Author Topic: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History  (Read 248845 times)

Offline Ares67

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #40 on: 11/01/2013 08:25 pm »
“F-Troop” – The Original Space Cowboys

Wright: Did your crew look to you, since you were the only veteran on that trip?
 
Weitz: No. That was a very bad crew from that standpoint. No respect at all.
  :) 

- Paul Weitz, JSC NASA Oral History Project interview, March 26, 2000


An old crew would fly the new shuttle – 48 years being the astronauts’ average age. “It was true that the four men of STS-6, with a combined age of 191, were the oldest yet launched,” explained British space writer Ben Evans in his 2007 book Space Shuttle Challenger, in which he speculated that the “aged cowboy image” aptly portrayed by Commander Weitz and company as oldest astronaut crew to date may have inspired the movie Space Cowboys. “Only Weitz had flown before – on a four-week mission to the Skylab space station in mid-1973 – and later assumed the mantle of deputy chief of NASA’s astronaut corps. For his crewmates, it was their first flight, but all had vast expertise on the ground.”

In an interview for the JSC Oral History Project in November 2000, STS-6 Commander Paul Weitz explained that his crew had been assigned somewhere during the process of building up to the STS-1 launch. “I don't remember the time frame. STS-1 launched in '81, but it was originally scheduled around '78 or '79, so we were probably assigned a crew without being anointed as a crew. We were a group of people, myself and Bo and Story and Don, that were put together and were told basically to start working together as a group, for whatever reason.”

“We were involved early on,” continued Weitz. “For example, Story Musgrave, who was MS1 on STS-6, was assigned the primary responsibility from the Astronaut Office to monitor the deployment and retraction mechanism for the payload bay doors. So it really was a mix of working as a crew and still having an office responsibility that was outside what you would normally be doing as an assigned crew. So we eased into that. Then you'd always try to go scam some simulator time if you could, or trainer, or whatever was available, to start working, on the off chance we were going to be assigned as a crew to a mission and get to fly it. But that was an evolutionary type of thing, and I couldn't tell you, when we were announced as a crew to fly STS-6, where that fit into the overall schedule,” explained Weitz. “It turned out to be the first six crews were first assigned as A through F, and we were crew F. Of course, we then assumed the title of F-Troop, which became our theme.”

“The nickname originated from a television series about an aging cavalry unit and partly honored their military backgrounds, as well as reflecting the fact that they were the sixth team of astronauts to fly the Space Shuttle,” said Ben Evans. “It was Weitz’ idea and they even had official F-Troop photographs and memorabilia produced.”

Mission Specialist Donald Peterson told an Oral History Project interviewer in November 2002, “In fact, we have a picture, an F-Troop picture, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it, but we had on the little flight T-shirts and the flight pants. But we went out and bought cowboys hats. I had a sword that had once belonged to some lieutenant in Napoleon’s army. We got a Winchester rifle, the lever-action rifle, and a bugle and a cavalry flag, and we posed for this picture.”

Peterson continued describing the picture. “Weitz, of course, is the Commander, and he’s sitting there very stern-looking, with the sword sticking in the floor. I had the rifle, and I think Story had the bugle. Anyway, we had that picture made, and we were passing them out, and NASA asked us not to do that. They thought that was not dignified. But I thought it was hilarious. I still have a bunch of them. But, anyway, we knew about, and we sort of laughed about and took advantage of the F-Troop thing, because there were a lot of little jokes about that that went around.”

“In fact, behind their backs and with tongues firmly embedded inside cheeks, fellow astronauts dubbed Weitz’ team, somewhat less flatteringly, The Geritol Bunch,” said space writer Ben Evans. MS2 Don Peterson didn’t hear that term until after the flight was over. “Maybe that was something that everybody said about us when we weren’t around, you know, probably. We were on orbit, and somebody was talking about ‘how old you guys are.’ We had taken a bunch of pictures, and I couldn’t resist, I said, ‘You know, we’re not going to show the pictures to anybody under thirty-five when we come back. So some of you guys, some of you wise asses, won’t see them!’”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_Troop

Offline Ares67

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #41 on: 11/01/2013 08:29 pm »
VAST EXPERTISE

CDR Paul Joseph “P.J.” Weitz, Captain USN, ret., was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, on July 25, 1932, where he attended McKinley Elementary School and in 1950 graduated from nearby Harborcreek High School. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1954 and a master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, California, in 1964.

