STS-49 was

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

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. In the early days of aviation it could be dange ...

of the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, 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. ...

''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 geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

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 orbital ...

. 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 atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environme ...

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

Crew

Spacewalks

;EVA 1 * Personnel: Thuot and Hieb * Date: May 10–11, 1992 (20:40–00:23 UTC) * Duration: 3 hours, 43 minutes ;EVA 2 * Personnel: Thuot and Hieb * Date: May 11–12, 1992 (21:05–02:35 UTC) * Duration: 5 hours, 30 minutes ;EVA 3 * Personnel: Thuot, Hieb and Akers * Date: May 13–14, 1992 (21:17–05:46 UTC) * Duration: 8 hours, 29 minutes ;EVA 4 * Personnel: Thornton and Akers * Date: May 14–15, 1992 (≈21:00–05:00 UTC) * Duration: 7 hours, 45 minutes

Crew seat assignments

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); 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 (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

. 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 Space Station ''Freedom'' was a NASA-led multi-national project proposed in the 1980s to construct a permanently crewed space station in low Earth orbit. Despite initial approval by President Ronald Reagan and a public announcement in the 1984 ...

. 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 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, and 7 hours, 45 minutes. (Longest EVA to date was during STS-102 in 2001: 8 hours 56 minutes; third longest EVA was during

STS-61 STS-61 was NASA's first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, and the fifth flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, Space Shuttle ''Endeavour''. The mission launched on December 2, 1993, from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The missi ...

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

with 35 hours and 28 minutes) * First Shuttle mission requiring three rendezvous with an orbiting spacecraft. * First use of a

drag chute A drogue parachute, also called drag chute, is a parachute designed for deployment from a rapidly moving object. It can be used for various purposes, such as to decrease speed, to provide control and stability, as a pilot parachute to deploy ...

during a Shuttle landing.

Wake-up Calls

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the

Project Gemini Project Gemini () was the second United States human spaceflight program to fly. Conducted after the first American crewed space program, Project Mercury, while the Apollo program was still in early development, Gemini was conceived in 1961 and ...

, 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 Apollo program and the fourth Moon landing. It was the first List of Apollo missions#Alphabetical mission types, J mission, with a longer stay on the Moon and a greate ...

. 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