STS-61-A was the 22nd Space Shuttle mission. It was a scientific
SpacelabSpacelab was a reusable laboratory flown into space on the Space Shuttle. It allowed scientists to perform experiments in microgravity in Earth orbit...
mission funded and controlled by
West GermanyWest Germany is a common English name for the period of the Federal Republic of Germany between its' formation in May 1949 to German reunification in October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic was dissolved and the five states on its territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany,...
- hence the non-NASA name D-1 (for
Deutschland 1). It was also the last successful mission of the
Space Shuttle ChallengerSpace Shuttle Challenger was NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, Columbia being the first. Its maiden flight was on April 4, 1983, and it completed nine missions before breaking apart 73 seconds after the launch of its tenth mission, STS-51-L on January 28, 1986, resulting...
. STS-61-A holds the
recordThis is a list of spaceflight records. Most of these records relate to human spaceflights, but some unmanned and canine records are included.-Longest human single flight:...
for the largest crew, eight people, aboard any single spacecraft for the entire period from launch to landing.
The Space Shuttle mission carried the NASA/ESA
SpacelabSpacelab was a reusable laboratory flown into space on the Space Shuttle. It allowed scientists to perform experiments in microgravity in Earth orbit...
module with 76 experiments, and was declared a success.
STS-61-A was the 22nd Space Shuttle mission. It was a scientific
SpacelabSpacelab was a reusable laboratory flown into space on the Space Shuttle. It allowed scientists to perform experiments in microgravity in Earth orbit...
mission funded and controlled by
West GermanyWest Germany is a common English name for the period of the Federal Republic of Germany between its' formation in May 1949 to German reunification in October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic was dissolved and the five states on its territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany,...
- hence the non-NASA name D-1 (for
Deutschland 1). It was also the last successful mission of the
Space Shuttle ChallengerSpace Shuttle Challenger was NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, Columbia being the first. Its maiden flight was on April 4, 1983, and it completed nine missions before breaking apart 73 seconds after the launch of its tenth mission, STS-51-L on January 28, 1986, resulting...
. STS-61-A holds the
recordThis is a list of spaceflight records. Most of these records relate to human spaceflights, but some unmanned and canine records are included.-Longest human single flight:...
for the largest crew, eight people, aboard any single spacecraft for the entire period from launch to landing.
The Space Shuttle mission carried the NASA/ESA
SpacelabSpacelab was a reusable laboratory flown into space on the Space Shuttle. It allowed scientists to perform experiments in microgravity in Earth orbit...
module with 76 experiments, and was declared a success. Payload operations were controlled by GSOC from
OberpfaffenhofenOberpfaffenhofen is a village which is part of the municipality of Weßling in the district of Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany. It is 20 kilometers from the city center of Munich....
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
instead of the regular NASA centers.
Crew
Backup crew
Mission parameters
- Mass
In physics, mass commonly refers to any of three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent: inertial mass, active gravitational mass and passive gravitational mass...
:
- Orbiter liftoff: 110,568 kg
- Orbiter landing: 97,144 kg
- Payload: 14,451 kg
- Perigee: 319 km
- Apogee: 331 km
- Inclination
Inclination in general is the angle between a reference plane and another plane or axis of direction.- Orbits :The inclination is one of the six orbital parameters describing the shape and orientation of a celestial orbit...
: 57.0°
- Period
The orbital period is the time taken for a given object to make one complete orbit about another object.When mentioned without further qualification in astronomy this refers to the sidereal period of an astronomical object, which is calculated with respect to the stars.There are several kinds of...
: 91.0 min
Mission highlights
The Orbiter
Challenger lifted off from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, KSC,
at noon EST on October 30, 1985. This was the first
Space ShuttleThe Space Shuttle, part of the Space Transportation System , is a spacecraft operated by NASA for orbital human spaceflight missions. It began operations in the 1980s and is scheduled to be retired from service in 2010 after 134 launches...
mission largely financed and operated by another nation,
West GermanyWest Germany is a common English name for the period of the Federal Republic of Germany between its' formation in May 1949 to German reunification in October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic was dissolved and the five states on its territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany,...
. It
was also the first
Space ShuttleThe Space Shuttle, part of the Space Transportation System , is a spacecraft operated by NASA for orbital human spaceflight missions. It began operations in the 1980s and is scheduled to be retired from service in 2010 after 134 launches...
flight to carry a crew of eight. The
primary mission was to operate a series of experiments, almost all related
to functions in microgravity, in Spacelab D-1, the fourth flight of a
Spacelab. Two other mission assignments were to deploy the Global Low
Orbiting Message Relay Satellite (GLOMR) out of a
Getaway SpecialGetaway Special was a NASA program that offered interested individuals or groups, opportunities to fly small experiments aboard the Space Shuttle...
canister
in the cargo bay, and operate five materials processing experiments
mounted in the cargo bay on a separate device called the German Unique
Support Structure.
NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
operated the
Space ShuttleThe Space Shuttle, part of the Space Transportation System , is a spacecraft operated by NASA for orbital human spaceflight missions. It began operations in the 1980s and is scheduled to be retired from service in 2010 after 134 launches...
, and was responsible for overall
safety and control functions throughout the flight. West Germany was
responsible for the scientific research carried out during the seven-day
mission. To fulfill this function
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
scientific controllers on the
ground worked closely with the personnel in orbit, operating out of the
German Space Operations Center at
OberpfaffenhofenOberpfaffenhofen is a village which is part of the municipality of Weßling in the district of Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany. It is 20 kilometers from the city center of Munich....
