Discovery STS-29 – Got a Perfect View

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Meet the STS-29 Crew

STS-29 will be commanded by Navy Captain Michael Coats. He is joined by rookie Pilot John Blaha, veteran Mission Specialist James Buchli and rookie Mission Specialists Dr. James Bagian and Robert Springer. The wait for mission 28 has been tough on all of the astronauts, but it has been particularly hard on the commander and pilot, who were supposed to fly together in 1985, but had their mission rescheduled to 1986. Then came Challenger and the two were placed in the shuttle flight holding pattern along with the rest of NASA.

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Having been selected as an astronaut candidate in January 1978 and serving as CapCom and member of the support crews during STS-4 and 6, Mike Coats has been waiting since the end of his first shuttle flight, STS 41-D – Discovery’s maiden voyage in September 1984, to take command of his very own mission. Had the Challenger accident not occurred, Coats would have received his chance as early as June 1986, when he was slotted to command the STS 61-H mission. The 61-H mission was originally scheduled for December 1985, ahead of 51-L, but was later slipped in the schedule due to payload problems. The accident extended Coats’ wait another 32 months.

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Air Force Col. John Blaha has been waiting even longer for his first flight. After becoming an astronaut in September 1981 he served until March 1983 as a member of the shuttle ascent/entry development and verification teams, during which time he managed and led the design, development and integration of the orbiter head-up display system. From April 1983 to October 1984, Blaha was ascent, orbit, planning and entry CapCom for missions 41-D and 41-G. STS 61-H was to be his inauguration to space. When Challenger was destroyed, he too had to sit and wait. In the meantime, Blaha was assigned as the astronaut office representative of the shuttle ascent/abort reassessment team and the OMS/RCS reassessment group.

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As one of two U.S. Marines and also one of three Navy/Marine Corps Vietnam veterans on the STS-29 crew, including Cpt. USN Mike Coats, who served from August 1970 to September 1972 aboard the USS Kittyhawk (flying 315 combat missions in Southeast Asia), Col. USMC James F. Buchli became an astronaut in August 1979. He served as a member of the support crews for STS-1 and 2, and also as a member of the support crew for STS-2. During his first flight assignment, on STS-10, Buchli was a mission specialist. This first secret DOD mission was performed aboard Discovery under the new designation 51-C in January 1985. He next flew as mission specialist on Challenger STS 61-A in October/November 1985, the West German D-1 Spacelab mission. With that second flight Buchli has logged a total of 243 hours in space.

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Mechanical engineer and M.D. James P. Bagian is one of three rookies aboard Discovery, and also the only civilian among the STS-29 crew. Upon graduating from Thomas Jefferson University, Dr. Bagian completed one year of general surgery residency with the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania. He subsequently went to work as a flight surgeon and research medical officer at the Johnson Space Center in 1978, while concurrently completing studies at the USAF Flight Surgeons School and the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio, Texas. Selected in 1980, Bagian became an astronaut in August 1981. He participated in both the planning and provision of emergency medical and rescue support for the first six shuttle flights. Bagian served as the astronaut office coordinator for Space Shuttle payload software and crew equipment and also participated in the verification of Space Shuttle flight software. In “Who’s Who in Space” (ISS Edition, 1999), NSF/L2 member Michael Cassutt added more details: “Between 1984 and 1986 he trained as a mission specialist on two different shuttle crews, for Spacelab 4 (originally scheduled for launch in 1986) and for mission 61-I. Following the Challenger disaster Bagian was assigned to the board investigating the accident, and was part of the team that discovered the wreckage of the Challenger crew cabin. He was assigned to STS-29 in March 1988.”

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Marine Corps helicopter pilot and “Top Gun” attendee Robert C. Springer, Col. USMC, may be one of the shuttle rookies, but he already has logged more than 3,000 hours flying time – including 2,400 hours in jet aircraft. He became an astronaut in June 1981 after completing one year of training. His NASA assignments have included participation in concept development studies for the Space Operations Center (aka Space Station Freedom) and the EDO (Extended Duration Orbiter) Power Extension Package. After having served as CapCom for several shuttle flights from October 1984 to October 1985, Robert Springer’s first two shuttle flight crew assignments included STS 51-K, a cancelled Spacelab mission, and 61-H, which was supposed to launch in 1986.  Springer was also involved in GAS payload integration studies and was responsible for coordination of operational integration for Centaur, the liquid-fueled high-energy upper stage, which was shelved because it was considered too dangerous to fly aboard the shuttle.

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Having been selected together with the crews for STS-30 and STS-31 on March 17, 1988, and having endured the return-to-flight holding pattern, the STS-29 astronauts’ outlook improved considerably when Discovery performed a picture-perfect mission in September 1988. Once Atlantis landed in December, Coats, Blaha and the rest moved from the on-deck circle to the batter’s box, and they could not be happier. While any shuttle flight brings with it excitement for all astronauts, rookies and veterans alike, STS-29 has the distinction of moving NASA one more step beyond the Challenger disaster, while expanding the experience base of NASA’s astronaut corps at the same time. "It's a relief now to be flying again and showing that we really are a spacefaring nation and that we have the capability to operate in space safely on a regular basis," Discovery Commander Mike Coats said in an interview. "We're anxious to prove that.  It's been frustrating to leave the arena of space to the Russians for the past three years. We've got a lot of catching up to do. We've got a lot of ambitious plans and we believe the space program is critical to the country."

(“Meet the STS-29 Crew” article published in Countdown, February 1989 – edited)

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Let’s remember those we lost…

Without the Challenger accident Mike Coats would have commanded a seven-member crew during the 61-H mission scheduled for the summer of 1986 – including a British and an Indonesian payload specialist. Because commercial satellites were no longer allowed aboard the Space Shuttle, the British and Indonesian governments had to find new launch opportunities for Skynet 4A and Palapa B-3 respectively. 61-H payload specialists Nigel Wood and Pratiwi Sudarmono had to bury their hopes of flying on the shuttle, as had their backups Richard Farrimond and Akbar Taufik.

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When the NASA astronauts originally destined to fly aboard Columbia STS 61-H were reassigned to mission STS-29, one of them was left out: Anna Fisher, who was “temporarily unavailable, due to the birth of her second daughter,” explained Michael Cassutt in “Who’s Who in Space” (ISS Edition, 1999). – Much to the disappointment of STS-29 pilot John Blaha, as he remembered during an interview for the JSC Oral History Project in December 2004:

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Blaha: One thing that was disappointing was that we lost Anna Fisher, and I never understood that. Originally she was the MS-2 on that first assigned crew, and I really liked Anna. We had become good buddies, and I really liked working with her. Approximately a year before our real launch in ’89, I was on a PR trip in New York, and I got a phone call, and I was told, “John, I just wanted to call you because,” – I think it was from Dan Brandenstein – “I just wanted to call you, because your crew has been announced for this STS-29 mission, and Anna is not on the crew.” I never understood this change. I remember that was a big downer to me. It should have been an upper, because I was being told I was assigned to a crew, STS-29, that would launch in March 1989. But it wasn’t.

Ross-Nazzal: How did it change the dynamics of the crew?

Blaha: A lot. A lot.

Ross-Nazzal: Can you give an example?

BLAHA: Well, it really changed it a lot, because I thought the crew that we had was working well together. We had had four military academy people on the crew and Anna. Mike was from the Naval Academy; I was Air Force Academy; Bob Springer was Naval Academy. James F. Buchli was from the Naval Academy. Anna was the MS-2, and I used to smile going through the training briefings (the simulators and the debriefing) because there was no question, Anna was ten or twenty IQ points above the other three of us. Because she would sit there, and I could tell by her eyes when someone explained something to us, she knew within about ten seconds; she had it. We were all scratching our heads, and maybe fifteen minutes later we would catch up. You could tell by her expression, but she was so nice about it, because she wouldn’t say anything.

Or you’d be doing an ascent simulator run, and you were performing a procedure, and you’d hear a little voice whisper – so she’d like move the microphone; not over the intercom – “John, do this switch now.” And that was her, just trying in a very nice way to tell you you’ve got to do this now or you’re going to screw it up. I learned whenever I heard that, just do what she said, don’t try and ask why. That was really good. I came to really like her. She was a very smart woman who was a real, I thought, strong part of that crew. That’s why it bothered me or hurt me a little bit when I got that phone call. It took me a while to get over that. I don’t know how long, but it took me a while. Probably six months to even a year. It took me a long time to get over that. That was a downer.

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Ross-Nazzal: Why don’t you tell us about the crew of STS-29 and the crew that actually did fly, and talk about the crew relationship and the dynamics?

Blaha: We had two ’78 people, Mike Coats and Jim Buchli. We had three ’80 group people, Bob Springer, Jim Bagian, and myself. We were like two groups of people. Anna was the one who formerly had integrated us, and she was now gone, and we were like two groups of people. But we were a good crew, and we had a very good mission and did well. But I thought we were two groups of people. But we had a good mission together. I enjoyed flying. I remember I really liked Mike Coats in the ’78 group, so flying with him, I was happy. I remember when he was a pilot on 41-D and I was a CapCom, and we worked well together there. So I liked that, and we had a very good enjoyable flight.

