STS-67 Day 1 Highlights

Return to STS-67 Mission Summary

STS-67 MCC Status Report # 01 reports: The crew -- Commander Stephen S. Oswald, Pilot William G. Gregory, Payload Commander Tamara E. Jernigan, Mission Specialists John M. Grunsfeld and Wendy B. Lawrence, and Payload Specialists Samuel T. Durrance and Ronald A. Parise -- readied the shuttle and ASTRO-2 to support 15 and a half days of astronomical observations. The Blue Team of crew members -- Jernigan, Lawrence and Durrance -- were on duty mornings aboard the spacecraft while their fellow crewmembers, called the Red Team, slept. The Red crew members took over duties at about 10:52 a.m.

On Thursday, March 2, 1995 at 6 a.m. CST, STS-67 Payload Status Report # 01 states: (0/5:22 MET) Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan completed initial activation of the Spacelab pallet systems just before 4 a.m then began activating the Spacelab Instrument Pointing System. At 5:47 a.m., she raised it upright in the Shuttle cargo bay to face the heavens. Astronomers will use the pointing system to precisely track the stars and galaxies they study during the nearly 16-day mission.

Payload controllers and science teams at NASA's Spacelab Mission Operations Control center in Huntsville watched closely as Payload Specialist Samuel T. Durrance supplied power from the Spacelab to the telescopes shortly after 4 a.m., then started step-by-step procedures to activate the individual instruments. Samuel T. Durrance, an astronomer from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., is a veteran of the Astro-1 mission on STS-35 in December 1990, which was the maiden Shuttle flight for all three Astro telescopes.

On Thursday, March 2, 1995 at 8:00 a.m. CST, STS-67 MCC Status Report # 02 reports: The Blue Team -- Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan, Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence and Payload Specialist Sam Durrance will wrap up its first day on orbit shortly before noon Central time. The Red Team -- Commander Steve Oswald, Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission Specialist John Grunsfield and Payload Specialist Ron Parise will then continue with the science activities.

On Thursday, March 2, 1995 at 5:00 p.m. CST, STS-67 MCC Status Report # 03 reports: Activation and calibration of the Astro-2 ultraviolet telescopes are continuing slightly behind schedule following a steering jet leak that has twice forced closure of the instruments protective doors. The leak is in a reaction control system thruster designated R4R, a jet in the right aft orbital maneuvering system pod that is aimed to the right of the shuttle. Flight controllers worked with the crew to close the manifold that supplies oxidizer and fuel to that jet, which effectively stopped the leak.

The doors on the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope, the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment and the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope were first closed to protect the instruments from any remaining oxidizer coming out of that jet after the manifold was closed. Once the thruster's propellant lines had been evacuated, the telescope doors were reopened. The doors were briefly closed again while residual propellant downstream of the closed manifold dissipated, but are now open and all scheduled operations have resumed.

The failed jet, which is not being used to position the orbiter for its science operations, is not a safety hazard in any way, and does not affect the mission duration. The flight control team is looking at options in dealing with the jet, but has not yet decided whether any additional actions will be necessary.

On Thursday, March 2, 1995 at 6 p.m. CST, STS-67 Payload Status Report # 02 reports: (0/17:22 MET) Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan continued checkout of the Instrument Pointing System, on which the three ultraviolet telescopes are mounted. The crew reported success with their first automatic star identification procedure at about 6:30 a.m. CST, verifying that the pointing system can center accurately on the celestial objects Astro-2 science teams will choose to view.

Payload Specialist Sam Durrance finished activating the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, then completed the more complicated procedures to put the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope into operation. Pilot Bill Gregory, Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld and Payload Specialist Ron Parise took over operations from the first crew at 11:30 a.m. The two crew teams are working 12-hour shifts, so astronomical observations can continue around the clock.

Activation and verification of the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo- Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) detector was delayed by difficulties keeping it aligned with a test target, but the WUPPE science team and Parise corrected the problem after several attempts. Alternate Payload Specialist John-David Bartoe reported from the ground, "Ron, the WUPPE folks are ecstatic down here, and they like everything they see."

Astro telescope verification was interrupted briefly at around 1:15 p.m., when ground controllers closed the telescope doors to prevent contamination by oxidizer leaking from one of Endeavour's reaction control system thrusters. The thruster was closed less than hour later, and Parise reopened the doors.

