Atlantis STS-38 – Roundtrip Ticket

#220 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:58
November 2: WAIVER ON “THREE-WEEK RULE” POSSIBLE
Atlantis may be ready for launch on a secret military mission as early as Nov. 15, no more than six days behind schedule, if work to fix problems with the ship's spy satellite payload goes well, sources say. In addition, NASA managers are leaning toward waiving an internal agency rule requiring three weeks between shuttle flights, a move that would allow the recently repaired shuttle Columbia to lift off on schedule around Nov. 30. One usually reliable source said agency officials decided yesterday to waive the rule, but that could not be immediately confirmed.

Atlantis and her five-man all-military crew were cleared Tuesday for blastoff on the 37th shuttle mission the night of Nov. 9 to carry a Pentagon spy satellite into orbit. But the Air Force announced an indefinite delay Wednesday, citing problems with the classified payload. Sources initially said the flight faced a delay of at least a week to 10 days and possibly more than two weeks. Officials who asked not to be named said yesterday, however, that the problem did not appear to be as serious as they first believed and that Atlantis might be ready for flight as early as Nov. 15.

But under a Pentagon-imposed security blanket, NASA officials refused to discuss possible launch dates, saying when Atlantis takes off is up to the Air Force. Engineers at nearby Launch Pad 39B, meanwhile, are readying Columbia for lift-off on her ten-day astronomy mission that has been delayed since May by a series of hydrogen fuel leaks. Before Atlantis was grounded, NASA managers hoped to launch Columbia around November 30 in line with an internal space agency rule requiring three weeks between shuttle missions so data from one flight can be analyzed before launching the next.

But if NASA officials waive the three-week rule – and Atlantis lifts off November 15 – engineers at the Kennedy Space Center would be faced with launching two Space Shuttles within 15 days. But because Atlantis's mission is a classified Department of Defense flight, details about scheduling are difficult to confirm. Even so, shuttle program director Robert Crippen said in a statement yesterday that Atlantis still has priority over Columbia. Crippen did not address the three-week rule, saying only that Columbia would not be launched on mission STS-35 until data from Atlantis STS-38 can be studied.

Out at Pad 39A, the Flash Evaporator System water loop A on Atlantis has been deserviced today to allow the replacement of a valve module. The water loop will be reserviced November 3. Routine dye penetrant tests of the main engine high pressure fuel ducts are underway today. (Deseret News, Nov. 2, 1990 – edited)

November 2: MCCARTNEY OPENS NEW EXERCISE TRAIL NEAR O&C BUILDING
Kennedy Space Center Director Forrest McCartney today opened a new exercise trail near the Operations & Checkout Building in the space center’s industrial area. The new three-quarter-mile trail was planned with an emphasis on muscle toning as well as cardiovascular conditioning and includes twenty different exercise stops. Dr. Paul Buchanan, Biomedical Operations and Research Office Director, said, “It’s been well proven that exercise is a powerful antidote to stress and disease. This new outdoor trail will give employees a chance to enjoy the Florida outdoors while improving their health and well-being. It’s a self-paced exercise opportunity, starting with stretching and warming up routines. Along the path are several different muscle-strengthening activities, followed by a cool-down zone that will provide stretching activities to end the exercise.” (Phillips, KSC News Release No. 178-90, Oct. 31, 1990 – edited)
#221 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:58
November 2: PRESIDENT BUSH TO JOIN U.S. TROOPS FOR A DESERT THANKSGIVING
President Bush will celebrate Thanksgiving with American troops in the blistering heat of Saudi Arabia where he will also consult with regional leaders about the 3-month-old standoff with Saddam Hussein, the White House said today. Meanwhile, Iraqi officials gave their "word of honor" that the families of hostages would be allowed to come and go freely if they visit Iraq at Christmas. Iraq called Western governments "inhumane" for urging hostage families to ignore its invitation for holiday reunions. It allowed some American, Japanese and British hostages to meet journalists on today to try to dispel Western reports of mistreatment.

