STS-59 was a
Space Shuttle program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. I ...
mission that took place in 1994. The launch was chronicled by the 1994
Discovery Channel special about the
Space Shuttle program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. I ...
.
Crew
Mission highlights
9 April
![STS-59 launches from Kennedy Space Center](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/STS-59_launches_from_Kennedy_Space_Center.jpg)
''Endeavour'' began its sixth mission on the morning of 9 April 1994 with an on-time launch at 7:05 am
Eastern time
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...
. Soon after, the six
astronauts began activating the sensitive
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...
equipment in the payload bay that would be operated around the clock during the next ten days.
By 8 pm, the Space Radar Laboratory-1 experiments of
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
's
Mission to Planet Earth were all activated and began their study of the
earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
's
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
.
STS-59 ground controllers finished activating the
Spaceborne Imaging Radar
The Spaceborne Imaging Radar (SIR) – full name 'Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR)', is a synthetic aperture radar which flew on two separate shuttle missions. Once from the Space Shuttle Endeavour in Ap ...
-C (SIR-C) and began processing its first images of the Earth, while engineers working with the
X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (X-SAR) worked their way through some initial activation problems.
Meanwhile, the
Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellite (MAPS) instrument took data on the carbon monoxide content and distribution in the atmosphere since shortly after launch.
During the initial activation of the X-SAR, controllers reported they were unable to fully power up the
amplifier
An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It may increase the power significantly, or its main effect may be to boost t ...
that provides power to the radar. The problem was in the low voltage circuit internal to the power amplifier. Engineers were not immediately able to explain the problem, so they turned off the power amplifier for about three hours. The problem was traced to an oversensitive protection
circuit, a type of circuit breaker. The radar lab engineers bypassed the protection circuit and turned on the instrument at about 4:20 pm Saturday. It worked without incident, completing 100 percent of its scheduled observations overnight.
Thereafter, X-SAR controllers continued a deliberate, step-by-step check of the instrument, and successfully bounced X-band radar pulses off the Earth and recorded data. All of the instrument's circuits recorded normal readings. The crew also activated
Space Tissue Loss investigations on the middeck, and the
Getaway Special
Getaway Special was a NASA program that offered interested individuals, or groups, opportunities to fly small experiments aboard the Space Shuttle. Over the 20-year history of the program, over 170 individual missions were flown. The program, whi ...
experiments in the cargo bay.
10 April
As of Sunday morning, 10 April 1994, the radar laboratory had taken data readings on more than 40 targets including
Howland, Maine
Howland is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States, which was settled in 1818. It was named after John Howland, one of the passengers on the ''Mayflower''. The population was 1,094 at the 2020 census.
Geography
The town is on the west ...
;
Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island is an island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. Regionally part of Oceania and politically a part of Tasmania, Australia, since 1900, it became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 197 ...
; the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
;
Matera, Italy
Matera (, ; Materano: ) is a city in the region of Basilicata, in Southern Italy.
As the capital of the province of Matera, its original settlement lies in two canyons carved by the Gravina River. This area, the Sassi di Matera, is a comp ...
; and the
Strait of Gibraltar. Scientists also gathered information on three of 19 "supersites," the highest priority targets for that day. Sunday's supersite observations were global
carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon mak ...
and
hydrologic cycle
The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle or the hydrological cycle, is a biogeochemical cycle that describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth. The mass of water on Earth remains fairly const ...
s in
Duke Forest
Duke Forest is a forest managed by Duke University for research, teaching, and recreation. It is located in the edge of the Piedmont (United States) in Durham County, Orange County, and Alamance County in North Carolina. Four of its six divis ...
,
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
; hydrologic cycles around
Otzal, Austria; and geological data on
Lake Chad in the
Sahara. Observation sites for Sunday afternoon included
Gippsland
Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It cove ...
, Australia;
Sable Island
Sable Island (french: île de Sable, literally "island of sand") is a small Canadian island situated southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and about southeast of the closest point of mainland Nova Scotia in the North Atlantic Ocean. The island ...
;
Toronto, Ontario
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
;
Bermuda
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = National song
, song = "Hail to Bermuda"
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, mapsize2 =
, map_caption2 =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name =
, es ...
;
Bighorn Basin
The Bighorn Basin is a plateau region and intermontane basin, approximately 100 miles (160 km) wide, in north-central Wyoming in the United States. It is bounded by the Absaroka Range on the west, the Pryor Mountains on the north, the Bigho ...
,
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...