Weitz retired from the Navy in 1976 with 22 years of service. In 1954 he had received his commission as an ensign through the Naval ROTC program at Penn State. He served for one year at sea aboard a destroyer before going to flight training and was awarded his wings in September 1956. Weitz was an A-4 tactics instructor at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida, from 1956 to 1960, a project officer at China Lake, California, in various air-to-ground delivery tactic projects from 1960 to 1962. After having received his master’s degree in 1964, Weitz also flew combat missions in Vietnam and served as detachment officer-in-charge at Whidbey Island. He logged more than 6,200 hours flying time – 5,100 hours in jet aircraft.

Paul Weitz was one of the 19 astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966. Michael Cassutt described his first assignments, “Weitz specialized in the Apollo Command and Service Module system. He served as CapCom for Apollo 12 and had been informally selected as backup CMP for Apollo 17 (putting him in line for a flight to the Moon on Apollo 20) when Congressional budget cuts eliminated that mission. In 1970 he began to work on the Apollo Applications Program Saturn Workshop, later known as Skylab, and was officially selected as pilot of Skylab 2 in January 1972.”

Skylab 2, the first manned Skylab mission, was launched on May 25, 1973 and ended on June 22, 1973. Joining Weitz for the initial on-orbit repair, activation and 28-day flight qualification operations of Skylab were spacecraft commander Charles Conrad and science pilot Joseph Kerwin. In logging 672 hours and 49 minutes aboard the workshop, the crew established a new world record for a single mission. Weitz also logged two hours and 11 minutes in extravehicular activities.

Paul Weitz later admitted feeling really glad having been able to take command of NASA’s newest addition to the shuttle fleet in 1983. “As a crew we were glad to have the opportunity. It's a little distinction. Each crew, each mission looks for some distinction you like to hang your hat on. Flying the inaugural flight or the maiden flight with Challenger, we thought it was a good deal.”

As to the rest of the STS-6 crew assignments, Paul Weitz later explained he didn’t have any input. “The four names were just, ‘There they are. This is the F crew.’ It was Weitz, Bobko, Musgrave, and Peterson. So, no. As opposed to in Apollo, I think – it’s my understanding that the commanders, once they flew, well, they had to fly before. Typically they flew before being assigned as commander, and they had strong input into crew makeup.” He explained, “For example, Pete Conrad's first flight was with Gordo Cooper. After that, Pete's crew was always all Navy. He obviously had a strong input into the crew makeup. Because I wasn't a mission commander; I was the head of this F crew, but if we did fly, then the people were going to fly in these positions. I was going to get to fly. I never did care that much and I had confidence in the other three guys.”

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #42 on: 11/01/2013 08:30 pm »

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #43 on: 11/01/2013 08:32 pm »
PLT Karol Joseph “Bo” Bobko, Colonel USAF, was born in New York City on December 23, 1937, and graduated Brooklyn Technical High School in 1955. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Air Force Academy in 1959 and a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1970. Bobko received his wings in 1960 and from 1961 to 1965 flew F-100 and F-105 aircraft at Cannon AFB, New Mexico, and Seymore Johnson AFB, North Carolina. He then attended the Aerospace Research Pilots School at Edwards Air Force Base and in June 1966 was assigned as an astronaut in the USAF Manned Orbiting Laboratory program.

STS-6 was his first spaceflight, but Karol Bobko had already logged over 4,800 hours of flying time in the F-100, F-104, F-105, T-33 and T-38. In 1970, after he had transferred to NASA after the cancellation of the MOL program a year earlier, Bobko became a crewmember on the Skylab Medical Experiments Altitude Test (SMEAT) – a 56-day simulation of a Skylab mission, enabling crewmen to collect medical experiments baseline data and evaluate equipment, operations and procedures. He was joined by astronauts Robert Crippen and William Thornton. Bobko was also a member of the astronaut support crew for the joint U.S./Soviet ASTP mission in 1975.

Karol Bobko then became support crewmember for the shuttle Approach and Landing Test program and was assigned to the Orbital Flight Test group involved with ground tests and checkout of the orbiter Columbia. He worked as CapCom and chase pilot. But being assigned for his first spaceflight changed his outlook a lot, as he explained in a 2002 interview for the JSC Oral History Project. “It just changes the way you look at things. It’s not something out there in the mist; it’s up close and personal. So I think, you know, there’s a lot to be learned for a spaceflight, and it doesn’t seem like there’s ever enough time. You feel you want to learn it all, and it gives you a lot of incentive to work hard and try to learn as much as you can and get things as squared away as you can.”

