Tuesday, September 19, 2000

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 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

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 
 2235RMS 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 
 1101NH burn had been scheduled 
 1750NC3 burn  91.99 367 x 376 x 28.5  
1995 Sep 10  0915 NC4 burn 
 1125NCC 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 
 0925NCC RCS 
 1016:55  TI OMS 6R 13s 3m/s 105566 kg 
 1040MC1 
 1107MC2 
 1117MC3 
 1127MC4 
 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 

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