;
Chung Li, China; and
Mammoth Mountain
Mammoth Mountain is a lava dome complex partially located within the town of Mammoth Lakes, California, in the Inyo National Forest of Madera and Mono Counties. It is home to a large ski area primarily on the Mono County side.
Mammoth Mount ...
, California. The supersite opportunities were
Raco, Michigan and the
Gulf Stream.
Sunday evening's supersite observations by SIR-C and X-SAR focused on the interaction of plants and animals in the ecology of the forests of
Raco, Michigan; hydrologic cycles around
Bebedouro, Brazil;
tectonic plate
Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large te ...
activity around the
Galapagos Islands in the South Pacific; and the transfer of heat through wave energy in the
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...
.
The Measurement of Atmospheric Pollution from Satellite instrument also continued to take readings of the concentration and distribution of
carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...
throughout the
troposphere
The troposphere is the first and lowest layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, and contains 75% of the total mass of the planetary atmosphere, 99% of the total mass of water vapour and aerosols, and is where most weather phenomena occur. From ...
. Crew members reported good earth observation photography opportunities over the Northeast Pacific Ocean and the frozen lakes of the Raco supersite area, as well as fires in the
Sierra Madre
Sierra Madre (Spanish, 'mother mountain range') may refer to:
Places and mountains Mexico
*Sierra Madre Occidental, a mountain range in northwestern Mexico and southern Arizona
*Sierra Madre Oriental, a mountain range in northeastern Mexico
*S ...
mountains of Mexico.
On flight day two, the Red Team crew of Commander Gutierrez, Pilot Chilton and Linda M. Godwin began its sleep shift about 5 pm
Central time, to awaken at 2 am The Blue Team crew members,
Jay Apt
Jerome "Jay" Apt III, Ph.D. (born April 28, 1949 in Massachusetts) is an American astronaut and professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Before he became an astronaut, Apt was a physicist who worked on the Pioneer Venus 1978 space probe project, a ...
,
Michael R. Clifford
Michael Richard Clifford (October 13, 1952 – December 28, 2021) was a United States Army officer and NASA astronaut. Clifford was a Master Army Aviator and logged over 3,400 hours flying in a wide variety of fixed and rotary winged aircraft. ...
and
Thomas D. Jones
Thomas David Jones (born January 22, 1955) is a former United States astronaut. He was selected to the astronaut corps in 1990 and completed four Space Shuttle flights before retiring in 2001. He flew on STS-59 and STS-68 in 1994, STS-80 in 199 ...
, awakened about 4 pm to begin their third flight day on orbit, and would go to bed about 5 am
11 April
As of Monday, 11 April 1994, 6:30 am Central time, three real-time
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...
images were downlinked from ''Endeavour'' overnight. A view of the Sahara Desert in
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
, one of the geology sites, was taken to help scientists map surface and subsurface structures, including drainage patterns.
Also, the two
radar imaging
Imaging radar is an application of radar which is used to create two-dimensional images, typically of landscapes. Imaging radar provides its light to illuminate an area on the ground and take a picture at radio wavelengths. It uses an antenna and ...
systems were calibrated over Matera, Italy, and
Oberpfaffenhofen
Oberpfaffenhofen is a village that is part of the municipality of Weßling in the district of Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany. It is located about from the city center of Munich.
Village
The village is home to the Oberpfaffenhofen Airport and a m ...
, Germany, near Munich, in collaboration with students from the
University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...
. The students measured soil moisture, forestry parameters, and the
biomass of agricultural crops in the area at the same time the radar data was gathered.
Thomas D. Jones gave scientists real-time observations of
thunderstorms
A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are somet ...
over
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
, the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
and
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...
to augment data being gathered by the (MAPS) experiment. Jay Apt described a "good-sized" dust storm on the northwest coast of Australia.
The MAPS project's Vickie Connors reported to ''Endeavours Red Team that there was good correlation between what the instruments on board were reading compared to data gathered on the ground.
Concluding Flight Day 3, the Blue Team started their sleep period beginning about 8 am The Red Team went to work a few minutes after five that morning.
By Monday, 11 April 1994, 6 p.m. CDT, several more real-time images were processed by X-SAR –
Sahara Desert
, photo = Sahara real color.jpg
, photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972
, map =
, map_image =
, location =
, country =
, country1 =
, ...
, a geology site and the area around the
Japanese Archipelago
The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East Chin ...
. ''Endeavour'' flew over the southern portion of Japan, and the quick-look processor showed
oil slicks.