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #44 on: 11/01/2013 08:34 pm »

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #45 on: 11/01/2013 08:36 pm »

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #46 on: 11/01/2013 08:38 pm »
MS2/EV2 Donald Herod “Don” Peterson, Colonel USAF, ret., was born in Winona, Mississippi, on October 22, 1933, where he graduated from Winona City High School. In 1955 he received a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, and later, in 1962, a master’s degree in Nuclear Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.

Astronaut biographer Michael Cassutt said, “Peterson elected to serve in the Air Force, and, after pilot training, served as an instructor with the Air Training Command until 1960.” After four years as a military training officer, Peterson continued three years as a nuclear systems analyst with the Air Force Systems Command. He was also a pilot with the Tactical Air Command and graduated from the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards AFB before being assigned to the Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory program in June 1967.

Also belonging to this third selection group of MOL astronauts was Major USAF James Alan Abrahamson, who since 1981 had been in charge of the Space Shuttle program and was soon to become the head of President Reagan’s “Star Wars” program – the Strategic Defense Initiative. Other than Abrahamson, after the cancellation of MOL in 1969, Donald Peterson had joined the NASA astronaut corps. He served in the astronaut support crew for Apollo 16 before being assigned to the shuttle program.

“He logged over 5,300 hours of flying time, including 5,000 hours in jets,” described Cassutt. “Peterson retired from the Air Force with the rank of Colonel in January 1980, though he remained at NASA in a civilian capacity.”
                                                                     
Being asked in the 2002 interview when he did learn of his selection for the STS-6 mission, Donald Peterson gave a surprising answer. “I don’t remember. Our flight got delayed. We trained for about, as I remember, thirteen months, and we were all ready to go, and then they had a hydrogen leak, and they couldn’t find it. We then got, like, a two- or two-and-a-half-month delay, and so we just kept on training. So we were in training for a long, long time.”

Peterson continued, ”So I had to have been told sixteen, seventeen, eighteen months before the time we actually flew, because we trained sixteen or seventeen months, all told. Of course, you had to know you were on the crew before you’d start training. But I don’t remember exactly how I found out. I don’t know whether Abbey called or Paul Weitz called. Somebody called on the phone and said, “I offer you a flight on STS-6 if you want to do that,” and it was always that kind of thing. But as I remember, it wasn’t a huge big deal. I mean, I just figured sooner or later I’d get a chance to fly, and when it came along, obviously I accepted.”

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #47 on: 11/01/2013 08:39 pm »

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #48 on: 11/01/2013 08:42 pm »
“DO WHAT THOU WILT” – THE NEVERENDING STORY

MS1/EV1 Franklin Story Musgrave, MD, was born August 19, 1935, in Boston, Massachusetts, but considered Lexington, Kentucky., to be his hometown. He graduated from St. Mark’s School, Southborough, Massachusetts, in 1953. Musgrave received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Statistics from Syracuse University in 1958, a Master of Business Administration degree in Operations Analysis and Computer Programming from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1959, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from Marietta College in 1960, a doctorate in Medicine from Columbia University in 1964, and a Master of Science in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Kentucky in 1966.

Also, following graduation from high school in 1953, Musgrave entered the Unites States Marine Corps and completed basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina. He completed training at the U.S. Naval Airman Preparatory School and the U.S. Naval Aviation Electrician and Instrument Technician School in Jacksonville, Florida. He served as an aviation electrician and instrument technician and as an aircraft crew chief while completing duty assignments in Korea, Japan, Hawaii, and aboard the carrier USS Wasp in the Far East.

By April 1979 Musgrave had flown 90 different types of civilian and military aircraft, logging over 10,800 hours flying time, including 4,300 in jet aircraft, and he held instructor, instrument instructor, glider instructor, and airline transport ratings. An accomplished parachutist, he made more than 330 freefalls – including over 100 experimental freefall descents involved with the study of human aerodynamics. He held an International Jumpmaster Class C license and was President and Jumpmaster of the Bluegrass Sport Parachuting Association in Lexington, Kentucky, from 1964 to 1967.

