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#260 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 16:45
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#261 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 16:47
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#262 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 16:50
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#263 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 16:53
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#264 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 16:55
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#265 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 16:56
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PAO (JSC/Jeff Carr): Houston now controlling; roll maneuver underway… maneuver complete, placing Atlantis on the proper heading. All systems performing well; engines at 104 percent…
Rising on a brilliant pillar of flame, Atlantis roared to the east from her Kennedy Space Center launch pad. The shuttle was visible along the entire Florida coast and as far north as South Carolina as it rode a 700-foot column of flame through the darkness. As it gained altitude, the shuttle appeared like the heated tip of a needle.
PAO: Engines throttling down now to help ease aerodynamic loads… Three engines at 72 percent, altitude 13, 14,000 feet, velocity 934 feet per second…
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#266 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 16:59
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#267 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 17:01
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#268 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 17:03
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#269 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 17:06
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PAO: Engines throttling up now… altitude 7.4 nautical miles, downrange distance 5 nautical miles… Crew given a go at throttle up; engines running now at 104 percent; three good APUs, three good fuel cells; altitude 11.3 nautical miles, downrange distance 8 nautical miles…
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#270 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 17:09
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#271 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 17:13
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PAO: A minute 45, altitude 16.9 nautical miles, downrange distance 16 nautical miles, velocity 3600 feet per second… SRB thrust beginning to tail off, a precursor to solid staging… We have separation confirmed…
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#272 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 17:15
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#273 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 17:17
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PAO: Standing by for first stage performance call… first stage performance of main engine and boosters were good; altitude now 36.9 nautical miles, downrange distance 56 nautical miles, velocity 4900 feet per second…
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#274 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 17:19
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FOR MILES AND MILES
Through clear skies, the glow of Atlantis' main engines was visible from the launch site for seven minutes, more than two-thirds of the way to MECO, as the shuttle sprinted across the Atlantic Ocean.
Tom Mintier (CNN/Atlanta): So in the nighttime sky you can see the two Solid Rocket Boosters falling away from Atlantis, as it begins its secret mission into space to deploy what is believed to be a 22,000-pound satellite; a satellite that some are saying is destined to either photograph or listen in to what is going on in Iraq and Operation Desert Shield. It’s the second secret satellite launch in less than a week’s time; last Monday a Titan was launched with a secret satellite, and now Atlantis has a secret satellite in its cargo bay. CNN’s John Zarella joins us now from the Kennedy Space Center. John, the weather was thought to be a problem earlier in the day; forecasts have been changing back and forth from 60:40 to 40:60. It appeared the weather was not a constraint.
John Zarrella (CNN/KSC): No, not at all. It was absolutely perfect, almost no problem at all at launch time. And that’s typical of the Florida weather. And as usual, a night launch, absolutely spectacular night launch here; clear skies. You could see it obviously for miles and miles. One of the interesting things usually with these secret DODs is the trajectory, the angle that the shuttle is going. And this one went just about straight up. It took forever before it actually got out over the water. Usually on nominal shuttle launches they move more quickly to the east. This one was going straight up for quite a long time. So, another one of these interesting DOD secret trajectories; where it’s going in the sky, Tom.
Mintier: Yeah, the 28.5 degree would indicate one type of satellite, and something a little bit stronger would indicate another. So, there is a great deal of observation going on, I’m sure, not only by American scientists, but others, trying to determine what can’t be determined. Right now, of course, we will be going into a blackout period and we won’t hear anything about the crew.
Zarrella: That’s exactly right.
Mintier: Alright. So we will continue to watch this mission. NASA will go into a period of radio silence; they will not report anything about the mission until landing, which is believed to occur in about four days. We of course will have the landing live for you here on CNN…
PAO: Two-engine TAL call; Atlantis can now reach the primary trans-Atlantic landing site with only two engines if necessary. Altitude 44.4 nautical miles, downrange distance 82 nautical miles, velocity 5700 feet per second; three engines continuing to burn at 104 percent; three good APUs, three good fuel cells; time 3:35…
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#275 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 17:20
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Atlantis continued climbing smoothly into darkness; she slowly dimmed to a speeding star and then winked from view more than 350 miles downrange. Jeff Carr, the voice of Mission Control – actually the only voice heard – kept calling out the milestones of the shuttle’s ascent into orbit.