Monday's radar work included calibration passes over
Palm Valley, Northern Territory in Australia, and the
Amazon forests of
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
; oceanography observations over the Northeast Pacific Ocean, the Gulf Stream, the Southern Ocean and the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...
; ecology observations over Altona,
Manitoba, Canada; geology observations over the
Bighorn Basin
The Bighorn Basin is a plateau region and intermontane basin, approximately 100 miles (160 km) wide, in north-central Wyoming in the United States. It is bounded by the Absaroka Range on the west, the Pryor Mountains on the north, the Bigho ...
, Wyoming; hydrology studies of Mammoth Mountain, California, and geology studies of the tectonic activity around the Galapagos Islands of the southeastern Pacific.
Linda M. Godwin reported good photography of "tremendous" thunderstorms over South America and ocean wind patterns around the Galapagos. She also reported three Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment contacts with students at
Ealy Elementary School in
West Bloomfield, Michigan
West Bloomfield Township, officially the Charter Township of West Bloomfield, is a charter township in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan, within the Detroit metropolitan area. It is one of the most expensive places to live in Oakland ...
,
Country Club School in
San Ramon, California, and
Boy Scouts
Boy Scouts may refer to:
* Boy Scout, a participant in the Boy Scout Movement.
* Scouting, also known as the Boy Scout Movement.
* An organisation in the Scouting Movement, although many of these organizations also have female members. There are ...
in
Richardson, Texas
Richardson is a city in Dallas and Collin counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 119,469. Richardson is an inner suburb of the city of Dallas.
It is home to the University ...
.
The crew reported air
bubbles in the water supply for ''Endeavours galley.
12 April
On Tuesday, 12 April 1994, 3 a.m. Eastern time a real-time image was downlinked from the X-SAR showing a region of the Andes Mountains in Bolivia.
During the Blue Team's shift, the X-SAR and SIR-C collected images of oceanography sites including the South Pacific Ocean, the East Australian Ocean currents, and the North Atlantic Ocean; geology sites at
Cerro Laukaru
Cerro is Spanish for "hill" or "mountain".
Toponyms
;Bolivia:
* Cerro Rico, the "Rich Mountain" containing silver ore near Potosi, Bolivia
;Brazil:
* Cerro Branco, a municipality of Rio Grande do Sul
*Cerro Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, a municip ...
, Chile, snow cover at Otztal, in the Austrian Alps, and
Ha Meshar, Israel; and ecology sites at Howland, Maine, and Duke Forest, North Carolina.
The Red Team began their work about 7 am EDT on Tuesday 12 April 1994. Gutierrez and Chilton slept in an extra hour because they were about an hour and a half late going to sleep the night before after working on an in-flight maintenance procedure to eliminate air bubbles that were collecting in the drinking and food preparation water. The astronauts connected the water dispensing hose directly to the supply tank, bypassing the galley water outlet. A later test during the Blue Team's shift indicated that bubbles still may get into the drink bags through the opening where water goes into the drink container.
During this shift, live X-SAR moving images were downlinked of the area surrounding
Sarobetsu, Japan, one of the high-priority calibration sites for the X-band antenna. Scientists on the ground measured the strength of the radar signal and the size of the swath being imaged.
Ground investigators also were developing topographic maps of Japan and searching for the optimum way in which to use the three radar antennas for mapping rice fields.
X-SAR's quick-look processor also showed images of the
Bay of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the land around
Veracruz, Mexico
Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
. Ground investigators were taking simultaneous measurements of the ecological test site, looking for soil and vegetation information during the dry season of the tropical forest there.
Godwin reported that the crew had a cloud-free opportunity to photography
Chickasha, Oklahoma
Chickasha is a city in and the county seat of Grady County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 16,036 at the 2010 census. Chickasha is home to the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. The city is named for and strongly connecte ...
, one of the 19 "supersites," and that they had seen sea ice along the coast of the
Kamchatka Peninsula
The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and w ...
of Russia.
13 April
On Wednesday, 13 April 1994, 7 a.m. Eastern time, the Blue Team completed its fifth working day in space with a handover to the Red Team.
During the Blue shift, researchers watched televised downlinks of live X-SAR moving images of surface and subsurface structures in the
Namib Desert
The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Nami ...
in South Africa to improve researchers' understanding of radar
backscatter
In physics, backscatter (or backscattering) is the reflection of waves, particles, or signals back to the direction from which they came. It is usually a diffuse reflection due to scattering, as opposed to specular reflection as from a mirror, a ...