Bush's long-anticipated trip was formally announced as the President dug in against the Iraqi dictator, saying that "no one wants a peaceful solution more than I do, (but) no one is more determined to reverse" Saddam's "naked aggression" against occupied Kuwait. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the November 22 visit with the troops will cap an eight-day trip by the president with several stops in Europe and the Persian Gulf region. First Lady Barbara Bush was expected to accompany the President. Fitzwater, accompanying Bush on his six-day cross-country campaign tour on behalf of GOP candidates in next Tuesday's elections, said Bush will leave Washington November 16.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said today, "I don't believe we can maintain a large American presence in Saudi Arabia for an extended period of time." He told an awards luncheon for business journalists in New York that this would be playing into the hands of nationalist forces. Kissinger said he supports an effort in the gulf, but "I do not believe we can create a defense arrangement based on an extended American presence there." (Deseret News, UPI / AP, Nov. 3, 1990 – edited)
#222 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 00:59
November 4: ATLANTIS LAUNCH PREPARATIONS CONTINUE
Work to ready Atlantis for the STS-38 is proceeding; closeouts of the orbiter’s aft compartment are in work. Dye penetrant tests of the main engine high pressure fuel ducts were successful. A functional check of the crew hatch was successfully completed this weekend. The two “emergency” space suits now are scheduled to be installed in the airlock tomorrow. Also tomorrow, the orbiter’s Flash Evaporator System will be topped off. Purges of the External Tank are planned for November 6. (KSC Shuttle Status Report, Nov. 5 & 6, 1990 – edited)

November 5: MCCARTNEY COMMENTS ON OPF “DRUG FIND”
“I think they are absolutely, totally unrelated,” Kennedy Space Center Director Forrest McCartney said today. “There is no evidence at all to indicate that substance abuse of any kind has been a factor in any of the incidents that we have had.” On November 2, a small bag of a white substance suspected to be cocaine was found under a desk inside the Orbiter Processing Facility. NASA has an ongoing investigation and no arrests have been made. McCartney added, “I think what we have is nothing more than an individual that has, unfortunately, a habit, and we have happened upon the substance that they use.”

In April, NASA began random drug testing of civil service employees in sensitive positions at KSC. Many of the center’s contractors conduct pre-employment drug tests as well as test of employees suspected of drug use. Leo Serrano, Director of a Wuesthoff Hospital (Rockledge, Florida) laboratory, said of the drug find, “For the most part, our experience with the people at the space center has shown they’re all very responsible individuals.” According to statistics Serrano has compiled, the incidence of drug use at KSC is lower than at other places of employment.

Aerospace and defense industry employees tested positive for drug use 0.3 percent of the time, compared with the country-wide average of 8.3 percent, Serrano remarked. Construction and service industry workers tested positive 10 percent of the time, he said. One reason Serrano offered for the low drug use rate among space center employees is that aerospace and defense industries don’t send prospective employees in for drug testing until a thorough background check has been completed. McCartney said that drug use at Kennedy Space Center must be curbed. Workers identified as drug users will be given the choice of drug rehabilitation or termination, he said. (Banks, Florida Today, Nov. 6, 1990 – edited)

November 7: DOD CARGO PROBLEM SOLVED – ATLANTIS READY FOR NOV.15 LAUNCH
The Department of Defense’s classified AFP-658 payload inside Atlantis cargo by has been declared ready to fly. “After we had set launch for November 9, the payload folks discovered a problem they had to go work on as we were going through our normal tests in preparation for flight,” Space Shuttle Director Robert Crippen said. “They have done that and successfully solved their problem.”

NASA managers today set November 15 as the new target launch date for mission STS-38. Start of the four-hour launch opportunity period remains at 6:30 p.m. EDT - the same as for the delayed November 9 attempt. “Processing of Atlantis for the STS-38 mission is going well,” said Bob Crippen. Purges of the three electricity-generating orbiter fuel cells are scheduled tomorrow, and installation of ordnance devices on Friday, November 9. “If the remaining scheduled work for STS-38 goes as planned an no unexpected obstacle arise, I’m confident that we will launch on November 15th and that we’ll be flying Columbia sometime in early December.”

In other business, Crippen said a new shuttle manifest may be published by the end of November. But rather than set dates as in past manifests, a window showing the earliest and latest possible launch dates will be issued. Also, for flights more than three years away, only a general month or quarter of a year may be announced as the launch time.

NASA also announced today that an investigative team led by former astronaut John Young did not find a “common cause” for a series of shuttle processing mishaps at Kennedy Space Center. The group examined nine serious incidents at the space center over the past 13 months. The primary cause for most of the accidents, said the Young panel, was a lack of training and failure to write work procedures clearly. A failure to follow work procedures was noted.

The investigation team made several recommendations: (1) team engineer and technicians in the workplace; (2) train technicians to specialists in certain processing tasks; (3) improve communications between supervisors and technicians. (JSC Space News Roundup, Nov. 9, 1990; Chronology of KSC and KSC Related Events for 1990, KHR-15, March 1991 – edited)
#223 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 01:01
November 7: IRAQ VOWS TO RELEASE MORE HOSTAGES
Iraq said today it would free 120 more hostages, most of them Germans but including a few Americans, and 74 Japanese nationals flew to freedom after three months of captivity in Iraq. The official Iraqi News Agency said 100 Germans would be freed at the intervention of former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, who met with President Saddam Hussein today. The report said the move reflected the Baghdad government's "appreciation for the German policy which does not support trends toward war." It said 20 hostages of other nationalities would be freed as well, including an unspecified number of Americans, Britons, Italians and others. The announcement did not say when they would be freed. But the release of the Japanese hostages who left Baghdad today had been announced only yesterday.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III, meanwhile, said the use of military force against Iraq cannot be ruled out. Baker is on a week-long mission sounding out allies on their willingness to go to war. He was in Turkey today and will stop in Moscow, Paris and London. He told reporters in Ankara that the United States seeks a peaceful solution to the gulf crisis. But he added that "we cannot rule out the possible use of force before we see that the matter is resolved peacefully."

Baker also denied reports he gave Iraq an ultimatum to get out of Kuwait in the next two weeks. The reports by Israel army radio and stations in Luxembourg and Monte Carlo said Baker had asked his Chinese counterpart, Qian Quichen, to tell Saddam Hussein that U.S. forces would attack if he didn't comply. Baker met with Qian in Cairo, Egypt, on yesterday. (Deseret News, UPI / AP, Nov. 7, 1990 – edited)
#224 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 01:03
#225 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 01:06
November 8: PRESIDENT BUSH ORDERS MASSIVE NEW BUILDUP
President Bush is ordering more than 150,000 additional American troops to the Persian Gulf, a move that nearly doubles U.S. firepower in the region and marks a fundamental shift toward an offensive military stance. Bush said today in announcing the new wave of troop deployments for Operation Desert Shield that he still hoped to get Iraq out of Kuwait without starting a war. But he said he wanted an "adequate offensive military option" in case United Nations economic sanctions and diplomatic pressures against Iraq prove futile.

Analysts said the move brought the United States closer to war with Iraq. "The Iraqis, in effect, are being put on notice that they will be attacked" unless they withdraw from Kuwait under Bush's terms, said Frank Gaffney Jr., director of the Center for Security Policy and a former Pentagon official. The scale of the additional U.S. troop deployments is enormous. Once the added forces are in place, America will have more troops in the gulf region than it had in Europe during the Cold War when the perceived enemy was a nuclear superpower. About one-third of the Army's worldwide force will be in the Saudi desert.

About 230,000 U.S. air, ground and sea forces now are in and around Saudi Arabia, and a coalition of other Western and Arab nations have put at least 100,000 troops in the gulf area. The Iraqi force in Kuwait and southern Iraq is estimated at 430,000. Full deployment of the units listed today by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, who gave details of the new buildup, would add more than 150,000 troops to the U.S. forces there, Pentagon officials said in private conversations. Bush and Pentagon officials refused to disclose the numbers, but the new deployment should more than double the number of U.S. tanks in Saudi Arabia, to about 2,000, judging from organization charts and estimates by Army sources. The Pentagon estimates that Iraq has about 3,500 tanks in and around Kuwait.

Bush said he hoped Iraqi President Saddam Hussein viewed the stepped-up U.S. deployments to the gulf as evidence that the Western and Arab coalition arrayed against him was serious about using military force if diplomatic and economic pressures fail. "If this movement of force is what convinces him, so much the better," Bush said. He added later, "When he surveys the force that's there he will recognize that he is up against just a foe that he can't possibly manage militarily."

The president also said he was heartened by reports from Secretary of State James A. Baker III that the Soviet Union would not oppose passage of a U.N. resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq as a last resort to liberate Kuwait. Administration officials had strongly hinted in recent weeks that additional U.S. Army units would be sent to Saudi Arabia, but there had been little indication that Bush would order such a large increase in naval and Marine power.

Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-Rhode Island, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed skepticism about the buildup. "I am concerned that the administration is moving to establish an offensive capacity in advance of a U.N. resolution authorizing offensive action," Pell said. He said the international trade embargo against Iraq has not had "a decent chance to produce results." (Deseret News, Nov. 9, 1990 – edited)

November 9: TIME FOR NATION TO PREPARE FOR WAR?
Members of Congress say President Bush's massive deployment of nearly 200,000 additional U.S. forces to the Persian Gulf is a signal to the nation to get ready for war. "I think the American people need to prepare themselves for a major conflict in the Middle East," said Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Montana, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee. There was cautious support for the latest military buildup, but one Republican criticized Bush for acting without broad advance consultation with Congress.

"This is a major change, and they're missing a bet, frankly," said Rep. William Broomfield, R-Michigan, the senior GOP member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The whole question is one of putting more pressure on Saddam Hussein. But if you want the broadest support, Congress has got to be in on the takeoff as well as the landing," he said today. Bush's failure to contact lawmakers could eventually undermine the gulf policy, Broomfield said, adding that he and committee Chairman Dante Fascell, D-Florida, asked Bush in an Oct. 26 letter to be kept informed of any additional deployment or change in mission of U.S. troops.

Bush is to meet with congressional leaders Wednesday, November 14, to discuss the gulf situation. Fascell said it remained to be seen whether the military buildup will force Saddam to withdraw from Kuwait. "From what we know about him, it is unlikely he can be bluffed," Fascell said in a statement. "This means that we cannot keep increasing our forces in Operation Desert Shield unless we are ready, willing and able to use them in offensive operations."

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he agreed with Bush's decision if the step was taken to enhance the diplomatic and political efforts to unseat Saddam. However, if Bush has abandoned that approach, "then I suggest the President get the Congress back here immediately," Dodd told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference."If you send in these troops and you end up with 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 kids coming back to this country in body bags to liberate a scorched Kuwait, I'm not sure you're going to find a tremendous amount of support or approval for the President," Dodd said.

Elsewhere, Rep. Charles Rangel was harshly critical of Bush's action. "With this troop buildup, the President is sending every signal that instead of seeking peaceful solutions, he plans to rush the nation into war," Rangel said. Rangel, D-N.Y., suggested that while many U.S. allies have placed a stronger emphasis on a diplomatic solution, "the President really seems to be going his own way on this." Sen. Steve Symms, R-Idaho, said he wouldn't second guess Bush. The President "has sole responsibility for assuring we have adequate military might," he said. (Deseret News, Nov. 10, 1990 – edited)

November 9: EX-CHANCELLOR LANDS IN GERMANY WITH 174 NEWLY FREED HOSTAGES
Former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, today from Baghdad with three Americans and 171 other Westerners whose freedom he obtained from Saddam Hussein. One of the Americans, Miles Hoffman, 33, of Columbus, Georgia, shot in the arm by Iraqi forces in Kuwait, was immediately taken off the plane and taken to the U.S. Air Force Hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany, for a checkup, Air Force Captain Tom Gilroy said. Hoffman, a financial analyst with the Kuwaiti government at the time of Iraq's invasion, was shot when Iraqi soldiers tried to force their way into his Kuwait City apartment September 5, according to reports from Columbus. The bullet shattered a bone in his left forearm and he was hospitalized for about a week, the reports said. A second American, Don Swanke, 66, of Westlake Village, California, also was taken to the hospital in Wiesbaden, 25 miles west of Frankfurt, for a precautionary checkup, Gilroy said. Swanke lost 33 pounds during his captivity.

The airport rang out with the cheers of the hundreds on hand for the arrival of the former hostages as the German jetliner touched down. Relatives who hadn't seen each other since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2 wept and embraced as they emerged from the plane. Some held signs reading, "Thank you, Mr. Brandt." Others departed the plane carrying children; one woman hugged Brandt.

"Good riddance," Hoffman told TV cameras at the airplane boarding counter in Baghdad as he clutched his U.S. passport and boarding documents. His arm was in a cast and he seemed to be in pain. Swanke and his wife, Brenda Swanke, were presented to reporters by U.S. authorities. Also on the plane were nationals from Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, Holland, Portugal, Belgium, Norway and Luxembourg, the German carrier Lufthansa said. Earlier reports of a Canadian aboard could not be confirmed. The airline's manifest only listed nationalities, not names.

Brandt said upon his departure that he had discussed with Saddam efforts to achieve a durable and solid settlement for the problems of the Middle East. At the Baghdad airport, Brandt told a news conference he was carrying proposals for settling the three-month-old gulf crisis. "I need a weekend to go through my notes and put together what I have," Brandt said, refusing to elaborate. (Deseret News, Nov. 10. 1990 – edited)

November 10: BAKER: WE BELIEVE WE ARE TOTALLY UNITED
Secretary of State James A. Baker III on today claimed success in his mission to shore up the anti-Iraq coalition, but the Baghdad government accused the United States of dragging its allies toward a war they did not want. Baker flew back to Washington after a weeklong round of diplomacy that ended with talks in Paris. After meeting with French President Francois Mitterrand, he expressed satisfaction with the state of the alliance that came together after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's troops seized Kuwait on August 2.

"We believe we are totally united," the secretary of state told reporters. "We have built a consensus; we have increased the pressure on Saddam Hussein." But, he added, "We must heighten the pressure further. Indeed we have to lay the foundation for the use of force should that become necessary. Clearly, one way to do that is to get ready militarily."