During the telescope shutdown, Grunsfeld continued checking out the Instrument Pointing System and the Image Motion Compensation System, which keeps the WUPPE instrument and the imaging telescope on target despite subtle disturbances. Johnson Space Center controllers declared the Instrument Pointing System operational at 1:53 p.m., and they transferred control of the equipment to the Marshall Center payload team for science activities.

Parise and Grunsfeld then began an extended procedure called Joint Focus and Alignment, one that is unique for space telescopes to the Astro-2 payload. Since all three instruments often make simultaneous observations of the same objects, science teams must be certain they are pointing in precisely the same direction and are in near-perfect focus. Final focusing and calibration of the Hopkins and Wisconsin instruments will continue through the first half of the upcoming shift. Astro-2 observations of the ultraviolet sky will then begin.

On Thursday, March 2, 1995 at 8 a.m. CST, STS-67 MCC Status Report # 04 reports: The Instrument Pointing System continues to perform well. The preliminary assessments of IPS stability and accuracy show that the system is operating well. Control loop software, gyro and accelerometer response have been good, and Optical Sensor Package performance has been excellent with two of three trackers slightly exceeding performance expectations. IPS controllers in Houston are currently tracking no problems or issues, and team members do not anticipate a change in the IPS's performance.

The payload control team at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., however, is looking at several reported excursions in ASTRO-2's pointing abilities that have required the crew to repeatedly fine tune the instruments after establishing the platform's reference point for celestial observations. Controllers in Houston and Huntsville are working on procedures that will reduce the number of calibrations needed.

On Thursday, March 2, 1995 at 6 a.m. CST, STS-67 Payload Status Report # 03 reports: (1/5:22 MET) Pilot William Gregory maneuvered the orbiter into different attitudes, or positions throughout the night. Payload Commander Tammy Jernigan, Mission Specialists John Grunsfeld and Wendy Lawrence, and Payload Specialists Ronald Parise and Samuel Durrance coordinated with science teams at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, performing procedures to align and focus the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT), Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) and Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) last night. Approximately 23 hours after launch, the Astro-2 instruments, nestled in Endeavour's cargo bay, were being calibrated before observations of the invisible universe began.

While still in the calibration, or Observatory Commissioning Phase, two of the three Astro-2 instruments, HUT and UIT science teams, were locked onto an ancient supernova remnant. This supernova remnant is the result of a powerful explosion, which ended the life of a massive star many thousands of years ago, and was used as a calibration target for the telescopes. During this mission, HUT's spectrographs will help scientists determine temperatures, densities and chemical compositions of gases in the supernova remnant while the UIT will image the filaments of excited gas in the supernova remnant. HUT Guest Investigator Dr. John Raymond of Cambridge, Mass., will obtain information about the shock waves energizing these nebulae.

The first science observation for Astro-2, a supernova remnant known as Cygnus Loop, began just before the Space Shuttle Endeavour crossed the South Atlantic Anomaly early this morning. Since this South Atlantic area is a region of intense particle radiation that can affect detectors in the telescopes, crew members secured the instruments until the orbiter had moved away from the anomaly. The observation of Cygnus Loop then continued until the supernova remnant was out of the telescopes' field of view.

The HUT telescope continues in the calibration phase. HUT, developed at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, has a 36-inch mirror to focus ultraviolet light into a spectrograph in the middle of the telescope. This spectrograph "spreads" light into a spectrum, or band of colors, based upon the wavelength of the light. Principal Investigator Dr. Arthur Davidsen and his colleagues will study these spectra to determine the chemical composition, temperature, densities and motion of the celestial objects being observed during Astro-2.

The UIT made its first deep, wide-field photographs in ultraviolet light overnight. After Endeavour lands, Principal Investigator Theodore Stecher and the UIT science team in Greenbelt, Maryland, will study the images made by this telescope during this 16-day mission, looking for answers to astronomical questions such as the shapes of nearby galaxies in the ultraviolet, the properties of massive hot stars in these galaxies, the evolution of low-mass stars in clusters, and the nature of the dust and gas that fill the space between stars.

Go to STS-67 Flight Day 2 Highlights: