 202-degree circle around that circle.

PAO: 18,000 feet.

Collins: Just about to begin his steep 19-degree glide slope, looking at some red and white lights.

Truly: Okay, Houston, the lights look real pretty.

Collins: Good. He’s got ‘em.

PAO: 265 knots.

CapCom: Looking good.

PAO: 15,000 feet altitude, range 8.6… We’re now having the infrared imaging system picking up the orbiter… 9,600 feet, 279 knots.

Collins: And the infrared cameras can now a white ghost approaching. The naked eye can’t see it yet, but infrared photography can. Still coming down, coming down toward us, toward those lights...

CapCom: Challenger, Houston, looking good on final.

Collins: …on his final approach. At 2,000 he’ll flare out just beyond those lights.

PAO: 7,000 feet, four and a half miles, 290 knots.

Collins: We should see him when he first gets into the lights. Then he will have done his preflare; he’ll be gliding across that runway.

PAO: 4100 feet, 285 knots, three miles.


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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #494 on: 05/31/2015 09:58 pm »

Offline Ares67

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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #495 on: 05/31/2015 10:01 pm »
Collins: Truly flying, Brandenstein helping… We hear the sound of it now; we hear the hum of it. A silent fall, it now begins to hum.

PAO: Air speed 300 knots… gear down.

Collins: He wants to get it a little less than that. The gear is down.

PAO: Range one mile.

Collins: Gear down early… into his preflare now, we should see him over the runway… coming down a little bit hotter… There he is! We see him in the lights! – We have touchdown… He should be nosing over now.

PAO: And we mark touchdown at eight minutes, 40 seconds.

Collins: So he’s down. It took a little longer than people thought, well, just about… 8:40, I guess that’s about what NASA had estimated, within a second or two… now rolling out down toward the other end of Runway 22, just about the optimum place where a Runway 22 touchdown calls for, perhaps a little hotter – not too much though. But we didn’t see much of him with the naked eye in the lights, because they’re depressed. They want to light the runway. They want to make sure they don’t light the cockpit – which they did not do. No communication from the craft now… well over on its nose and almost to a stop.


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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #496 on: 05/31/2015 10:04 pm »

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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #497 on: 05/31/2015 10:06 pm »

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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #498 on: 05/31/2015 10:08 pm »
OK THREE

At 12:40 a.m. PDT (2:40 a.m. CDT), at Mission Elapsed Time of six days, one hour, eight minutes, 43 seconds, the main landing gear of Challenger again hit the surface of the Earth for the third time after a space mission – at about the 2,800-foot point of Runway 22. The nose landing gear followed seven seconds later. Wheels stop was marked after a fifty second rollout, which took a distance of 9,200 feet. Mission STS-8 had completed 96 full orbits, landing on the 97th after a total distance of 2.2 million miles.


Brandenstein: Houston, give the commander an OK Three.

Truly: Houston, Challenger, wheels stop.

CapCom: Roger, copy. Welcome back. Great show.

Collins: An “OK Three.” You know what that is? An “OK Three” is a three-wire landing on an aircraft carrier; you want to hit the third wire. So, they gave him an OK Three, which is just precisely right. They’re down, they’re safe, and they’ve made the night landing. I’ll tell you…

PAO: We copied end of roll at nine minutes, 32 seconds past the elapsed time hour. And the first night landing ends the six-day flight of STS-8 with orbiter Challenger.

Collins: That’s the voice of Terry White. And the six-day flight is over. It is not much of a scene to the naked eye, I have to tell you. Here you can hardly see anything. You can begin to hear the hum of it, as it comes down, silently, engineless, lightless, just into the cone of lights that light the runway.

Truly: Convoy One, Challenger, how do you read?

Convoy One: Challenger, this is Convoy One. Read you loud and clear. How me?

Truly: Loud and clear. And I can see you guys coming.

Convoy One: We’ll be right with you. Welcome home.

Truly: Thanks, sir.

Collins: And he’s being welcomed home by the convoy crew, actually saying not much about anything, because this was routine in a way, if you like, night carrier landings… Let’s listen to the voice…

Truly: And Houston, CDR, the MADS power is your call.

Collins: Now will begin the long process…

CapCom: Roger. Challenger, Houston, leave the MADS on.

Truly: Wilco, John.

Collins: And the post-landing checklist is being gone through.

CapCom: And Challenger, Houston, I have two items for post landing changes.

Truly: Roger, John. Ready to copy.

Collins: Some post-landing changes being sent to the men.

CapCom: Roger, use GPC 2 for G9. And the second one, delete the hydraulic load test.

Truly: Okay. The first time we go into G9, we’re going to take all four there, correct? And then the second… and then when we, after that when we go down to one GPC, we’ll use GPC 2, is that Charlie?

CapCom: That’s affirmative, Richard.

Truly: Roger that.

Collins: So they’re reconfiguring the computer system and some of the things that they had fiddled with inflight. They had very, very few serious problems of any kind. (…) There’s going to be a ceremony here; there are several VIPs invited to watch this. And then the astronauts will finally make an appearance. We’ll have a post-landing press conference. We’ll have all of that. But the essential is, we have had the first in manned spaceflight – the first night landing by a craft that is capable of flight, and is capable of orbiting the Earth so many times, so many millions of times, and yet settling down onto this desert lakebed with the precision of a pterodactyl, whatever those things were. And you might think that that was something prehistoric coming in on this rather prehistoric evening – quiet, silent, almost airless… almost windless here in this high desert in California. This has been the flight of Shuttle 8, the night landing successful. I’m Reid Collins, CBS News, at Edwards Air Force Base in California.


Okay, Reid, call me a nitpicker, but you probably meant to say “orbiting the Earth so many millions of miles,” not “times.” And shooting stars are burning up at much lower altitude, usually between 75 and 50 miles high, not “thousands and thousands of miles away” – no problem. I really like your shuttle launch and landing commentary. But comparing the Space Shuttle orbiter to a prehistoric flying reptile… Well, Reid, that’s enough for tonight. You’ve reached your bedtime!

;)


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Re: Challenger STS-8 – In the Dark of the Night
« Reply #499 on: 05/31/2015 10:10 pm »
“That was fun; let’s do it again,” STS-8 Commander Dick Truly said after the picture perfect touchdown under a starlit California sky, which had been as perfect as any of the preceding shuttle landings in the light of day. At that moment, he was the only person to have flown three orbiters. Discussing handling characteristics, Truly said, “I think there’s very little difference. The Enterprise, you know, is naturally only a subsonic test vehicle, but the Enterprise. The Columbia, and the Challenger fly essentially the same.”

And yet, STS-8 actually marked the first time that Truly had ever landed an orbiter. “Well, Joe did the landings in the Enterprise – of course, I was helping him as the pilot – and secondly, in the Columbia,” Truly explained. “So actually the night landing was the first actual landing that I had made, although I had ridden through and was capable of making the landings in all of Joe’s and my other flights.”


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