Story Musgrave was employed as a mathematician and operations analyst by the Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New York, during 1958. He served a surgical internship at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington from 1964 to 1965. He continued there as a USAF postdoctoral fellow (1965 to 1966), working in aerospace medicine and physiology and as a National Heart Institute postdoctoral fellow (1966 to 1967), teaching and doing research in cardiovascular and exercise physiology. Musgrave had written 30 scientific papers in the areas of aerospace medicine and physiology, temperature regulation, exercise physiology and clinical surgery. 

Dr. Musgrave was selected as one of 11 scientist astronauts in August 1967, “at a time when NASA was planning an ambitious series of Apollo lunar landings and scientific missions in Earth orbit,” said Michael Cassutt. “Within months budget cuts forced on NASA because of the Vietnam War eliminated most of the scientist astronauts’ flight opportunities.”

Musgrave completed astronaut academic training and a year of military flight training. He worked on the design and development of the Skylab program and became backup science pilot for Skylab 2. He served as CapCom for the Skylab 2 and 3 missions. From 1974 he was working on the development of the Space Shuttle; Musgrave was Mission Specialist on the first and second Spacelab Mission Simulations. He participated in the design and development of all shuttle EVA equipment, including spacesuits, life support systems, airlocks, and Manned Maneuvering Units. From 1979 to 1982 Musgrave was involved in testing computer software at the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory.

While preparing for future space missions, Musgrave continued clinical and scientific training as a part-time surgeon at the Denver General Hospital and was a part-time professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of Kentucky Medical Center.

Married to the former Patricia Marguerite Van Kirk of Patterson, New Jersey, Story Musgrave also was a father of five children: Lorelei Lisa (March 21, 1961), Bradley Scott (July 3, 1962), Holly Kay (December 13, 1963), Christopher Todd (May 12, 1965), and Jeffrey Paul (June 19, 1967). Among his recreational interests he listed bicycling, chess, flying, gardening, long-distance running, motorcycling, parachuting, photography, scuba diving, skateboarding, and soaring.

“Scientist, doctor, engineer, pilot, mechanic, poet and literary critic, Musgrave approached STS-6 with the characteristically philosophical outlook for which he was to become famous,” Ben Evans wrote in his book and quoted the space-age Renaissance man, “I got into this business to be on the intellectual and physical frontier. I wanted a transcendental experience – an existential reaction to the environment.”

Musgrave continued, “I’m not talking about an illusion or seeing something that wasn’t there, but a magical emotional reaction to the environment. That is what I’ve been after all my life: to experience and feel new sensations.” Evans wrote, “Musgrave has freely admitted that, even on his first flight, he exuded an aura of self-confidence ‘in myself and the mission. I knew what was going to happen – and it happened! I knew every valve, every switch and every number on this flight. It was sheer play for me to be able to so completely interact with my environment.’”

STS-6 crewmate Donald Peterson said, “Story was a fun guy to work with. On the job he is extremely dedicated, would just do anything. He’ll work twenty hours a day. He’ll do anything. If you say, ‘Story, we need some sandwiches.’
‘Yes, I’ll go get some.’
‘We need to put the garbage out.’
‘Yes, I’ll get that.’

He doesn’t argue about anything. He just does whatever needs to be done. It’s really delightful to work with a guy like that. I mean, I never understood some of that, but I’m not going to talk about Story on the (JSC Oral History Interview) tape. But he was really good to work with. Did a super job.”

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #49 on: 11/01/2013 08:46 pm »

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #50 on: 11/01/2013 08:48 pm »
JUST HAVING A BALL

Commander Weitz later remembered, “I had worked with Story more closely before, because he was Joe Kerwin's backup for our Skylab mission, and, of course, we would get together with the backup crew and compare notes and things like that. So, yes, I was quite familiar with Story. I'd worked with him a lot. As far as Bobko and Don Peterson, they had come from the MOL Program, the Air Force. So I really wasn't that familiar with those people, with Bo and Don.”

Weitz continued, “I think one thing is that Story was a little different, but he had been in the military. Story had been an enlisted Marine, so he had been in the military. And, of course, Bo and Don were former Air Force pilots and were Air Force officers. That's one good thing about flying with military people: they understand chain of command. I'm not saying that everything I said was God, because those guys would go off and we'd have crew discussions, and I think we used a reasonable approach to accommodating different points of view on a certain aspect of getting ready to go fly. But I was glad to have Bo and Don. I mean, they both performed, in my mind, admirably.”