. Scientists also viewed radar images of sea ice and seasonal melt in the
Sea of Okhstok
The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...
off the coast of
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
and a critical region of expanding drought in the
Sahel area of the
Sudan.
At about 2:45 am Central time while ''Endeavour'' passed over Australia, Jay Apt exchanged greetings with the Russian
cosmonauts
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
aboard the
Mir space station
''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...
aboard ''Endeavour'' as the two spacecraft passed within 1,200 nautical miles () of each other above Australia. Both crews used amateur radio equipment for the contact which was monitored real-time by many amateur radio stations via telebridge systems and rebroadcasts.
All three Blue Team astronauts exercised on the bicycle ergometer during their work shift for an ongoing
biomedical study of exercise as a possible countermeasure for the
deconditioning Deconditioning is adaptation of an organism to less demanding environment, or, alternatively, the decrease of physiological adaptation to normal conditions. Decondition may result from decreased physical activity, prescribed bed rest, orthopedic cas ...
which astronauts experience in their
cardiovascular
The blood circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the entire body of a human or other vertebrate. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, tha ...
systems during space missions.
Rich Clifford had off-duty time for the second half of his work day. Also, an in-flight maintenance procedure to install a makeshift seal for drink bags and food containers at the galley water dispenser helped reduce bubbles in the drinking and food preparation water.
At 10:30 am, Red Team crew members were on duty for their fifth shift of the mission. The crew reported good photography opportunities over
Manitoba, Canada, saying the lakes appeared more "bluish" than anticipated.
Gutierrez was interviewed by
CNBC
CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
's
Tom Snyder
Thomas James Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows '' Tomorrow'', on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and ' ...
and Clifford will answer questions from
Mutual Radio Network listeners during an interview for the ''Jim Bohannon Show'' at 11:15 pm central.
14 April
On Thursday, 14 April 1994, 3:30 am Central Time, Rich Clifford answered listeners' questions about space flight, mission objectives, and the quality of life aboard the Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' during a 20-minute interview on Mutual Radio Wednesday night.
The Blue Team reported good photography of a gigantic fire-scarred area in China that burned in 1987. This region was of special interest to the Measurement of Atmospheric Pollution experiment for studies of forest regrowth after a fire event.
Jay Apt had off-duty time for the first half of the Blue Team's sixth work day in space. During his off-duty time, Apt exercised on the bicycle ergometer and recorded his heart rate and perceived exertion for biomedical investigators. Apt was back on duty at 1 am central time.
The X-SAR science team's quick-look data processor produced moving video images of the Chickasha site, starting just north of the Oklahoma border in Kansas and ending just south of the Oklahoma River in Texas. Hydrologists studied the data to learn how well the radar is able to determine the soil moisture content as it fluctuates from day to day and week to week.
15 April
On Friday, 15 April 1994. Tom Jones commented that the pollution cloud noted over
Manila Bay
Manila Bay ( fil, Look ng Maynila) is a natural harbor that serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines. Strategically located around the capital city of the Philippines, Manila Bay facilitated commerce and trade between the Phi ...
in the Philippines on flight day six was almost invisible today. At about 1:50 am central time, Jones reported that the astronauts had seen fires along the west coast of
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
and smoke over
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
.
One of the instruments aboard, MAPS, exhausted its supply of infrared film.
At 6 pm CDT, Chilton explained to the public how a vast network of ground scientists and students camped in the field at many of the worldwide sites assist with the radar observations, and Godwin answered questions supplied by
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
viewers around the world.
The crew was continuing to work on a nuisance with it galley, the presence of bubbles in the water used for drinking and rehydrating food.
16 April
On Saturday, 16 April 1994, at about 11:30 pm and again at 1:15 am central time, Jay Apt used ''Endeavours Shuttle Amateur Radio to talk with fellow astronauts
Norm Thagard
Norman Earl Thagard, M.D. (born July 3, 1943; Capt, USMC, Ret.), is an American scientist and former U.S. Marine Corps officer and naval aviator and NASA astronaut. He is the first American to ride to space on board a Russian vehicle, and ca ...
and
Bonnie Dunbar
Bonnie Jeanne Dunbar (born March 3, 1949) is an American engineer and retired NASA astronaut. She flew on five Space Shuttle missions between 1985 and 1998, including two dockings with the ''Mir'' space station. Since leaving NASA, she has worke ...
and two Russian cosmonauts at the
Star City training center outside Moscow.
