STS-75 Day 1 Highlights
Return to STS-75 Mission Summary
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- On Thursday, February 22, 1996, 5:30 p.m. CST, STS-75 MCC Status Report # 01
reports:
- About four seconds after liftoff, Shuttle Commander Andy Allen
reported that his instruments showed that one of the shuttle main
engines was operating at only 45% of its normal power level. Flight
controllers in Houston quickly responded that all engines were
performing nominally. The engines throttled as expected about 1
minute into the launch, and operated normally all the way to main
engine cutoff at 8 and a half minutes into the flight. Engineers will
look at data from the launch to try to understand the faulty reading.
- A brief firing of the orbital maneuvering engines halfway around the
Earth placed Columbia in its operating orbit on time. The
seven-member crew got a go for orbit operations as expected and opened
the payload bay doors to begin cooling with the radiators.
- Just before 5 p.m. Central time, astronauts Claude Nicollier and
Franklin Chang-Diaz begin activating the support equipment for the
Italian Tethered Satellite System. Other equipment and experiments
were scheduled for their first activation later today. On Friday,
activities with the TSS begin in earnest leading up to Saturday's
reeling out of the tethered satellite.
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Go to STS-75 Flight Day 2 Highlights: