Documents / Document

STS-75 press kit

NASA · 40 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is NASA's press kit for Space Shuttle mission STS-75, dated February 1996 and later edited by Richard W. Orloff. It covers Columbia's planned 13-day flight carrying the Italian Tethered Satellite System reflight (TSS-1R) and the third United States Microgravity Payload. The kit sets out launch and landing plans, abort modes, the timeline, payload weights, crew duties, the tether's science objectives and investigators, and crew biographies. It does not mention any unidentified objects.

  • p. 5 …The STS-75 mission will be the 19th mission for Columbia and the 75th for the…
  • p. 6 …A voice update of the television schedule is provided daily at noon Eastern time. Status Reports…
  • p. 14 …During this time, Columbia's position will be adjusted periodically to give USMP experiments the best…
  • p. 17 …Marshall will furnish real- time engineering support for the TSS-1R system components and tether dynamics…
  • p. 19 …sent in real-time to the instruments aboard the Shuttle. During the mission, teams of scientists…
  • p. 21 …The closing rate at the time the satellite is docked to the cradle at the end…
  • p. 22 …The effects of gravity on the orbiting spacecraft are roughly a million times less than experienced…
  • p. 23 …At controlled temperatures extremely near the critical temperature, the fluid will be a billion times more…
  • p. 24 …The images of dendrites growing in space will be viewed in near-real-time by scientists…
  • p. 25 …The facility provides power, air and particle filtration, light, data collection, real-time monitoring, and sensors…
  • p. 36 …concurrently participating part-time in research activities of the Geneva Observatory. At the end of 1976…
  • p. 38 …of the launch countdown. He has logged over 1,800 hours of flight time, including 1…
Edited by Richard W. Orloff, 01/2001/Page 14
SCIENCE ABOARD STS-75
Science aboard STS-75 comes in two parts: developing and understanding the basic dynamic and
electrodynamic processes governing tethered systems. The flight also will focus on improving our basic
knowledge on materials under microgravity conditions.
The TSS-1R flight will explore ideas and test concepts which may be applied to spacecraft of the future. It
also will lead to an increased understanding of physical processes in the near-Earth space environment.
USMP-3 is a pathfinder for 21st century technologies needed to spur development of a new generation of
computers, electronics and metals.
During the first two days in space, the crew will activate and perform health checks on the Tethered
Satellite System and the USMP equipment. On the third flight day, the astronauts will unreel the Tethered
Satellite spaceward into Earth's electrically charged upper atmosphere, known as the ionosphere, to begin a
series of studies about how the two interact. The major portion of TSS investigations will be conducted on
flight days two through five, although data collection will continue throughout the mission.
Also on flight day two, crew members will activate major USMP experiments. Once microgravity
experiments are running, most will be remotely controlled, a mode of operation known as telescience.
Flight days five through 12 will be devoted mainly to conducting USMP investigations while the crew
carries out combustion experiments in a device known as the glovebox, located in the middeck. During this
time, Columbia's position will be adjusted periodically to give USMP experiments the best possible
conditions based on measurement of microgravity disturbances by on-board sensors.

About this file

Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 40 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.