STS-49 was the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

maiden flight The maiden flight, also known as first flight, of an aircraft is the first occasion on which it leaves the ground under its own power. The same term is also used for the first launch of rockets. The maiden flight of a new aircraft type is alw ...

of the

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 n ...

''Endeavour'', which launched on May 7, 1992. The primary goal of its nine-day mission was to retrieve an Intelsat VI satellite, Intelsat 603, which failed to leave

Low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never m ...

two years before, attach it to a new upper stage, and relaunch it to its intended

geosynchronous orbit A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbita ...

. After several attempts, the capture was completed with the only three-person

extravehicular activity Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA inc ...

(EVA) in space flight history. It would also stand until STS-102 in 2001 as the longest EVA ever undertaken.

Crew

Spacewalks

* '' Thuot and Hieb '' – EVA 1 *EVA 1 Start: May 10, 1992 – 20:40 UTC *EVA 1 End: May 11, 1992 – 00:23 UTC *Duration: 3 hours, 43 minutes * '' Thuot and Hieb '' – EVA 2 *EVA 2 Start: May 11, 1992 – 21:05 UTC *EVA 2 End: May 12, 1992 – 02:35 UTC *Duration: 5 hours, 30 minutes * '' Thuot, Hieb and Akers '' – EVA 3 *EVA 3 Start: May 13, 1992 – 21:17 UTC *EVA 3 End: May 14, 1992 – 05:46 UTC *Duration: 8 hours, 29 minutes * '' Thornton and Akers '' – EVA 4 *EVA 4 Start: May 14, 1992 – ~21:00 UTC *EVA 4 End: May 15, 1992 - ~05:00 UTC *Duration: 7 hours, 45 minutes

Crew seating arrangements

Mission highlights

The Intelsat 603 satellite, stranded in an unusable orbit since launch aboard a Commercial Titan III launch vehicle in March 1990, was captured by crewmembers during an extravehicular activity (EVA) and equipped with a new perigee kick motor. The satellite was subsequently released into orbit and the new motor fired to put the spacecraft into a geosynchronous orbit for operational use. The capture required three EVAs: a planned one by astronauts Thuot and Hieb who were unable to attach a capture bar to the satellite from a position on the RMS (

Canadarm Canadarm or Canadarm1 (officially Shuttle Remote Manipulator System or SRMS, also SSRMS) is a series of robotic arms that were used on the Space Shuttle orbiters to deploy, manoeuvre, and capture payloads. After the Space Shuttle ''Columbia ...

); a second unscheduled but identical attempt the following day; and finally an unscheduled but successful hand capture by Thuot, Hieb and Akers as commander Brandenstein delicately maneuvered the orbiter to within a few feet of the

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth ...

. An Assembly of Station by EVA Methods (ASEM) structure was erected in the cargo bay by the crew to serve as a platform to aid in the hand capture and subsequent attachment of the capture bar. A planned EVA also was performed by astronauts Thornton and Akers as part of the ASEM experiment to demonstrate and verify maintenance and assembly capabilities for Space Station Freedom. The ASEM space walk, originally scheduled for two successive days, was cut to one day because of the lengthy Intelsat retrieval operation. Other "payloads of opportunity" experiments conducted included: Commercial Protein Crystal Growth (CPCG), Ultraviolet Plume Imager (UVPI) and the Air Force Maui Optical Station (AMOS) investigation. The mission was extended by two days in order to complete all the mission objectives. On flight day 7, the Ku-band antenna lost its pointing capability. It had to be stowed manually during the final EVA. The following records were set during the STS-49 mission: * First flight of the Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' * First (and only) EVA involving three astronauts. * Second and fourth longest EVAs to date: 8 hours, 29 minutes, 7 hours, and 45 minutes. (Longest EVA to date was during STS-102 in 2001: 8 hours 56 minutes; third longest EVA was during STS-61 in 1993: 7 hour 54 minutes) * First Shuttle mission to feature four EVAs. * The second longest EVA time for a single Shuttle mission: 25 hours and 27 minutes, or 59:23 person hours. (The longest is STS-61 with 35 hours and 28 minutes) * First Shuttle mission requiring three rendezvous with an orbiting spacecraft. * First use of a drogue chute during a Shuttle landing.

Wake-up Calls

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the

Project Gemini Project Gemini () was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual ...

, and first used music to wake up a flight crew during

Apollo 15 Apollo 15 (July 26August 7, 1971) was the ninth crewed mission in the United States' Apollo program and the fourth to land on the Moon. It was the first J mission, with a longer stay on the Moon and a greater focus on science than ear ...

. A special musical track is chosen for each day in space, often by the astronauts' families, to have a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or in reference to the day's planned activities.

Gallery

Image:Intelsat VI Capture Attempt - GPN-2000-001096.jpg, Thuot during one of the capture attempts Image:INTELSAT VI F3 separates from STS-49 after repair.jpg, Re-deployment of Intelsat 603 Image:STS-49 ASEM manipulation.jpg, ASEM is manipulated by the Canadarm; Thornton and Akers during EVA 4.

References

External links

NASA mission summary

{{Intelsat Intelsat Space Shuttle missions Edwards Air Force Base Spacecraft launched in 1992 Spacecraft which reentered in 1992 Satellite servicing missions May 1992 events