STS-77 Day 3 Highlights
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- On Tuesday, May 21, 1996, 7 a.m. CDT, STS-77 MCC Status Report # 5
reports:
- Endeavour's astronauts are focusing their attention today on
retrieving the Spartan satellite and returning it to the Shuttle's
payload bay.
- After being awakened at 12:30 a.m. CDT Commander John Casper, Pilot
Curt Brown and Mission Specialist Dan Bursch prepared for the
rendezvous while Mission Specialists Andy Thomas, Mario Runco and Marc
Garneau continued work on the orbiter's middeck and in the SPACEHAB
module.
- The retrieval operations began shortly after the crew was awakened
by the Fifth Dimension's "Up, Up and Away" in honor of the Inflatable
Antenna Experiment conducted yesterday as part of the Spartan mission.
The IAE was jettisoned later in the morning and is expected to enter
the Earth's atmosphere about 3 p.m. today.
- This morning's rendezvous is the first of four planned during the
mission. Following a series of jet firings, Endeavour will approach
Spartan to within a distance of about 30 feet, where Garneau will
extend the ship's robot arm to grapple the satellite for its berthing
back on its payload bay platform. After the retrieval of Spartan,
three more rendezvous are scheduled after tomorrow's deployment of a
technology demonstration satellite designed to test an aerodynamically
stabilized method of attitude control.
- Endeavour is currently in a 176-mile high circular orbit, completing
one revolution of Earth every 90 minutes. The crew will go to sleep at
3:30 this afternoon and wake up at 11:30 tonight.
- On Tuesday, May 21, 1996, 4 p.m. CDT, STS-77 MCC Status Report # 6
reports:
- Endeavour's third day in space was highlighted by the successful
retrieval of the Spartan- 207 satellite and its complement of data
from Monday's studies with the Inflatable Antenna Experiment.
- As Commander John Casper eased Endeavour within 35 feet of the
Spartan, Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau captured the satellite with
the Shuttle's robot arm at about 9:53 a.m. central time with Endeavour
176 statute miles above New Guinea. Before berthing Spartan back in
Endeavour's payload bay, the astronauts conducted a video and
photographic survey of the satellite attached to the robot arm.
- Inflatable Antenna Experiment investigators will not have an
opportunity to review the data stored on Spartan until after Endeavour
lands next week. The IAE itself remains in orbit and is now predicted
to reenter the Earth's atmosphere and burn up by about 4 a.m. central
time Wednesday.
- Meanwhile, the crew continued work with the variety of experiments
housed in the SPACEHAB module, including some troubleshooting of the
Fluid Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus, a soft-drink dispenser designed
to investigate the mixture of fluid and gas in weightlessness. The
troubleshooting was not completed, however, before the crew's day
ended.
- Early Wednesday morning, Mission Specialist Mario Runco will deploy
the PAMS-STU satellite from its canister in Endeavour's payload bay.
This investigation will demonstrate the passive stabilization of a
small satellite using aerodynamic stabilization and magnetic damping,
rather than propellant. The PAMS-STU satellite will not be retrieved
by Endeavour, but Commander John Casper and Pilot Curt Brown will
maneuver the orbiter to within 2000 feet of the satellite during three
separate stationkeeping exercises to take precise measurements of its
stability and to observe if its behavior matches the predicted models.
- Endeavour is currently in a 176-mile high circular orbit, completing
one revolution of Earth every 90 minutes. The crew will receive a
wake-up call from Mission Control at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.
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