During Baker's trip, U.S. officials said the American contingent in the gulf would be increased by up to 200,000 troops. Already, about 230,000 U.S. forces are deployed in the region, facing 430,000 Iraqi troops in southern Iraq and Kuwait. Iraq's foreign minister said the plans to dramatically strengthen the U.S. deployment proved that Washington had planned an offensive from the beginning. The Iraqi official, Tariq Aziz, said President Bush had misled the governments of Saudi Arabia and Egypt and other nations about the true mission of the multinational force. (Deseret News / AP, Nov. 11, 1990 – edited)
#226 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 01:08
November 10: STS-38 – NOW THAT IT’S HERE, IT’S REAL EXCITING
“We’re doing pretty good and are not tracking any major problems,” said Lisa Malone, Kennedy Space Center spokeswoman. Launch preparations of Atlantis proceeded without a hitch during the last 48 hours. Today technicians prepared to close Launch Complex 39A for hazardous operations on the orbiter. Workers will make the final connections of ordnance devices used to separate the orbiter from its ET and SRBs.

The countdown begins at 10:30 p.m. EST tomorrow, a day earlier than usual; NASA officials would not discuss the change, but there’s a connection to the Air Force Titan IV launch at Cape Canaveral scheduled for about seven o’clock Monday evening. On Tuesday, November 13, the STS-38 astronaut crew will arrive at KSC to prepare for lift-off Thursday evening. "We've been through a lot of interesting times over the past few months to say the least," said Conrad Nagel, the NASA official in charge of Atlantis' pre-launch operations. "Now that it's here, it's real exciting." (Banke, Halvorson & Brown, Florida Today, Nov. 10/11/12, 1990; Deseret News, Nov. 11, 1990 – edited)

November 11: ATLANTIS SOMEWHAT AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
Today, Atlantis onboard fuel storage tanks will be pressurized and final checks of her rear engine compartment will be completed. Dick Young, KSC spokesman, said, “They’re running somewhat ahead of schedule,” referring to launch processing. At 10:30 tonight the countdown begins for Atlantis’ STS-38 mission. (Brown, Florida Today, Nov. 11, 1990 – edited)

November 12: ATLANTIS COUNTDOWN UNDERWAY
All Atlantis countdown events are proceeding without problems. Closeouts of the aft compartment are complete; one of the flight doors was installed early this morning and workers are attaching another door today. KSC launch team members are involved in routine operations to ready the STS-38 vehicle for lift-off. Some of those jobs include loading software into the orbiter’s onboard computers, checking out the main engine controllers for flight and preparations to load the orbiter’s onboard fuel cells with liquid hydrogen and oxygen reactants.

Ordnance devices were installed on the weekend and the firing circuits were checked. Atlantis’ hypergolic propellant tanks have been pressurized for flight. Weather forecasts for the launch period November 15 indicate there is a 40 percent chance that the overall conditions will be acceptable for lift-off. Launch day weather concerns are crosswinds at the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility, chance of ceilings below 8,000 feet and showers in the area. Scattered clouds are forecast between 4,000 and 7,000 feet and between 30,000 and 33,000 feet. Winds are expected to be out of the northeast at 12 knots with peak winds at 25 knots. (KSC Shuttle Status Report, Nov. 12, 1990)

November 12: ANOTHER SIGNIFICANT LAUNCH
The shuttle countdown for STS-38 was held up for six hours today to allow the Cape Canaveral focus to shift to an Air Force Titan IV. The 18-story Titan IV launch vehicle roared aloft from CCAFS Pad 41 at 7:37 p.m. EST. The launch marked the third flight for the $173million booster since it was introduced in 1989. Air Force Titan IV program manager Colonel Frank Stirling called tonight’s secret mission a success. “This is another significant launch for America’s space program,” said Martin C. Faga, Air Force Assistant Secretary for Space. Originally scheduled for a September launch, the Titan IV launch was delayed by a nitrogen tetroxide leak and again when the rocket’s nose cone had to be removed and cleaned.

The classified payload aboard the Titan IV is believed to have been a Defense Support Program missile warning satellite. The 33-feet-long DSP, weighing 5,200 pound, is expected to undergo extensive systems checks for the next two or three months before becoming operational, probably bound for duty monitoring Iraq. The DSP, stationed at geostationary orbit 22,300 miles high, uses an infrared telescope to detect missile launches. (Halvorson, Florida Today, Nov. 13, 1990; Hoversten, USA Today, Nov. 13, 1990; Countdown, January 1990 – edited)
#227 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 01:09
#228 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 01:10
November 13: ORBITERS DON’T DO DRUGS!
Analysis of the white powdery substance found in a bag inside KSC’s Orbiter Processing Facility has revealed that it was not cocaine, as originally suspected. KSC spokesman Dick Young said the white powder turned out to be calcium hydrogen phosphate. According to Scott McCord, a Titusville High School teacher, the chemical is commonly used in chemistry classes for various experiments and is also used in aerospace industry to calibrate machinery. The bag found on November 2 also contained traces of polyethylene oxide. Neither is a controlled substance. (Halvorson, Florida Today, Nov. 14, 1990; JSC Space News Roundup, Nov. 16, 1990 – edited)

