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 | ||
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