And Don Peterson also had only fond memories of the F-Troop when being interviewed in 2002. “The crew was great. I don’t think in the whole time we were together we ever had a cross word, literally. And that’s unusual, because the training is really intense and very demanding, and you’re working long hours, and things go wrong, and there are delays, and there’s this and there’s that. The guys, everybody, just went along, and we got along great.”

“Of course, we picked on Story all the time, but I think he kind of liked it,” admitted Peterson. “I told him he was bald from licking his forehead and all that kind of stuff. But he was fun to work with, and none of that bothered him. I really enjoyed the guys. I really did. You couldn’t ask for anything to go better than the way our crew worked together, I don’t think.”

But that wasn’t a thing to be taken for granted. “Some crews hadn’t,” Peterson explained. “There were some crews that really didn’t get along. I mean, the guys were disciplined enough to do the job and cooperate and do what was necessary, but that’s got to be very unpleasant. And that went all the way back to some of the Apollo flights. Some of those guys didn’t really care for each other either. But you do what you need to do. But our group, we just had a ball with each other, and that makes it a lot more fun to work that way.”

(Ben Evans, “Space Shuttle Challenger,” Springer/Praxis, 2007; Michael Cassutt, “Who’s Who in Space,” The ISS Edition, Macmillan 1999; NASA JSC Biographical Data Sheets, 1979/1980, and NASA Oral History Interviews with Paul Weitz, Karol Bobko and Donald Peterson, 2000-2002; Rockwell International STS-6 Press Kit, March 1983; Dixon P. Otto, “On Orbit,” Main Stage Publications, 1986 – edited)

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #51 on: 11/01/2013 08:50 pm »
Mission STS-6 – A New Challenge in Space

“In the eyes of the world, Musgrave and Peterson’s spacewalk was the defining moment of STS-6, but when Paul Weitz’s crew was announced by NASA in March 1982 their key tasks were to evaluate Challenger’s spaceworthiness and insert the first TDRS into orbit. No spacewalk was planned.”

- Ben Evans, “Space Shuttle Challenger,” Springer/Praxis 2007


“So it was a bonus that I got them to add, I think, a day to our mission and to add an EVA. I think I did. It didn't take much work, as I remember, because we wanted to get this DTO, basically Detailed Test Objective, behind us, and get on with suit development. We had to find out how the things operated in the vacuum and weightlessness. So we got that.”

“Story was an MD, so I said,
‘Story, electrophoresis is your baby,’ because they used biological materials in it, so that was his. I was the captain of the ship. If they wouldn't let me do the EVA, then gosh dang it, I was just going to use my prerogative to only do the neat stuff, other neat stuff, which wasn't much. See, it's just like flying. The junior aviators get the best job. They get to fly all the time, because they don't know any better and because they don't have that many other responsibilities. The chiefs, they've got to do paperwork and planning and all that stuff. That's the way it is in the Shuttle missions, too. The commanders, they get the big label that says ‘Commander,’ but they don't get to do the fun stuff.”

- Paul Weitz, March 2000

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #52 on: 11/01/2013 08:54 pm »
STS-6 will be launched from Complex 39's Pad A at Kennedy Space Center. The launch window in April extends from 1:30 p.m. EST, to about 1:50 p.m. EST. The window's brevity is driven by sunset at Dakar, Senegal, for a trans-Atlantic abort. The window assumes a nominal landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California. STS-6 will be launched into a 298-km (185-mi.) circular orbit with an inclination to the equator of 28.5 degrees. The total payload weight up will be approximately 20,798 kg (45,853 lb.); payload weight down is estimated at 3,719 kg (8,200 lb.) The mission is designed to last 120 hours (5 days), 19 minutes, with landing scheduled for approximately 10:49 a.m. PST at Edwards.

The five-day first flight of Challenger is requiring only three sets of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks in the cargo bay which forms the storage portion of the Power Reactant Storage and Distribution System (PDRS) and the liquids used to activate the spacecraft’s fuel cells and provide necessary oxygen for the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS). The Remote Manipulator System, the 50-foot-long arm for handling payloads which can be attached and operated from the left side of the open cargo bay, is not on this flight of Challenger. It will be used in later flights. Challenger also will use a Ku-band antenna for later flights.

