Compton Gamma Ray Observatory

 1991-027B

---

Known simply as GRO (Gamma Ray Observatory) before launch, this spacecraft was renamed the Arthur Holly Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, CGRO, in honor of the American physicist (1892-1962) after whom the Compton Effect of gamma-ray/electron interactions is also named. The spacecraft was built by TRW and operated by GSFC.

CGRO was deployed by Atlantis' RMS arm at 2235 on 1991 Apr 7 into a 93.63 min, 446 x 458 km x 28.5 deg orbit. The most dramatic early results from CGRO were the discovery by EGRET of the gamma-ray loud quasars, and the results from BATSE indicating that gamma ray burst sources were distributed uniformly across the sky.

CGRO had an internal propulsion system to raise its orbit. The GRO propulsion system, built by TRW, had a mass of 281 kg dry and 1920 kg of monopropellant hydrazine, with four thruster modules each with two MRE-5 thrusters. The OAT (Orbit Adjust Thrusters) had some initial pressurization problems just after launch, so it was decided to use a smaller set of thrusters for the orbit adjust. A test firing was carried out on 1993 May 4, and the B-side thrusters were fired twice on 1993 Jun 15, but the second time one thruster did not fire and the burn was aborted. It was decided to go back to using the OATs. Test burns were made on Aug 3, Aug 17 and Sep 7. The first true orbit raising burn was made on Oct 4 around 0500; 6 more burns were made between Oct 6 and 1828 on Oct 14. By Oct 12 the orbit had been raised back to 341 x 446 km x 28.5 deg.

Tape recorder failures limited the amount of data CGRO could send back, so in 1994 the TDRS 1 satellite was moved over a new ground station in Tidbinbilla, Australia to improve data coverage.

GRO
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1991 Apr 8			93.63 446 x 458 x 28.5
1992 Dec 1			92.06 372 x 378 x 28.5
1993 Feb 26			91.77 357 x 364 x 28.5
1993 May 1			91.47 344 x 348 x 28.5
1993 May 13			91.55 348 x 352 x 28.5
1993 May 25			91.52 347 x 351 x 28.5
1993 Jun 10			91.46 344 x 347 x 28.5
1993 Jun 21			91.56 347 x 354 x 28.5
1993 Aug 3			91.45 341 x 350 x 28.5
1993 Aug 12			91.43 340 x 348 x 28.5
1993 Aug 18			91.42 338 x 349 x 28.5
1993 Sep 1			91.38 336 x 347 x 28.5
1993 Sep 8			91.37 336 x 346 x 28.5
1993 Oct 2			91.29 333 x 342 x 28.5
1993 Oct 9			91.66 340 x 371 x 28.5
1993 Oct 14			345 x 409 x 28.4
1993 Oct 21			92.44 341 x 446 x 28.5
1997 Mar 24		ACT engineering test burn
1997 Mar 26		OAT engineering test burn
1997 Apr 1	1800	OAT 90s reboost
1997 Apr 2	1900	OAT 90s reboost
1997 Apr 3	1830	OAT 90s reboost
1997 Apr 5	1900	OAT 90s reboost
1997 Apr 6	1700	OAT 90s reboost
2000 May 10			94.31 482 x 487 x 28.5
2000 May 31	0151	Descent burn 1 23:06	92.94 362 x 474 x 28.5
2000 Jun 1	0236	Burn 2, 26min	91.62 237 x 471 x 28.5
2000 Jun 4	0356	Burn 3, 21:39
	0417	Burn 3 cutoff	146 x
	0522:21	Burn 4, 30 min, 36.8 m/s
	0552	Burn 4 cutoff	27 x
	0609	Tumble maneuver
	0610	loss of contact
	0613	Reentry at 50 km
	0618	Impact in Pacific SE of Hawaii

Payload:

• OAT Orbit Adjust Thrusters; 4 Rocket Research Corp 445N thrusters, 8 TRW MRE-5 22N thrusters.