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Kind of a bread-and-butter mission

(The following is based on the STS-29 preview article published in Countdown, February, 1989 – with additional information added, taken mainly from the STS-29 Press Kit, the “Shuttle All Set” article by UPI science writer William Harwood, Deseret News, March 5, 1989, James Hartsfield’s STS-29 articles in JSC Space News Roundup, Jan. 13, 1989, and Countdown, March 1989)

"We've got kind of a bread-and-butter mission," astronaut Bob Springer explains the character of STS-29, a mission some expect to be caught up  in the STS-26 storyline because it is little more than a carbon copy of America’s return-to-space flown by Discovery in 1988. The primary payload, a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, is the same, and according to NASA the flight plan is baselined on STS-26. With IMAX earth observation tasks and a handful of secondary experiments scheduled during the five-day trip, there will be no drama here, nothing new to catch the world’s attention – although the chicken embryos and rodent passengers in the middeck probably would disagree with that…

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Blastoff on the 28th shuttle mission is scheduled at 8:06 a.m. EST on March 13, 1989. At the controls on Discovery's flight deck will be commander Michael Coats, 43, who served as co-pilot aboard Discovery for its maiden flight in 1984, and John Blaha, 46, a shuttle rookie who will serve as Coats' second in command. Seated behind them will be James Buchli, 43, veteran of two previous shuttle missions, with rookie Springer, 46, seated to his right. Seated alone below on the shuttle's lower deck will be physician-astronaut James Bagian, 37, also a space rookie.

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On the shuttle’s fifth orbit, six hours 13 minutes after launch, the TDRS-D will be deployed. The solid-propellant Boeing/U.S. Air Force Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) will transfer the $100 million satellite to geosynchronous orbit. IUS separation will occur about 13 hours after launch. If the nominal deployment time is not possible, the Discovery crew will attempt a backup deployment on orbit six. NASA has scheduled a contingency deployment for the seventh orbit, should neither of the first two attempts be successful. As it was in the past, flight day 2 also contains a backup deployment opportunity on the shuttle’s 16th revolution of Earth. Should the backup opportunity be unnecessary, the secondary payload experiments will be moved up in the mission time frame.

The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-D, is the fourth TDRS communications spacecraft to be launched aboard the Space Shuttle and completes the constellation of on-orbit satellites for NASA's advanced space communications system. TDRS-1 was launched during Challenger's maiden flight in April 1983. The second was lost during the Challenger accident in January 1986. TDRS-3 was launched successfully on Sept. 29, 1988, during the landmark mission of Discovery, which returned the Space Shuttle to flight.

TDRS-1 is in geosynchronous orbit over the Atlantic Ocean, just east of Brazil (41 degrees west longitude at the equator). When it was launched, it failed to reach its desired orbit because of a failure in the upper-stage booster rocket. A NASA/industry team subsequently conducted a series of delicate spacecraft maneuvers, using on-board thrusters, to place TDRS-1 into the desired 22,300-mile-altitude orbit. TDRS-3 is in geosynchronous orbit over the Pacific Ocean, south of Hawaii (171 degree west longitude, also over the equator). It has performed flawlessly in tests and helped support the STS-27 mission in December 1988.

After its launch, TDRS-D will be designated TDRS-4. Following its arrival at geosynchronous orbit and a series of tests, it will replace the partially degraded TDRS-1 over the Atlantic. TDRS-1 then will be moved to 79 degrees west longitude, above the equator, where it will be used as an on-orbit spare. The two operational TDRS -- those located at 41 and 171 degrees west longitude -- will support up to 23 user spacecraft simultaneously and provide two basic types of service: a multiple-access service that simultaneously relays data from as many as 19 low-data-rate user spacecraft; and a single-access service that provides two high-data-rate communications relays from each satellite.

With already two active TDRS satellites providing continuous communications with the ground for about 85 percent of each orbit, a big change from the previous 50-percent coverage, during STS-29 Discovery will be out of contact with the Mission Control Center for only 13 minutes of each revolution as it passes through a “zone of exclusion” over the Indian Ocean. “Sometimes in the past, we’ve relished the times when we can’t talk to the ground,” Commander Coats explained. “And I’m sure we’ll look forward to that little strip over the Indian Ocean.”