November 13: ATLANTIS ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT KSC
“The countdown is underway and we haven’t had any problems so far,” said Lisa Malone, KSC spokeswoman, as launch preparations continued without a hitch. The all-military crew of STS-38 arrived at Kennedy Space Center today in preparation for the scheduled launch of Atlantis on Thursday. Air Force weather officials, however, say there is a 70 percent chance that winds will be too high for launch. The winds result from a high pressure weather system over Canada heading for Florida, where it will likely encounter a low pressure tropical system which is expected to move into the Space Coast from the south. The convergence will likely produce strong crosswinds at the Shuttle Landing Facility. High winds would make it difficult to land the orbiter at KSC should an emergency occur during the first minutes of flight. Wind speed could also damage the shuttle during launch.

On arrival at about 5:30 p.m. EST, nonetheless, Commander Richard Covey said, “It’s great to be back down here.” He referred to previous trips to Florida when the launch of Atlantis had to be cancelled due to liquid hydrogen fuel leaks which are now repaired. The astronauts were welcomed with a banner which read “Go Atlantis STS-38.” (Banke, Florida Today, Nov. 14, 1990; KSC Shuttle Status Report, Nov. 13 & 14, 1990 – edited)
#229 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 01:12
November 13: JSC PLANS FOR CLASSIFIED SHUTTLE MISSION
The Johnson Space Center newsroom in Building 2 will not operate on a 24-hour basis during the upcoming Space Shuttle mission STS-38. The newsroom will remain open on launch day until approximately one hour after the astronaut crew has been cleared to remain in orbit. On subsequent days of the flight, the newsroom hours will be 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. CST.

Launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the Department of Defense-dedicated mission is scheduled to take place within a launch period of between 5:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. CST Thursday, November 15. A landing day and period is expected to be announced approximately 24 hours after launch. Because of the classified nature of the mission, there will be no NASA Select Television or public affairs commentary except during launch and landing operations.

A welcome home ceremony for the STS-38 is being planned at Ellington Field, but because of the classified nature of the mission the exact day and time weren’t immediately available. The ceremony outside Hangar 990 will begin about seven hours after Atlantis lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California. When the exact day and time of the ceremony become available, they will be reported on the Employee Information Service. (Steve Nesbitt, JSC NASA News Release No. 90-053, Nov. 13, 1990; JSC Space News Roundup, Nov. 16, 1990 – edited)

November 14: VEHICLE LOOKS GOOD AS WEATHER FORECASTS IMPROVE
“The vehicle looks good and the countdown is proceeding without a hitch,” said KSC spokesman Bruce Buckingham. The exact time of the Department of Defense STS-38 mission will not be announced until nine minutes before launch, but lift-off is expected to come during a launch window extending from 6:46 to 8:12 p.m. EST tomorrow. Meanwhile, the shuttle's all-military crew conducted STA airplane training flights and attended routine status briefings on the vehicle, payload and weather.

Pad workers completed activation of the orbiter’s communications system, tested Atlantis’ navigation aids, prepared the tail service masts for launch and installed the crew seats in the crew cabin. The Rotating Service Structure will be moved to the launch position away from the vehicle this afternoon, the gaseous oxygen vent arm will be prepared for launch, and the Inertial Measurement Units will be activated and warmed up.

Forecasters dropped the odds of hazardous crosswinds at the shuttle's emergency runway from 70 percent to 40 percent. The runway and others overseas must be available during the early minutes of the launch should trouble develop that would force an emergency landing. The crosswind limit at the Kennedy strip is 12 knots, and easterly gusts of up to 25 knots are predicted for the launch period. A slight chance of rain showers within the 30-mile restrictive zone also is probable. Otherwise, scattered to broken clouds from 4,000 to 7,000, between 30,000 and 33,000 feet, and a temperature in the low 70s are forecast. (KSC Shuttle Status Report, Nov. 14, 1990; Mark Carreau, The Houston Chronicle, Nov. 15, 1990; JSC Space News Roundup, Nov. 16, 1990 – edited)

November 15: APOLLO TOWER GROUP RECEIVES $25,000 GRANT
The Apollo 11 Society today received a $25,000 grant from the Florida Bureau of Historical Preservation to aid in the reconstruction of the launch tower from which the Apollo 11 mission left for the Moon. The tower was cut into sections in 1983 and is stored in a fenced area in the rear of the Kennedy Space Center industrial area.

The National Park Service has asked the Apollo 11 Society to conduct a study to determine the best site for the tower. In October, the U.S. House of Representatives supported the concept of naming the tower a national monument. Several locations in Titusville are being considered for the erection and the city has given another $25,000 to the project.

Titusville’s Senior Planner Wes Hoaglund intends to ask the Brevard County Tourist Development Council for $50,000. It will cost at least $20 million to reconstruct the tower, depending on the project design. The Society plans to choose a national spokesman to spearhead the fund-raising effort. (Long, Florida Today, Nov. 16, 1990 – edited)
#230 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 15:34
Thursday, November 15, 1990 (Launch Day) – Another one airborne

“We’re ready to get out of town.”

- Richard Covey, Commander Atlantis STS-38, during final countdown

THE LAST SECRET MISSION

Today’s launch of Atlantis STS-38 will be the last Department of Defense mission for the Space Shuttle, though two unclassified missions will take place next year. Over the next five years, half of Kennedy Space Center workers – about 8,000 – will lose their security clearances, according to KSC Security Chief Gary Wistrand. Workers holding secret clearances are re-investigated every five years and most of the approximately 8,000 who are due to lose their clearances will simply not have them renewed.

The exception, according to Wistrand, is for security personnel who must have immediate access to any KSC facility. About 35 persons whose work was devoted entirely to maintaining military shuttle program security – such as classified document handling and communication systems configuration – are being phased out of those jobs and reassigned to other duties. “We began preparing for this about two years ago, so most workers that would be impacted have been placed in other positions,” Wistrand said.

Kennedy Space Center will gain in one respect: The space center will have sole control of a second fully-equipped control room needed to test and launch the shuttle. The room, from which Atlantis will be launched today, is a secure, dedicated Department of Defense facility. After the launch, the control room – and a second less-equipped facility in the KSC Launch Control Center – will be turned over to NASA and refitted for civilian space applications at a cost of $6 million which will be borne by the Department of Defense.

Launch Director Robert Sieck says the additional rooms are not expected to affect shuttle processing operations, although having them will provide managers with more flexibility. “We use it now for non-secure mission operations,” Sieck said. “The only time we got into a bind was when we had two Defense Department flights in a flow.”

The Air Force has said that unmanned rockets, principally the Titan IV, will be used in the future to launch secret spy and communications satellites. Colonel Frank Stirling, who heads the Titan IV program, said unmanned rockets offer greater reliability than NASA's fleet of three and ultimately four shuttles. "With Titan we have a continuing production line with many Titans available, so that if we should ever have a problem or an outage with the vehicle, we would still be able to recover and continue operations," he said.

(Brown, Florida Today, Nov. 15, 1990; Deseret News, Nov. 16, 1990 – edited)

ROADS CLOSED FOR LAUNCH

Kennedy Parkway and NASA Causeway will close today at 12:30 p.m. EST because of Pentagon plans to launch a classified cargo aboard Atlantis tonight. Spaceport USA will close two hours later and tourists will be ordered to leave the grounds, officials said. Families with car passes will be admitted after 2:30 p.m. EST. Car passes for the public are not available for Pentagon launches.

(Florida Today, Nov. 15, 1990 – edited)

NO PROBLEM OF SIGNIFICANCE AT ALL

After a four-month delay, Atlantis and her crew were finally ready to go. “When we got to November it turned out that the launch was a night launch,” said Commander Richard Covey. “That in itself wasn’t particularly new to me, since we had launched very close to night on my first mission (STS 51-I). It felt like a night launch when it actually happened because of the clouds that were there, even though it was right at sunrise.”

“But going to the launch pad in the dark, which I had done before, is always an interesting experience, because you get to see things that you don’t necessarily see in the daytime, like the hydrogen burning off and away, and the lights, the way things are lit up is very, very interesting and surrealistic out at the launch pad with the big xenon lights and all of the burn-off and the hissing and the gases and stuff that are moving around out there. It’s pretty neat,” said Covey.

Gusty winds, periodic cloudy skies and a launch pad cooling system failure injected a dose of suspense into the final hours of the STS-38 launch countdown; it actually had begun four days earlier and was only interrupted on Monday, November 12, for six hours to allow another military payload to be launched on an unmanned Titan IV from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The shuttle’s launch time was not revealed until nine minutes before lift-off to thwart efforts by foreign countries to track the shuttle's path. Tanking operations began at 10:20 a.m. EST on Thursday, November 15, and no significant fuel leaks were reported during the process of propellant loading.