Challenger's primary cargo for STS-6 is the first of two Tracking and Data Relay Satellites which, by STS-9 in September 1983, will provide continuous voice and data from shuttle orbiters except for one narrow patch of "loss of signal" over Asia. The TDRS spacecraft are propelled to their geosynchronous parking orbits by Inertial Upper Stage solid-rocket two-stage boosters after deployment from Challenger's payload bay.

Mission specialists Don Peterson and Dr. Story Musgrave will don Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMU) on the fourth day of the flight to check out the new-generation shuttle spacesuits and to gain experience in simulated spacewalk tasks in the payload bay. A similar spacewalk was dropped from STS-5 when the suit pressure regulators and a fan malfunctioned.

STS-6 experiments include a reflight of the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System (CFES), flown earlier on STS-4. The system is in a module attached to the left middeck wall where food galleys later will be fitted in orbiters. Other STS-6 experiments are the Monodisperse Latex Reactor (MLR) and Nighttime/Daytime optical Survey of Lightning (NOSL). Three getaway specials (GAS) canisters in the payload bay contain experiments flown by the U.S. Air Force Academy, Park Seed Co., and Asahi Shimbun of Japan. In addition to payloads and experiments, two life sciences detailed test objectives are listed for STS-6: Validation of Predictive Test and Countermeasures for Space Motion Sickness, and Cardiovascular Deconditioning Countermeasures.

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #53 on: 11/01/2013 08:56 pm »
DEPLOYING TDRS-A

TDRS-A is the first of three identical spacecraft which are planned for the TDRS system. The TDRS system was developed following studies in the early 1970s which showed that a system of telecommunication satellites operated from a single ground station could better support the Space Shuttle and planned scientific and application mission requirements and, at the same time also halt the spiraling cost escalation of upgrading and operating a worldwide tracking and communications network of ground stations.

In addition to the Space Shuttle, the TDRSS will be equipped to support up to 26 user satellites simultaneously and will provide two basic types of service: a multiple access service which can relay data from as many as 20 low-data-rate-user satellites simultaneously, and a single access service which will provide two high data rate communication relays.

The TDRS spacecraft will be deployed from the orbiter Challenger approximately 11 hours after launch. Transfer to geosynchronous orbit will be provided by the solid propellant Inertial Upper Stage (IUS). Separation from the upper stage occurs approximately 17 hours after launch. Required earth pointing for TDRS commands and telemetry, plus thermal control maneuvers, will be done by the upper stage between first and second stage burns.

Deployment of the solar panels, C-band antenna and space-ground-link antenna occur prior to TDRS separation from the upper stage. The single access parabolic antennas deploy after separation and subsequent to acquisition of the Sun and Earth by spacecraft sensors utilized for attitude control. Attitude and velocity adjustments place the TDRS into its final geostationary position. The TDRS is three-axis stabilized with the body fixed antennas pointing constantly at the Earth while the solar arrays track the Sun.

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #54 on: 11/01/2013 09:00 pm »
TDRS-A DEPLOYMENT TIMELINE

MET 01:45:00 Payload bay doors open
MET 08:25:00 TDRS tilt table elevated to 29 degrees
MET 09:16:00 Final TDRS pre-deployment radio frequency check
MET 09:21:00 Final "go/no go" to crew for deployment
MET 09:38:00 IUS switched to internal power
MET 09:48:00 TDRS tilt table elevated to 59 degrees
MET 10:01:22 IUS/TDRS deployed from payload bay. (Orbit #8, 153 nm altitude)
MET 10:19:00 Orbiter performs OMS separation maneuver
MET 10:56:00 IUS first stage ignited for 2-minute, 31-second burn injecting TDRS into transfer orbit. (Range about 32 miles from orbiter) Transfer orbit phase (5 hours, 18 minutes), with IUS in thermal control mode. Five TDRS omni-directional antenna "dip-out" tests performed over tracking stations, two of which will involve the relay of commands from White Sands Ground Terminal
MET 16:14:00 IUS first stage jettisoned
MET 16:16:00 IUS second stage ignited for one-minute, 43-second burn, placing TDRS into geosynchronous orbit at 56 degrees west longitude
MET 16:33:00 Deployment of solar panels begins
MET 16:37:00 Space/ground link antenna deployed
MET 16:45:00 C-band antenna deployed
MET 16:51:00 Solar panels in operating configuration
MET 16:55:00 IUS separation from TDRS
MET 17:08:00 Single access antenna (Ku- and S-band) deployment begins
MET 19:35:00 Single access antennas fully deployed
MET 21:47:00 TDRS in operating configuration

Other deployment opportunities will be:

MET 11:27:00 Orbit #9
MET 13:00:00 Orbit #10
MET 24:05:00 Orbit #18

Offline Ares67

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #55 on: 11/01/2013 09:08 pm »
IT TAKES THREE TO DO THE JOB

The TDRS satellites are the largest privately owned telecommunications spacecraft ever built, each weighing about 2,268 kg (5,000 lb.). Each satellite spans more than 17.4 m (57 ft.) measuring across the solar panels. The single-access antennas, fabricated of woven molybdenum mesh and plated with 14K gold, each measure 4.9 m (16 ft.) in diameter, and when deployed, span more than 12.8 m (42 ft.) from tip to tip.

The TDRS satellites are composed of three distinct modules: an equipment module, a communications payload module, and an antenna module. The modular structure reduces the cost of individual design and construction efforts that, in turn, lowers the cost of each satellite.

The equipment module housing the subsystems that operate the satellite and the communications service is located in the lower hexagon of the spacecraft. The attitude control subsystem stabilizes the satellite so that the antennas have the proper orientation toward the Earth and the solar panels toward the Sun. The electrical power subsystem consists of two solar panels that provide a 10-year life span of approximately 1,700 watts power. The thermal control subsystem consists of surface coatings and controlled electric heaters.

The communications payload module is composed of the electronic equipment and associated antennas required for linking the user spacecraft with the ground terminal. The receivers and transmitters are mounted in compartments on the back of the single-access antennas to reduce complexity and possible circuit losses.

The antenna module is composed of four antennas. For single-access services, each TDRS satellite has two dual-feed S-band/Ku-band deployable parabolic antennas. These antennas are 4.9 m (16 ft.) attached on two axes that can move horizontally or vertically to focus the beam on orbiting spacecraft below. Those antennas are used primarily to relay communications to and from user spacecraft. The high bit-rate service made possible by these antennas is available to users on a time-shared basis.

Each antenna simultaneously supports two user spacecraft services (one at S-band and one at Ku-band). For multiple-access service, the multi-element S-band phased array of helical radiators is mounted on the satellite body. The multiple-access forward link (between TDRS and the user spacecraft) transmits command data to the user spacecraft. In the return link, the signal outputs from the array elements are sent separately to the White Sands Ground Terminal parallel processors.

A fourth antenna, a 2-m (6.5-ft.) parabolic reflector, provides the prime link for relaying transmissions to and from the ground terminal at Ku-band. The satellites are the first designed to handle telecommunications services through three frequency bands: S, Ku, and C.

The TDRSS network will have all three satellites in geosynchronous orbit, over the equator. TDRS East will be located at 41 degrees west longitude over the Atlantic Ocean; TDRS West will be 171 degrees west longitude, about mid-Pacific Ocean. The position of the TDRS in-orbit spare tentatively has been assigned a location of 79 degrees west longitude, which is over the Pacific just off the coast of South America. The second TDRS satellite is scheduled for launch in June 1983, on STS-8, with TDRS-C scheduled for March 1984 on STS-12.

Under contract, NASA has leased the TDRSS from the Space Communications Co. (SPACECOM) of Gaithersburg, Maryland, the owner, operator and prime contractor for the system. SPACECOM was established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Western Union Corp. in 1976. In late 1979, Western Union reached an agreement with Fairchild Industries, Inc. and Continental Telephone Corp. for each to acquire a 25 percent interest in SPACECOM. The company is under contract to NASA to provide 10 years of continuous telecommunication services beginning in 1983. TRW Space and Technology Group in Redondo Beach, California, and the Harris Government Communications System Division in Melbourne, Florida, are the two prime subcontractors under SPACECOM for spacecraft and ground terminal equipment, respectively.
« Last Edit: 11/01/2013 09:11 pm by Ares67 »

Offline Ares67

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #56 on: 11/01/2013 09:17 pm »

Offline Ares67

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #57 on: 11/01/2013 09:25 pm »

Offline Ares67

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #58 on: 11/01/2013 09:28 pm »

Offline Ares67

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Re: Challenger STS-6 – A Walk into History
« Reply #59 on: 11/01/2013 09:32 pm »

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