, near
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
, West
Germany. The orbiting crew divided into two teams, and operated 24-h a
day. Communications were very good throughout the mission and the ground
and orbital crews were able to interact regularly. The overall system of
one Center controlling spacecraft operations and a second controlling
experiment functions worked very smoothly in practice.
The GLOMR satellite was successfully deployed during the
mission. The five experiments mounted on the separate structure behind
the Spacelab module obtained good data. Orbiter
Challenger landed on
Runway 17 at Edwards AFB on November 6, 1985. The wheels stopped rolling at 12:45 p.m. EST, after a mission duration of 7 days, 0 h, and 45 min. The crew members were Henry W. Hartsfield, Jr., commander;
Steven R. NagelSteven Ray Nagel is a retired Colonel in the USAF and a former NASA astronaut.-Personal data:Born October 27, 1946, in Canton, Illinois. Married to fellow astronaut Linda M. Godwin of Houston, Texas. Two daughters. His hobbies include sport flying and music. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ivan R....
, pilot;
Bonnie J. DunbarBonnie Jeanne Dunbar is a retired NASA astronaut. She retired from NASA in September 2005 and is currently the president and CEO of The Museum of Flight.-Early life:...
, James F. Buchli and Guion S. Bluford, mission specialists; and
Ernst MesserschmidErnst Willi Messerschmid is a German physicist and former astronaut.Born in Reutlingen, Germany, Messerschmid finished the Technisches Gymnasium in Stuttgart in 1965. After two years of military service he studied physics at the University of Tübingen and Bonn, receiving diploma degree in 1972 and...
and
Reinhard FurrerReinhard Alfred Furrer was a German scientist and astronaut.Furrer was born in Wörgl, Austria . After the end of World War II, his father was expelled from Austria. The family found a new home in Kempten im Allgäu, Bavaria. Furrer stayed there until he joined the University of Kiel to study physics...
, West Germany, along with
Wubbo OckelsWubbo Johannes Ockels is a Dutch physicist and astronaut. In 1985 he participated in a flight of the space shuttle, making him the first and only Dutch citizen in space, until the flight of Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers to the International Space Station in 2004. He is not the first Dutch-born...
,
European Space Agency|owner = |headquarters = Paris|spaceport = Guiana Space Centre|image = ESA LOGO.svg|size = 240px|acronym = ESA|established = 1975|administrator = Jean-Jacques Dordain...
, payload specialists, encompassed some 75 numbered experiments, most of which were performed more than once. Some of these experiments had predecessors
which had returned data obtained on earlier flights. This made it possible to prepare experiment regimens that were 'second generation' with respect to technical concept and experiment installation. Almost all of them took advantage of the microgravity environment to perform work not possible, or very much more difficult to do, on
EarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun. It is the fifth largest of the eight planets in the solar system, and the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in terms of diameter, mass and density...
. The major area of concentration was materials science, in which West Germany has a well developed expertise.
The primary areas of experiment concentration were: fluid physics, with experiments in capillarity, Marangoni convection, diffusion phenomena, and critical point; solidification experiments; single crystal growth; composites; biological, including cell functions, developmental processes, and the ability of plants to perceive gravity; medical, including the gravitational perceptions of humans, and their adaptation processes in space; and speed-time interaction studies of people working in
spaceSpace is the boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction. Physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of the boundless four-dimensional...
.
One equipment item of unusual interest was the Vestibular
Sled, an ESA contribution consisting of a seat for a test subject that
could be moved backward and forward with precisely controlled
accelerations and stops, along rails fixed to the floor of the
SpacelabSpacelab was a reusable laboratory flown into space on the Space Shuttle. It allowed scientists to perform experiments in microgravity in Earth orbit...
aisle. By taking detailed measurements on a human strapped into the seat,
scientists gained data on the functional organization of the human
vestibular and orientation systems, and the vestibular adaptation
processes under microgravity. The acceleration experiments by the sled
riders were combined with thermal stimulations of the inner ear and
optokinetic stimulations of the eye.
Overall, this was the most comprehensive series of experiments
to date on materials processing in space and associated human activities,
adding a rich store to humanity's knowledge. The data that was gained
will require years of analysis.
Dedicated German Spacelab (D-1) mission conducted in long module configuration, which featured Vestibular Sled designed to give scientists data on functional organization of human vestibular and orientation systems. Spacelab D-1 encompassed 75 numbered experiments, most performed more than once. Mission included basic and applied microgravity research in fields of materials science, life sciences and technology, and communications and navigation. Though orbiter controlled from Johnson Space Center, scientific operations controlled from German Space Operations Center at Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich. Other objectives: Global Low Orbiting Message Relay (GLOMR) satellite deployed from Get Away Special canister.
This was the Shuttle Challengers last successful mission before the
STS-51-LSTS-51-L was the twenty-fifth flight of the American Space Shuttle program, which marked the first time a civilian had flown aboard the Space Shuttle...
disaster.
See also
- Space science
Space science is an all-encompassing term that describes all of the various science fields that are concerned with the study of the Universe, generally also meaning "excluding the Earth" and "outside of the Earth's atmosphere". Originally, all of these fields were considered part of astronomy...
- Space shuttle
The Space Shuttle, part of the Space Transportation System , is a spacecraft operated by NASA for orbital human spaceflight missions. It began operations in the 1980s and is scheduled to be retired from service in 2010 after 134 launches...
- List of space shuttle missions
- List of human spaceflights chronologically
External links