Missions: STS-89 Celebrated Its 10th Mission
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CREW:
Terrence W. Wilcutt, Commander; Joe Frank Edwards, Jr., Pilot; Bonnie J. Dunbar, Mission Specialist; Michael P. Anderson, Mission Specialist; James F. Reilly, II, Mission Specialist; Salizhan Shakirovich Sharipov, Mission Specialist; Andrew S. W. Thomas, Mission Specialist (up); David Wolf, Mission Specialist (down)
LAUNCH INFO:
Date: Jan. 22, 1998
Time: 9:48 p.m. EST
Site: Kennedy Space Center, FL
SHUTTLE FLIGHT:
Orbiter: Endeavour (OV-105)
Orbit Altitude: 160 nautical miles
Orbit Inclination: 51.6°
Mission Duration: 8 Days, 19 hours, 48 minutes
MIR DOCKING:
Docking: 8th Mir Docking
Dock Date: Jan. 24, 1998
Dock Time: 2:38 p.m. EST
Undock Date: Jan. 29, 1998
Undock Time: 11:20 a.m. EST
LANDING INFO:
Date: Jan. 31, 1998
Time: 5:36 p.m. EST
Site: Kennedy Space Center, FL
PAYLOAD(S):
SPACEHAB-LDM Logistics Double Module (FU2/FU3)
Mir-Docking/8, (ADV-XDT, ADV-CGBA, EORF, MGM, RME-1312, SAMS VOA, VRA), MPNE, SIMPLEX, CEBAS, TMIP GPS-DTO, HP, MSD, EarthKAM, OSVS RME-1331, TEHM, DSO-914, CoCult, BIO3D GAS (G-093,G-141,G-145,G-432)
SPACEHAB, Inc.'s tenth overall mission and sixth mission to Mir, launched on Space Shuttle Endeavour on January 22,1998. This mission marked Commander Terrence W. Wilcutt's third space flight and second visit to Mir. He was the pilot on STS-79, the fourth Shuttle/Mir flight, which saw the first exchange of U.S. crew members on the space station: John Blaha arriving, Shannon Lucid returning. Wilcutt's first flight was STS-68 in 1994.
Mission Specialist Andrew Thomas was left aboard Mir for a planned four-month stay. He replaced Astronaut Dave Wolf, who arrived at Mir in September aboard Atlantis. Wolf returned to Earth on Endeavour along with the rest of the STS-89 crew.
Mission Specialist Bonnie J. Dunbar, a veteran astronaut, completed her fifth Shuttle flight: STS-61A in 1985, STS-32 in 1990, STS-50 in 1992, the first Shuttle/Mir docking mission, STS-71 in 1995 and STS-89 in 1998. The other STS-89 crew members -- Edwards, Anderson, and Reilly made their first trip to space.
In addition to supplying Mir with the help of the SPACEHAB Logistics Double Module, STS-89 also featured the recovery of the Optical Properties Monitor (OPM) from Mir. This important experiment exposed material samples, mostly optical instruments and coatings, to space conditions.
The OPM was installed on the exterior of the Mir Docking Module during a joint Extra-Vehicular Activity, or space walk, by Vasily Tsibliev and Jerry Linenger last April.
Much data had already been downlinked during Mir operations, but instrument recovery yielded additional information from the exposed material samples in the OPM, the materials used in the OPM itself, and data stored in non-volatile memory in the OPM.
Only one more SPACEHAB mission to Mir, STS-91, is planned beyond STS-89. Future SPACEHAB missions will concentrate on scientific research and on logistics support for the new International Space Station (ISS).
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