• BATSE The Burst and Transient Source Experiment, a NASA-MSFC experiment to detect, locate, and measure the light curves and spectra of gamma ray bursts; 20 keV - 1 MeV

• EGRET The Extreme Gamma ray Event Telescope, to detect gamma ray sources in the 100 MeV range. (20 MeV-30 GeV)

• COMPTEL Imaging Compton Telescope 1-30 MeV

Geo-IK 1

 1994-078A

---

The last Musson satellite was given the open name Geo-IK and was not assigned a Kosmos number. Geo-IK carried a secondary payload, the Elekon transponder. This may have been to research LEO comsat technology.

Geo-IK
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1994 Nov 29	0254:00	Launch by Tsiklon-3	PL LC32
		T+2:00 St 1 sep
		T+3:33 GO sep
		T+4:38 St 2 sep, alt 126 km	-2400? x 170? x 73.6
		T+5:19 S5M burn 1, alt 143 km	-2400? x 170? x 73.6
	0300	T+6:48 S5M MECO-1, alt 173 km	90 x 1502 x 73.6
	0343	T+49:37 BOZ burn
	0345	T+51:15 S5M MES2	90 x 1502 x 73.6
	0345	T+51:33 S5M MECO2
	0346	T+52:03 S5M sep
1994 Nov 30			116.06 1479 x 1527 x 73.6
1995 Jul		End of main ops?
1999 Feb 5		End of operations
1999 Feb 9			116.06 1480 x 1426 x 73.6

Heart Trauma

 https://welib.org/md5/50fd1445a9a7a1d8fffbe03120c88b4e

Marisat 1

  1976-017A

---

Marisat F-1, or Marisat 101, was launched in Feb 1976 by a Delta from Cape Canaveral. It was the first of the L-band mobile communications satellites, and was used for ship-to-shore communications from specially equipped vessels. Marisat F-1 was stationed at 15W to become the Marisat Atlantic satellite. In 1982 the satellite was leased by the International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT) and became the INMARSAT Atlantic Spare satellite. The next year, it was replaced as Atlantic Spare by the MCS payload on Intelsat 506, but remained in reserve as an INMARSAT satellite.

Marisat F-1
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1976 Feb 19	2232	Launch by Delta 2914	CC LC17
	2235	Thor sep
	2236:01?	Delta SES-1
	2241:00?	SECO-1	188 x 350? x 28.6
	2254:30?	T+22:30 SES-2 9s
	2254:39?	SECO-2	173 x 613 x 28.63
	2255	Stage 2 sep
	2256	T+24:22 TES
	2257	T+25:06 TECO	187 x 36950 x 24.50
	2258	T+26:19 Stage 3 sep
	2303	SES-3 test
	2303	SECO-3
1976 Feb 20	0400?	Apo 1 96E
	1500?	Apo 2 70W
1976 Feb 21	0200?	Apo 3 126E
	1300?	Apo 4 40W
1976 Feb 21	1332	AKM
1976 Feb			GEO 15W
1977 Jan 25			1436.10 35743 x 35829 x 1.8 GEO 14.5W
1977 May 12			1436.10 35774 x 35798 x 1.4 GEO 15.3W
1977 Dec 17			1436.07 35764 x 35807 x 1.0 GEO 14.7W
1979 Apr 13			1436.14 35772 x 35802 x 0.2 GEO 14.9W
1979 Dec 27			1436.07 35764 x 35807 x 0.7 GEO 14.8W
1981 Jul 28			1436.10 35774 x 35799 x 1.9 GEO 14.8W
1982 Feb		Control transferred to INMARSAT
1982 May 1		INMARSAT Atlantic Spare
1982 Oct			GEO 15W
1983 Aug			Replaced by I-506
1983 Oct 16			1436.17 35781 x 35794 x 3.8 GEO 15.3W
1983 Nov 28			1436.07 35775 x 35797 x 3.9 GEO 14.8W
1987 Feb 23			1436.10 35776 x 35796 x 6.8 GEO 14.7W
1989 Aug 1			1436.15 35778 x 35797 x 7.9 GEO 15.0W
1990 Jan 19			1436.14 35772 x 35802 x 8.4 GEO 15.1W
1990 Feb?		Moved to 106W
1990 Mar 2			1436.08 35775 x 35797 x 8.1 GEO 106.24W
1991 Mar 20			1436.09 35775 x 35797 x 9.0 GEO 106.1W
1992 Oct 3			1436.09 35781 x 35791 x 10.2 GEO 106.0W
1994 Feb 28			1436.11 35766 x 35807 x 11.1 GEO 106.0W
1995 Aug 8			1436.08 35758 x 35813 x 12.0 GEO 106.0W
1996 Feb 8			1436.08 35773 x 35799 x 12.3 GEO 105.9W
1996 Jun 1			1436.06 35760 x 35811 x 12.4 GEO 105.4W
1997 Feb 4			1436.09 35771 x 35801 x 12.7 GEO 105.9W
1997 Apr 2			1436.14 35775 x 35799 x 12.8 GEO 106.1W

Gorizont 22

 1990-102A

---

The 22nd Gorizont in orbit was launched for the Ministry of Communications, Information Technology and Space of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. It was still in service with the GPKS company in 1999.

Gorizont No. 33(22)
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1990 Nov 23	1322:00	Launch by Proton-K	KB
	1331	Stage 3 sep
	1439?	DM burn 1
	1955?	DM burn 2
	1959?	Blok-DM2 No. 45L sep
			1474.90 36484 x 36601 x 1.4 GEO 93.8E
1990 Dec 12			1436.09 35755 x 35817 x 1.4 GEO 39.7E
1991 Feb 10			1436.10 35772 x 35801 x 1.3 GEO 39.7E
1992 Jan 6			1436.19 35773 x 35803 x 0.5 GEO 39.7E
1993 Mar 30			1436.17 35784 x 35791 x 0.6 GEO 39.6E
1994 Aug 25			1435.97 35772 x 35796 x 1.8 GEO 40.0E
1995 May 27			1436.11 35780 x 35792 x 2.3 GEO 39.6E
1996 Feb 7		mv out	GEO 39E dr E
1996 Mar 5			1429.19 35546 x 35756 x 2.9 GEO 85.0E+1.7E
1996 Apr 22		mv in	1436.06 35779 x 35792 x 3.0 GEO 140.0E
1999 Mar 16			1436.01 35780 x 35788 x 5.1 GEO 139.5E

Kosmos 313

  1969-104A

---

Kosmos-313 was the sixth Gektor flight and was the first Gektor launch from Plesetsk.

Kosmos-313
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1969 Dec 3	1320:02	Launch by 11A57	PL
	1324	Blok-I burn
	1329?	Blok-I sep
1969 Dec 4	0230		89.07 198 x 259 x 65.40
1969 Dec 5	1533		89.01 198 x 252 x 65.4
1969 Dec 6	1940?	Blok-I reentered
1969 Dec 11	0755		88.86 192 x 243 x 65.4
1969 Dec 15	0637?	Retrofire
	0659?	Landed after 11.73d

Kosmos 2333

 1996-051A

---

The only 1996 Zenit-2 launch was a successful Tselina-2 flight.

Kosmos-2333
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1996 Sep 4	0901:00	Launch by Zenit-2	KB LC45L
	0903	T+2:23 St 1 MECO
	0903	T+2:25 Stage 1 sep
	0903	T+2:25 Stage 2 burn
	0903	T+2:40 GO sep
	0907	T+6:42 Stage 2 MECO	150? x 850? x 71.0
		Sep motor cover perigee
	0914?	T+13m? Stage 2 VECO
	0914?	Stage 2 sep motor covers
	0914?	T+13m? Stage 2 sep

SBS-5

 1988-081B

---

The final HS-376 SBS satellite was launched for IBM Satellite Transponder Leasing Corp. aboard an Ariane 3.

SBS 5
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1988 Sep 8	2300	Launch by Ariane 3	CSG
		T+0:07 PAP on
		T+0:40 PAP sep
1988 Sep 8	2302:21	Stage 1 MECO
1988 Sep 8	2302:26	T+2:23 Stage 1 Sep
	2302:29	T+2:26 St 2 MES
	2303:50	T+3:47 Fairing
1988 Sep 8	2304:32	Stage 2 MECO
	2304:33	T+4:33 St 2 sep
1988 Sep 8	2304:41	T+4:39 Stage 3 MES
1988 Sep 8	2316:49	T+16:44 Stage 3 MECO
1988 Sep 8	2318:38	T+18:36 Gstar sep from SYLDA	200 x 36101 x 7.0
1988 Sep 8	2320:51	T+20:48 Sylda sep
1988 Sep 8	2320:56	T+20:53 SBS 5 sep from H-10
1988 Sep 8	2321:16	H-10 sep burn
1988 Sep 9	0500?	Apo 1
	1000?	Peri 1
	1600?	Apo 2 over 80W
	2100?	Peri 2
1988 Sep 10	0300?	Apo 3 over 115E
	0800?	Peri 3
	1400?	Apo 4 over 49W
	1900?	Peri 4
1988 Sep 11	0000?	Apo 5 over 153E
	0600?	Peri 5
	1130?	Apo 6 over 15W
	1700?	Peri 6
	2200?	Apo 7 over 150W
1988 Sep 11		Star 30BP burn
1988 Sep 11			1425.95 35031 x 36143 x 0.1 GEO 151.3W+2.5E
1988 Sep 15			1423.33 35288 x 35783 x 0.1 GEO 138.1W+3.2E
1988 Oct 3		mv in	1436.10 35786 x 35787 x 0.1 GEO 123.0W
1988 Nov 22			1436.06 35780 x 35791 x 0.1 GEO 123.0W
1990 Apr		STLC sold to Hughes HCI
1991 Feb 22			1436.06 35777 x 35794 x 0.0 GEO 122.9W
1992 Sep 2			1436.06 35780 x 35791 x 0.0 GEO 123.0W
1994 Feb 1			1436.06 35781 x 35790 x 0.0 GEO 122.9W
1995 Oct 12			1436.06 35779 x 35792 x 0.0 GEO 122.9W
1997 May 16		To Panamsat Inc.	GEO 123W
1999 Jun 14			1436.10 35782 x 35790 x 0.0 GEO 122.9W
2000 Feb 21			1436.08 35778 x 35793 x 0.0 GEO 123.0W

Sich-1

 1995-046A

---

The Okean-Ukraina (Sich, `sickle') satellite was Ukraine's first spacecraft. It was an Okean-O1 class satellite built by KB Yuzhnoe and carried a side looking radar and a microwave radiometer. Sich-1 was launched on 1995 Aug 31 by Tsiklon-3 from Plesetsk.

Sich 1
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1995 Aug 31	0649:59	Launch by Tsiklon-3	PL
		T+2:00 St 1 sep
		T+3:31 GO sep
		T+4:38 St 2 MECO
		T+4:38 St 2 sep
		T+5:20 S5M burn 1
	0656	T+6:56 S5M MECO1
	0729?	T+39:20 BOZ burn
		T+40:58? S5M burn 2
	0731?	T+41:07? S5M MECO2
	0731?	T+41:37 S5M sep	97.64 623 x 667 x 82.5
1995 Sep 2			97.73 631 x 668 x 82.5

Payload:

• SLR radar

• Microwave radiometer

Kosmos 967

 1977-116A

---

Like Kosmos 959,Kosmos 967 was an ASAT target satellite.

Kosmos-967
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1977 Dec 13	1553	Launch by 11K65M	PL
	1601?	Stage 2 MECO-1
	1656?	Stage 2 MECO-2
1977 Dec 15			104.8 963 x 1005 x 65.8

Navstar 13

 1989-044A

---

The second Block II to be launched was SVN 13 (PRN 2, USA 38). It entered the B plane.

Navstar 13
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1989 Jun 10	2230:00	Launch by Delta 6925	CC LC17
		T+0:56 SRM 1-3,7-9 out
		T+1:01 SRM 4-6 on
		T+1:02 SRM 1-3 sep
		T+1:03 SRM 7-9 sep
		T+1:57 SRM 4-6 off
		T+2:02 SRM 4-6 sep
		T+4:25 MECO
		T+4:31 VECO
		T+4:33 Stage 1 sep
	2234	Stage 2 TIG (T+4:38)
	2234	Fairing sep (T+4:50)
	2241	SECO-1 (T+11:37)	166 x 200 x 35.66?
		T+20:55 spinup
	2250	T+20:58 Delta sep
	2251	T+21:35 TES
	2253	T+23:02 TECO
	2254	T+24:55 Stage 3 sep	356.15 166 x 20365 x 37.5
	2254	T+24:57 despin weights
	2335	T+1:05:00 SES-2 depletion
	2336	T+1:06:20 SECO-2 depletion
1989 Jun 12	0720?	Star 37XFP burn
			718.1 20094 x 20278 x 54.6
1989 Jun 13			718.15 20094 x 20278 x 54.6
1989 Jun 17			714.23 19969 x 20209 x 54.6
1989 Jun 29			715.88 19968 x 20292 x 54.6
1989 Jun 30			717.52 19970 x 20371 x 54.6
1989 Jul 9			717.94 19967 x 20394 x 54.6
1989 Aug 10		In service
1997 Feb 1		Operating in slot B3

STS-63 (Discovery)

 1995-004A

---

Mission 20 for OV-103 saw the beginning of Phase I Space Station flights, with the first rendezvous by a Shuttle with the Mir station. The crew was commanded by veteran Jim Wetherbee; Eileen Collins became the first woman to fly as a pilot astronaut; Bernard Harris, a medical doctor, was the payload commander and EV1; Mike Foale was the second EV crewmember, while Janice Voss was Mission Specialist 3. For the first time, a Russian, Vladimir Titov, flew as Mission Specialist (Krikalyov had officially been a Payload Specialist - a rank essentially equivalent to `passenger', but the NASA astronauts were sufficiently embarrassed by Titov and Krikalyov's competence and extensive flight experience that they agreed the Mission Specialist rank was more appropriate).

After a one day delay due to IMU problems, a spectacular nighttime launch at the beginning of the five minute window ended with main engine cutoff easily visible to the naked eye from the Northeast US (the author saw it from Cambridge, Massachusetts). The six ODERACS-II satellites were deployed from a GAS canister mounted on a Hitchhiker-M carrier in the payload bay. On Feb 4 the RMS arm was used to grapple Spartan-204 and move it around the payload bay to obtain UV spectra of the Shuttle environment, characterizing spacecraft-atmospheric interactions.

The highlight of the mission came on Feb 6. A leaky RCS thruster had raised concerns about contamination and as the day dawned it was still not clear whether Discovery would be allowed to make its close approach to 10 metres, or remain at the stationkeeping distance of 120m. The thruster was isolated, and after a joint decision by the Mission Controls in Houston and Kaliningrad the crew were given the go for the full approach. By 1830 Mir was sending back live TV of Discovery at the 120m distance. At 1840 the Shuttle began its slow approach to the Kristall module, reaching its minimum distance of 11m (from the top of the Spacehab module to the axial docking port on Kristall) at around 1929. Photos taken from the porthole in the Mir base module showed the Kristall module in the foreground with the Shuttle just beyond it; closeups revealed the astronauts visible through the cabin roof windows. After about five minutes stationkeeping at 11m the Shuttle backed out back to the 120m point, and stayed there until 2016 when it began a flyaround of the complex. Finally the Orbiter fired its RCS jets to move away, ending the historic rendezvous. The Discovery crew had verified the orbital dynamics of the Mir approach trajectory, had confirmed that the Shuttle could control its approach precisely without pluming Mir with its thrusters, and could position the appropriate point on the payload bay exactly in line with the docking port, and they had verified that all the communications links between the American and Russian spacecraft and mission control centers worked well with the craft in close proximity. All was now ready for the mission of Atlantis later in the year.

On Feb 7 the RMS arm again unberthed the Spartan-204 satellite, and at 1226 Titov released it from the arm for a free flight to make UV spectroscopic observations of the interstellar medium. The satellite was retrieved at 1133 on Feb 9 and berthed shortly afterwards. Mission Specialists Bernard Harris and Mike Foale depressurized the airlock at 1156 on Feb 9 and entered the payload bay from the hatch on the Tunnel Adapter. They carried out a 15-minute cold soak test of their modified spacesuits; earlier EVA crews had problems with getting their hands too cold while in shadow. Next, Harris practiced manually unberthing the Spartan and moving it around by hand, to gain experience for Space Station assembly tasks. A second such exercise by Foale was cancelled when the astronauts reported cold hands. The EVA ended after 4h 39m.

The payload bay doors were closed on Feb 11 and the OMS engines ignited to deorbit the spaceship. Discovery touched down on Runway 15 at the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC after an 8 day mission.

STS-63
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1995 Feb 3	0522:04	Launch
	0524:10	SRB sep
	0530:36	MECO
	0530:55	ET-68 sep	88.39 48 x 340 x 51.6
	0604:14	OMS-2 2:36 77m/s
			91.05 310 x 341 x 51.64
			90.99 305 x 340 x 51.66
	0711	PLBD open
	1121		91.07 312 x 341 x 51.64
	1420:15	HA OMS 3R 40s 10m/s	91.42 332 x 355 x 51.65
1995 Feb 4	0457:06	ODERACS-II deploy	91.41 332 x 354 x 51.65
		ODERACS II A (10 cm sphere)
		ODERACS II D (13 cm dipole)
		ODERACS II C (5 cm sphere)
		ODERACS II F (4 cm dipole)
		ODERACS II B (15 cm sphere)
	0457:22	ODERACS II E (13 cm dipole)
	0633	RMS grapple SPTN
	0648:31	RMS unberth SPTN-204	91.40 332 x 354 x 51.65
	1301		91.40 332 x 354 x 51.65
	1318	RMS reberth SPTN
		RMS ungrapple SPTN-204
	1426:48	NC OMS-4L 24s 6m/s	91.62 332 x 375 x 51.65
1995 Feb 5	1837:39	OMS-5L 50s 12m/s	92.06 368 x 382 x 51.65
1995 Feb 6	0600		92.04 368 x 381 x 51.65
	1424:03	NH OMS-6L 10s 3m/s
	1540		92.17 371 x 390 x 51.65
	1636:43	TI OMS-7 burn 18s 5m/s	92.35 388 x 391 x 51.65
	1816	Vbar arrival
	1830	Rendezvous 120m from Mir
	1840	Approach burn
	1925	Stationkeep 11m from Mir
	1935	Begin return to 120m
	2002	Arrive at 100m point
	2016	Begin flyaround	92.35 387 x 391 x 51.65
	2113	End rendezvous	92.35 388 x 390 x 51.65
1995 Feb 7	1100	RMS uncradle
	1125	RMS grapple SPTN-204
	1156:32	RMS unberth SPTN-204
	1227:36	RMS deploy SPTN-204	92.34 388 x 390 x 51.65
	1230?	RCS sep-1
1995 Feb 8	0630		92.33 388 x 389 x 51.65
1995 Feb 8	2226		92.32 387 x 388 x 51.65
1995 Feb 9	0817	Rendezvous burn
	0913	TI burn?
		Rendezvous with SPTN-204
	1133:20	RMS retrieve SPTN-204	92.31 383 x 391 x 51.65
	1156:30	On EVA battery power (nom 4:39)
	1156	EVA-1 depress (for 4:44)
	1201	Harris, Foale egress
	1210:27	SPTN-204 berthed
	1227	RMS ungrapple SPTN	92.31 387 x 388 x 51.65
	1250	DTO 833 EMU Thermal Eval
	1330	Mass handling exercise
	1410	Harris on MPESS near Spartan
	1411	Foale on RMS grasp Spartan
	1412	SPTN release, Harris raising Spartan manually
	1415	Foale release SPTN
	1430	Harris continues SPTN handling tests
	1448	Harris passes SPTN to Foale
	1450	Foale passes SPTN to Harris
	1451	Preparing to berth SPTN
	1452	SPTN-204 manual reberth
	1458	Further unberthing cancelled
		Attitude to warm PLB
	1530	Cleaning up PLB
	1535	Foale retrv. Hasselblad camera from PLB
	1609	Ingress
	1627	Hatch closed
	1634:43	Repress? 4:39 (MR)
	1640	EVA-1 repress
1995 Feb 11	0806	PLBD closed	92.31 385 x 390 x 51.65
	1044:04	OMS deorbit 4:14 137m/s	26 x 396 x 51.6
	1119:10	Entry
	1150:19	MGTD RW15 KSC
	1150:33	NGTD
	1151:39	Wheels stop
	1945	Tow to OPF Bay 2