(That’s a thought at least some of us, living 23 years later in a “mobile” 24/7-easy-to-reach world, probably can sympathize with…) 

The concept of using advanced communications satellites was developed in the early 1970s, following studies showing that a system of communications satellites operated from a single ground terminal could support Space Shuttle and other low-Earth-orbit space missions more effectively than a worldwide network of ground stations. The current ground station network can only provide support for a small fraction -- typically 15 to 20 percent -- of the orbits of user spacecraft. The modern, space- based TDRS network covers at least 85 percent of the orbits. The new system also will facilitate a much higher information flow rate between the spacecraft and the ground. This will be particularly important as NASA resumes regular shuttle flights and launches satellites with high data rates.

NASA's Space Tracking and Data Network ground stations, managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., will be reduced significantly in number, an effort which will save about $48 million per year. Deputy project manager Charles Hunter says the TDRS system will become fully operational three or four months after the deployment of TDRS-D. Of the thirteen ground stations currently in operation, the following will be closed or transferred, according to James Elliot, Goddard Space Flight Center spokesman: Guam and Santiago, Chile, will close June 30; Ascension Island and Hawaii will close September 30; Dakar, Senegal, will close in December 1990. Three of the network's present ground stations -- Madrid, Spain, Canberra, Australia, and Goldstone, California -- already have been transferred to the Deep Space Network, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The remaining ground stations, except for five needed for launch operations, will be closed or transferred to other agencies.

The White Sands Ground Terminal (WSGT) for the TDRS system is situated on a NASA test site located between Las Cruces and White Sands, N.M. A collocated NASA facility provides the interface between the WSGT and the NASA space network facilities at Goddard Space Flight Center. A technologically advanced second ground terminal is being built near White Sands to provide back-up and additional capability.

The Tracking and Data Relay Satellites are the largest privately owned telecommunications spacecraft ever built, and the first to handle satellite communications through the S and Ku frequency bands. Each weighs about 2 tons, spans almost 60 feet across its solar panels and contains seven antennas. Each of the two gold-plated, single-access antennas measures 16 feet in diameter and, when fully deployed, spans more than 42 feet from tip to tip. The combination of satellites and ground facilities is referred to as the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System or
TDRSS.

NASA leases the TDRSS complement of services from CONTEL, Atlanta, Ga., which is the owner, operator and prime contractor. CONTEL's two primary subcontractors are TRW's Space and Technology Group, Redondo Beach, Calif., and the Harris Corporation's Government Communications Systems Division, Melbourne, Fla. TRW designed and built the spacecraft and software for ground terminal operation, and integrated and tested the system. Harris designed and built the ground terminal equipment. The Space Shuttle, LANDSAT Earth Resources satellites, Solar Mesosphere Explorer, Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, Solar Maximum Mission satellite and Spacelab have been primary users of TDRSS. They will be joined in the future by the Hubble Space Telescope, Gamma Ray Observatory, Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite and others.

The Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) will be used to place NASA's TDRS-D into geosynchronous orbit during the STS-29 Space Shuttle mission. Upper stage airborne support equipment, located in the orbiter payload bay, positions the combined IUS/TDRS-D into its proper deployment attitude -- an angle of 52 degrees -- and ejects it into low-Earth orbit. Deployment from the orbiter will be by a spring-ejection system. Following deployment, the orbiter will move away from the IUS/TDRS-D to a safe distance.

The IUS first stage will fire about 1 hour after deployment. After the first stage burn of 146 seconds, the solid fuel motor will shut down. After coasting for about 5 hours, 13 minutes, the first stage will separate and the second stage motor will ignite at 6 hours, 12 minutes after deployment to place the spacecraft in its desired orbit. Following a 108-second burn, the second stage will shut down as the IUS/TDRS-D reaches the predetermined, geosynchronous orbital position. Thirteen hours, 9 minutes after liftoff, the second stage will separate from TDRS-D and perform an anti-collision maneuver with its onboard reaction control system.

The IUS has a number of features which distinguish it from previous upper stages. It has the first completely redundant avionics system developed for an unmanned space vehicle. It can correct in-flight features within milliseconds. Other advanced features include a carbon composite nozzle throat that makes possible the high-temperature, long-duration firing of the IUS motors and a redundant computer system. The IUS is 17 ft. long, 9 ft. in diameter and weighs more than 32,500 lb., including 27,400 lb. of solid fuel propellant. The IUS consists of an aft skirt, an aft stage containing 21,400 lb. of solid propellant which generates approximately 42,000 lb. of thrust, an interstage, a forward stage containing 6,000 lb. of propellant generating 18,000 lb. of thrust, and an equipment support section. The equipment support section contains the avionics which provide guidance, navigation, telemetry, command and data management, reaction control and electrical power. The IUS is built by Boeing Aerospace, Seattle, under contract to the U.S. Air Force Systems Command. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., is NASA's lead center for IUS development and program management of NASA-configured IUSs procured from the Air Force.

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