STS-78 was the fifth dedicated Life and Microgravity
SpacelabSpacelab was a reusable laboratory flown into space on the Space Shuttle. It allowed scientists to perform experiments in microgravity in Earth orbit...
mission for the
Space Shuttle programNASA's Space Shuttle, officially called Space Transportation System , is the United States government's current manned launch vehicle. The winged Space Shuttle orbiter is launched vertically, usually carrying five to seven astronauts and up to 50,000 lb of payload into low earth orbit...
, flown partly in preparation for the
International Space StationThe International Space Station is an internationally developed research facility currently being assembled in Low Earth Orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled to be completed by 2011, with operations continuing until at least 2015...
project. The mission used the Space Shuttle
Columbia, which lifted off successfully from
Kennedy Space Center’sThe John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA space vehicle launch facility and Launch Control Center on Merritt Island, Brevard County, Florida, United States. The site is near Cape Canaveral, midway between Miami and Jacksonville, Florida. It is long and around wide, covering . A total of...
launch pad 39-BLaunch Complex 39 is a rocket launch site at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida, USA. The site and its collection of facilities were originally built for the Apollo program, and later modified to support Space Shuttle operations...
on the June 20, 1996.
- 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...
: 9,649 kg payload
- Perigee: 246 km
- Apogee: 261 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...
: 39.0°
- 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...
: 89.6 min
- Research into the effects of long - duration spaceflight on human physiology in preparation for flights on the International Space Station.
- 22 life science & microgravity experiments using the Orbiter’s pressurised Life & Microgravity Spacelab module (LM2).
- Tests into the use of the Orbiter’s Reaction Control System
A reaction control system, abbreviated RCS, is a subsystem of a spacecraft. Its purpose is attitude control and steering. An RCS system is capable of providing small amounts of thrust in any desired direction or combination of directions. An RCS is also capable of providing torque to allow control...
jets to raise the altitude of orbiting satellites.
During the 16-day, 21-hour mission, the crew of
Columbia assisted in the preparations for the International Space Station by studying the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body in readiness for ISS Expeditions, and also carried out experiments similar to those now being carried out on the orbital station.
Following launch,
Columbia climbed to an altitude of 173 miles (278 km) with an orbital inclination of 39° to the
Earth's Earth 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...
equatorThe equator is the intersection of the Earth's surface with the plane perpendicular to the Earth's axis of rotation and containing the Earth's center of mass. In simpler language, it is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole that divides the Earth...
to allow the seven-member flight crew to maintain the same sleep rhythms they were accustomed to on Earth and to reduce vibrations and directional forces that could have affected on-board microgravity experiments.
Once in orbit, the crew entered the 40 foot (13 m) long pressurised Spacelab module to commence over 40 science experiments to take place during the mission.
STS-78 was the fifth dedicated Life and Microgravity
SpacelabSpacelab was a reusable laboratory flown into space on the Space Shuttle. It allowed scientists to perform experiments in microgravity in Earth orbit...
mission for the
Space Shuttle programNASA's Space Shuttle, officially called Space Transportation System , is the United States government's current manned launch vehicle. The winged Space Shuttle orbiter is launched vertically, usually carrying five to seven astronauts and up to 50,000 lb of payload into low earth orbit...
, flown partly in preparation for the
International Space StationThe International Space Station is an internationally developed research facility currently being assembled in Low Earth Orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled to be completed by 2011, with operations continuing until at least 2015...
project. The mission used the Space Shuttle
Columbia, which lifted off successfully from
Kennedy Space Center’sThe John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA space vehicle launch facility and Launch Control Center on Merritt Island, Brevard County, Florida, United States. The site is near Cape Canaveral, midway between Miami and Jacksonville, Florida. It is long and around wide, covering . A total of...
launch pad 39-BLaunch Complex 39 is a rocket launch site at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida, USA. The site and its collection of facilities were originally built for the Apollo program, and later modified to support Space Shuttle operations...
on the June 20, 1996.
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...
: 9,649 kg payload
- Perigee: 246 km
- Apogee: 261 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...
: 39.0°
- 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...
: 89.6 min
Mission objectives
- Research into the effects of long - duration spaceflight on human physiology in preparation for flights on the International Space Station.
- 22 life science & microgravity experiments using the Orbiter’s pressurised Life & Microgravity Spacelab module (LM2).
- Tests into the use of the Orbiter’s Reaction Control System
A reaction control system, abbreviated RCS, is a subsystem of a spacecraft. Its purpose is attitude control and steering. An RCS system is capable of providing small amounts of thrust in any desired direction or combination of directions. An RCS is also capable of providing torque to allow control...
jets to raise the altitude of orbiting satellites.
Mission highlights
During the 16-day, 21-hour mission, the crew of
Columbia assisted in the preparations for the International Space Station by studying the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body in readiness for ISS Expeditions, and also carried out experiments similar to those now being carried out on the orbital station.
Following launch,
Columbia climbed to an altitude of 173 miles (278 km) with an orbital inclination of 39° to the
Earth's Earth 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...
equatorThe equator is the intersection of the Earth's surface with the plane perpendicular to the Earth's axis of rotation and containing the Earth's center of mass. In simpler language, it is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole that divides the Earth...
to allow the seven-member flight crew to maintain the same sleep rhythms they were accustomed to on Earth and to reduce vibrations and directional forces that could have affected on-board microgravity experiments.
Once in orbit, the crew entered the 40 foot (13 m) long pressurised Spacelab module to commence over 40 science experiments to take place during the mission. Not only did these experiments make use of the module’s laboratory, but also employed lockers in the middeck section of the
Columbia Orbiter herself. Thirteen of the experiments were dedicated to studying the effects of microgravity on the human body, whilst another six studied the behaviour of fluids and metals in the almost weightless environment and the production of metallic alloys and protein crystals. The crew also carried out the first ever comprehensive study of sleep patterns in microgravity, research into bone & muscle loss in space, and in-flight fixes to problem hardware on the Bubble, Drop and Particle Unit (BDPU), designed to study fluid physics.
The mission also featured a test into the use of a procedure that was later used during the second
Hubble Space TelescopeThe Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by the space shuttle in April 1990. It is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Although not the first space telescope, the Hubble is one of the largest and most versatile, and is well-known as both a vital...
servicing mission to raise the telescope’s altitude without damaging the satellite’s solar arrays. During the test,
Columbia’s vernier Reaction Control System jets were gently pulsed to boost the Orbiter’s altitude without jarring any of the mission payloads. The test was entirely successful, and was later employed by
Discovery during
STS-82STS-82 was a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission by Space Shuttle Discovery. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on February 11, 1997 and returned to earth on February 21, 1997 at Kennedy Space Center.-Crew:...
, and is also currently used to boost the orbit of the ISS during visits by Shuttles.
The mission encountered no significant in-flight problems, was the 78th Space Shuttle mission, and the 20th mission for
Columbia.
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