A momentary communication problem appeared to delay the lift-off one to two minutes, but Launch Director Robert Sieck was adamant later, "There was no problem of any significance at all." The winds created the most drama as they gusted well above the 12 knot limit for safe use of the shuttle's emergency landing runway. But as the Sun set, Air Force meteorologists noted a drop in the wind speeds and raised the odds of acceptable conditions from 40 percent to 70 percent. Weirdly, the winds picked up again after Atlantis was off.
#231 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 15:37
PAO (KSC/Lisa Malone): This is shuttle launch control. We are in the final hours of the STS-38 launch countdown at this time. Everything is proceeding smoothly here in Firing Room 3 in the Launch Control Center and at Launch Pad 39A. Lift-off of Atlantis’ seventh mission into space will occur sometime during the four-hour launch period that begins one hour from now. Mission STS-38 is dedicated to the Department of Defense and all mission objectives and details are classified. For a nominal end of mission landing will occur at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The day and period of landing will be announced approximately 24 hours (before landing).

This launch will mark the fifth launch in darkness in the history of the shuttle program. STS-8 in August of 1983 was the first night launch; the second was 61-B in November 1985; (STS-33) launched last November was also a night launch; and the most recent one was this year, in February, on mission STS-36.

The five-member flight crew for mission STS-38 is currently onboard the vehicle. The commander is Richard Covey, a Colonel in the United States Air Force and a veteran astronaut who was pilot on the STS-26 mission in September of 1988. Atlantis’ pilot is Navy Commander Frank Culbertson, Jr., who will be making his first trip into space. Two of the three mission specialists are rookies – U.S. Army Captain Charles, or “Sam” Gemar, and U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Carl Meade. Mission Specialist Robert Springer, a Colonel in the United States Marine Corps, flew on the STS-29 mission in March of 1989.

The crew has been preparing the orbiter for launch and has made voice checks with test conductors here in the firing room and with flight controllers in Mission Control Houston. In the last few hours the External Tank has been loaded with its flight load of a half-a-million gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. There were no problems at all during our tanking operations and the eight-member ice team has made an inspection of the vehicle and measured temperatures of the vehicle and launch tower. It reported no anomalies and that they’re ready for launch.

The only other issue that has occurred during our countdown was a unit that is used at the launch pad to provide cooling air to the vehicle. It’s a piece of ground equipment. It did fail and we replaced it with another spare; that was completed in the last couple of hours, and we do have two units up and operating for tonight’s launch.
#232 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 15:40
PAO: At this time there is a 30 percent chance that we will violate our RTLS crosswind level of 12 knots and we’re keeping a close eye on that. At the current time the forecast is favorable and we’ve got scattered clouds predicted in the area; winds are easterly at about 14 knots, peaking to 22 knots. The expected temperature is about 70 to 75 degrees, and we’re expecting about 70 miles of visibility…
#233 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 15:41
#234 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 15:45
PAO: This is shuttle launch control, now looking at the flight crew for STS-38 earlier today… we’ve got Mission Specialist Carl Meade; he’s making his first trip today into space… Mission Specialist Robert Springer, he’s making his second trip into space… Commander Richard Covey… we’ve got Pilot Frank Culbertson making his first trip into space tonight… and Mission Specialist Sam Gemar, who was recently promoted; he’s now a Major in the United States Army…
#235 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 15:48
PAO: The STS-38 patch, crew patch insignia is on the traditional cake in the center of the table. The patch was designed to represent and pay tribute to all men and women who contribute to the Space Shuttle program. The top of the orbiter has the stylistic Orbital Maneuvering System burn…
#236 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 15:50
PAO: This is the flight crew getting ready in the suit-up room. They are assisted with their launch and entry suits… Mission Specialist Carl Meade… Pilot Frank Culbertson giving a thumbs-up… The suits are rather bulky and the flight crew does need assistance getting into them. This is Commander Richard Covey… that’s Mission Specialist Sam Gemar, and Mission Specialist Robert Springer…
#237 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 15:53
#238 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 15:54
After donning their flight suits, the astronauts left their quarters in the Operations and Checkout Building and, at 3:35 p.m. EST, headed for Launch Complex 39A, arriving at about 4:00 p.m. EST.
#239 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 15:57
PAO: The crew now departing the Operations and Checkout Building… Here’s Commander Covey, Pilot Culbertson, Mission Specialists Sam Gemar, Carl Meade and Robert Springer being greeted by employees here at Kennedy Space Center… Astronaut Dan Brandenstein also rode out with the flight crew. He is going to fly in the Shuttle Training Aircraft this (evening) checking out weather patterns in the area prior to our launch… the astronaut van now departing the O&C Building… Again, this was a pre-recorded tape of events that happened earlier today. The crew is now onboard the vehicle and has made some checks, voice checks with test conductors here in the firing room, and also with mission controllers in Houston. All is continuing to go well in our countdown this evening. No problems reported. This is shuttle launch control.