PAO: Negative return – a return to the launch site is no longer an option as Atlantis continues downrange 120 nautical miles, altitude 51.7 nautical miles, velocity 700, 7,000 feet per second… Three engine burning well at 104 percent, three good APUs, Three good fuel cells… 4 minutes 40 seconds; all systems continuing to work very well; three engines at 104 percent; downrange distance now 175 nautical miles, altitude 56.7 nautical miles, velocity 8500 feet per second… 5 minutes 30 seconds; we’re now three minutes away from main engine cutoff; main engines continuing to burn well at 104 percent. Downrange distance now 255 nautical miles, altitude 59.9 nautical miles, velocity 10,000 feet per second… Crew told to press to ATO; that means Atlantis can now reach a safe orbit in the event of a single engine failure… Time 6 minutes 15 seconds, altitude 59.8 nautical miles, downrange distance 335 nautical miles; crew is given a press to MECO. Atlantis has now gained enough momentum to reach the normal engine cutoff targets even if one engine should fail. Three engines continuing to burn well at 104 percent; three good fuel cells, three good APUs… Crew given a single engine TAL call; Atlantis can now make a trans-Atlantic abort landing even in the event of a two-engine failure; three engines continuing to burn well at 104 percent; downrange distance now 418 nautical miles, altitude 59 nautical miles, velocity 15,000 feet per second… Time 7 minutes, just a minute 30 seconds from main engine cutoff, all systems continuing to work very well… Atlantis can now reach safe orbit with only one remaining engine should two engines fail; three engines continuing to burn well at 104 percent; three good APUs, three good fuel cells. Engines beginning to throttle back to maintain 3 g structural limitations on the vehicle; downrange distance 580 nautical miles, altitude 59 nautical miles, velocity 20,000 feet per second… Time 8:15, standing by for main engine cutoff… MECO confirmed. Main engines have cut off as planned. Atlantis now 768 nautical miles downrange, altitude 60 nautical miles, relative velocity 24,000 feet per second; three good APUs continuing to work well; three good fuel cells… We have ET sep confirmation… Atlantis’ Commander Dick Covey describing the ride as “Spectacular, nominal, nominal”… Atlantis and crew now off the External Tank… Powered phase of flight was picture perfect; absolutely no anomalies to report…
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#276 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 17:23
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As Atlantis settled into orbit under a communications blackout, NASA chief Richard Truly told reporters, "It was one of the smoothest launches I've ever seen. I'm glad to have another one airborne." The Pentagon-imposed secrecy surrounding the mission kept even the most routine conversations between the astronauts and mission controllers in Houston from the public. But Truly said all was well. "I talked to the guys in Houston a few minutes after lift-off," said Truly. "The bird looks great, and the crew is happy. We've got a good bird, a healthy crew and a good mission on the way," he said.
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#277 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 17:24
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#278 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 17:27
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GETTING THE SCORES
“I don’t remember much about the launch specifically, other than I do remember that my oldest daughter was not there,” Covey said during his 2007 interview for the JSC Oral History Project. “My daughter Sarah wasn’t there. It was the only launch that she missed, and the reason was that she was on the Clear Lake High School volleyball team, and they had won their region and she was on a bus heading to Austin to play in the state championship series.”
“So we had talked about what happens if – and made a decision that she would not go to the launch. She’d been to two, so she wouldn’t go to the launch; she would go with her team to the volleyball championship. So she was on a bus, actually, between here and Austin during the launch, and someone had to call her out. Back then we didn’t have a whole lot of cell phones, so I was not sure exactly what happened.”
Covey continued, “But the follow-on to that was when I was on orbit, I was getting the scores from them. They won the semifinals – yes, the semifinals, and then lost in the finals that year. But I got all that while I was on orbit. I’d get it in the teleprinter. It would come up in the message; they’d give me the scores.”
“We did not go very high, and you can read a lot into that,” said Covey. “We didn’t go very high because we couldn’t go very high, which says we probably had a heavy payload. But, you know, if you go back, there’s some stuff that’s in the statistics now and they talk about that. But that was the thing that was really unique about the whole mission is I don’t think we ever got up above about 135 nautical miles. Our insertion was low, maybe 125 miles or so, and then we went up a little higher after we deployed a payload.”
“So that put us in an orbit that was so different than my previous ones. It’s really low;” Dick Covey said later. “You know, you have a greater sense of – I mean, the proximity to the Earth makes a difference in how you look at it, what you can see. You can’t see as far to the north and south or ahead of you or behind you. But then when you’re looking down, you can see more things.”
(NASA KSC/JSC PAO live commentary, Nov. 15, 1990; Marc Carreau, The Houston Chronicle, Nov. 16, 1990; Deseret News, Nov. 16 & 17, 1990; Countdown, January 1991; Chronology of KSC and KSC Related Events for 1990, KHR-15, March 1991; Richard Covey, JSC Oral History Project interview, Feb. 7, 2001 – edited)
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#279 by Ares67 on 16 Dec, 2016 17:29
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