The Blue Team—Jay Apt, Rich Clifford and Tom Jones—reported several visual observations including fires burning in Africa and a line of thunderstorms over northeastern Brazil. Payloads scientists asked the crew to add the
Rugen Island, off Germany's northern coastline in the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...
, to their list of Earth observations photography.
On Saturday, 16 April 1994, 12:30 p.m.CDT, the Space Radar Lab-1 instruments also were continuing to operate well, and all observations were being made on schedule.
The sites being observed this day include areas of Japan and Italy. All of the observation sites have been recorded at least once at this point in the flight, and remaining observations are to supplement the data already obtained.
The annoyance that was present since the first day of the flight has been laid to rest with the successful in-flight maintenance procedure to get rid of air bubbles in the crew's water supply.
Godwin spent 15 minutes being interviewed by television reporters in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
and
Nashville.
17 April
On Sunday, 17, 3 April a.m. Central time, the Blue Team was recording radar images for scientists studying how elements of Earth's land surfaces, water resources, and plant and animal life work together to create Earth's life-sustaining environment.
On Sunday, 17, 12 April:30 pm Central time, ''Endeavours flight control surfaces and thruster jets were checked out to ensure they were in good working order for planned landing at the
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...
.
On this day, two weeks after
Easter Sunday
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the ''Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel P ...
(in the
Gregorian Calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...
) three of the astronauts - Gutierrez, Chilton and Jones - took part in a
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
service of Holy Communion. They paused for a moment of reflection and then received consecrated communion wafers brought aboard in a golden
pyx
A pyx or pix ( la, pyxis, transliteration of Greek: ''πυξίς'', boxwood receptacle, from ''πύξος'', box tree) is a small round container used in the Catholic, Old Catholic and Anglican Churches to carry the consecrated host (Eucharist) ...
.
The mission's six astronauts held their traditional in-flight news conference answering questions about the significance of the mission. Following the news conference, Commander Sid Gutierrez, Pilot Kevin Chilton and Flight Engineer Rich Clifford checked the orbiter systems while the payload crew of Mission Specialists Linda Godwin, Jay Apt and Tom Jones documented activity with the payload.
18 April
On Monday, 18 April 1994, 2 p.m. Central time, ''Endeavours crew were starting to pack up while final radar observations of earth were made and STS-59 wound down, aiming toward a 10:52 am central landing Tuesday.
The weather forecast was favorable for a landing in Florida, although flight controllers were watching a possibility of low clouds and a slight chance of showers in the area.
19 April
On Tuesday, 19 April 1994, 11:30 am Clouds and high winds in the vicinity of the Kennedy Space Center require ''Endeavour'' and its six astronauts to remain in space an additional day.
Following the wave off, the crew reconfigured the orbiter systems for the added day on orbit and reactivated a portion of the Space Radar Laboratory payload in the cargo bay. The Space Imaging Radar system (SIR-C) was the only part of the payload to be reactivated.
The data recorded during the STS-59 mission would fill the equivalent of 20,000 encyclopedia volumes. Payload managers reported that more than 70 million square kilometers of the Earth's surface, including land and sea, have been mapped on this flight. This figure represents about 12 percent of Earth's total surface. The Space Radar Laboratory obtained radar images of approximately 25 percent of the planet's land surfaces.
20 April
On Wednesday, 20 April 1994, ''Endeavour'' landed at
Edwards Air Force Base in California, completing its successful 11-day mission at 9:54 am.
Mission insignia
The five stars on the left and nine stars on the right of the insignia symbolize the flight's numerical designation in the Space Transportation System's mission sequence.
See also
*
List of human spaceflights
This is a list of all human spaceflights throughout history. Beginning in 1961 with the flight of Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1, human spaceflight occurs when a human crew flies a spacecraft into outer space. Human spaceflight is distinguished ...
*
List of Space Shuttle missions
*''
Mission: Earth, Voyage to the Home Planet'', 1996 book chronicling the mission
*
Outline of space science
The following outline is provided as an overview and topical guide to space science:
Space science encompasses all of the scientific disciplines that involve space exploration and study natural phenomena and physical bodies occurring in outer ...
*
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...
References
External links
NASA mission summary
{{DEFAULTSORT:STS-059
Space Shuttle missions
Edwards Air Force Base
Spacecraft launched in 1994
March 1994 events
Spacecraft which reentered in 1994
1994 in Florida
1994 in California