STS-69 (Endeavour)

 1995-048A

---

The discovery of heat erosion on O-rings in the SRB nozzle joints for STS-71 and STS-70 delayed the STS-69 launch while repairs were made to the joints on the pad by the addition of new RTV sealant putty. After further delays the launch took place on Sep 7 despite a poor weather forecast, with high seas due to Hurricane Luis further east.

The payload bay carried the Wake Shield Facility and three MPESS class payloads, Spartan 201, IEH-1 and CAPL/GBA. Launch finally came on 1995 Sep 7. Spartan was deployed on Sep 8; OV-105 maneuvered away and then executed a re-rendezvous on Sep 10. The NCC burn used more prop than expected due to a rendezvous software bug, and the TI burn was off by almost 2 km, but the remainder of the rendezvous proceeded successfully. On arriving at Spartan, it was found in an unexpected orientation; it had entered safemode prior to recovery. Walker and Cockrell executed a slow flyaround to align the RMS with the grapple fixture on Spartan and Gernhardt activated the arm for a successful retrieval almost an hour later than planned. The 370 km orbit was then raised to 400 km for WSF operations. The RMS was moved to grapple WSF late on Sep 10, and left there overnight. The following morning WSF was unberthed and placed over the ram side of the Orbiter to be scrubbed clean. Next, it was moved to the wake side and deployed.

WSF also was safed with systems problems at around 1200 Sep 12 after a day of operations but was restarted at 0800 Sep 13. On Sep 14 Endeavour approached WSF again; at a distance of 80m it began an hour-long series of 14 firings of the RCS jets so that Wake Shield could measure the effect of the jet plumes. WSF was grappled at 1359 UT. Endeavour's orbit was lowered that evening and the next day WSF was unberthed again for CHAWS charging studies. On Sep 16, Voss and Gernhardt entered the payload bay for a spacewalk, EDFT-2, to test out Space Station assembly techniques. On the previous test spacewalk, thermal modifications for low temperature work had proved inadequate, but this time Gernhardt hung in shadow on the end of the RMS arm for almost an hour and felt no significant discomfort; the cooling system on his spacesuit could be disabled and glove heaters were added. Voss used the APFR restraint in bay 2 to work at connectors and cabling in the task board on bay 3.

STS-69
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1995 spring		OPF/1
1995 Jun 26?		Roll to VAB	VAB
1995 Jun 29		Mate with ET	VAB/1
1995 Jul 6		Roll to LC39A	LC39A
1995 Aug 1	1645	Rollback (Hurricane Erin)	VAB/1
1995 Aug 8		Rollout to LC39A
1995 Aug 31	0730	Scrub, electrical problem, T-8h
1995 Sep 7	1509:00	Launch by Shuttle	LC39A
	1511:02	RSRM-48 sep T+2:02.4
	1517:30	MECO T+8:30.12
	1517	ET sep	65 x 365 x 28.5
	1550:54	OMS-2 3:07 90 m/s	368 x 377 x 28.5
	1652	PLBD open
	1932	RMS uncradle
	2235	RMS recradle
1995 Sep 8	1439	RMS uncradle
	1500?	RMS grapple Spartan	92.02 369 x 377 x 28.5
	1512:46	RMS unberth Spartan
	1542:58	RMS deploy Spartan
	1548:55	RCS SEP1
	1620s	RCS SEP2
	1924s	NC1 burn	92.01 369 x 377 x 28.5
1995 Sep 9	1021	NC2 burn
	1101	NH burn had been scheduled
	1750	NC3 burn	91.99 367 x 376 x 28.5
1995 Sep 10	0915	NC4 burn
	1125	NCC burn
	1219	TI burn
	1420	Rendezvous Spartan	91.99 368 x 376 x 28.5
	1502:22	RMS grapple Spartan
	1521:17	RMS berth Spartan
	1524	RMS ungrapple Spartan
	1835:43	OMS-3L 34s 11m/s	92.00 368 x 376 x 28.5
	1921:35	OMS-4R 29s 7m/s	92.57 396 x 404 x 28.5
	2013	RMS grapple WSF
1995 Sep 11	0550:53	RMS unberth WSF
	1125:06	RMS release WSF	92.57 396 x 403 x 28.5
1995 Sep 13	2335		92.57 395 x 405 x 28.5
1995 Sep 14			92.66 402 x 407 x 28.5
	0709:18	NC-11 OMS 5L 10s 3m/s 105661 kg
	0925	NCC RCS
	1016:55	TI OMS 6R 13s 3m/s 105566 kg
	1040	MC1
	1107	MC2
	1117	MC3
	1127	MC4
	1230?	Rendezvous with WSF	92.54 393 x 404 x 28.5
		14 thruster firings, 90 to 60m range
	1315?	Begin WSF approach
	1359:11	RMS grapple WSF
	1516:28	RMS berth WSF
	1520	RMS ungrapple WSF	92.58 396 x 404 x 28.5
	1647:10	OMS-7L 63s 16m/s burn lower orbit	340 x 400 x 28.5
	1732:21	OMS-8R 68s 17m/s burn circ orbit	91.36 337 x 345 x 28.5
1995 Sep 15	0717	WSF unberth
	1226	WSF reberth
1995 Sep 16	0800	Begin airlock depress	91.38 338 x 346 x 28.5
	0805?	Depress (Green book dur)
	0820	EVA-1 begin (Voss, Gernhardt)
	0832	Hatch open
	1451	Ingress
	1502	Airlock repress (Off. time 6:46)
	1522	AL repress complete
1995 Sep 18	0759	Close payload bay doors	91.37 338 x 345 x 28.5
	1035:13	OMS deorbit 10/19:26:13.0, 3:36 114m/s	30 x 341 x 28.5
	1106:23	Entry interface
	1137:56	Touchdown RW33 KSC (260:28:56)
	1138:52	Wheels stop
	1522	Tow to OPF/3