STS-47 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 ...
's 50th
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. ...
mission of the
program, as well as the second mission of the
Space Shuttle ''Endeavour''. The mission mainly involved conducting experiments in life and material sciences inside
Spacelab
Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, ...
-J, a collaborative laboratory inside the shuttle's payload bay sponsored by NASA and the
National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). This mission carried
Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese astronaut aboard the shuttle,
Mae Jemison
Mae Carol Jemison (born October 17, 1956) is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first African-American woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavou ...
, the first African-American woman to go to space, and the only married couple to fly together on the shuttle,
Mark C. Lee and
Jan Davis, which had been against NASA policy prior to this mission.
Crew
As female and male astronauts became more prominently integrated with the shuttle program, NASA enacted an unwritten rule that husband/wife couples would not be assigned to the same mission. However, when Lee and Davis's marriage became known to NASA officials in January 1991, the officials decided to keep the assignment as is, given that both crewmembers already had important roles within the upcoming mission. When asked at a NASA press conference if
intimate activities would be taking place on the mission, Davis denied that possibility.
Backup crew
Crew seat assignments
Mission highlights

At the beginning of September, a problem with an oxygen line in the shuttle's main propulsion system was identified, however, it was resolved without forcing a postponement of the mission.
STS-47 launched from Pad 39B at 10:23:00 a.m.
EDT on September 12, 1992, and was the first on-time mission without launch delays since
STS-61-B in 1985.
The mission's primary payload was Spacelab-J — a joint mission between NASA and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) — which used a crewed
Spacelab
Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, ...
module to conduct
microgravity research in
materials
A material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their ge ...
and
life sciences
This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, ...
. Like many previous missions, the international crew was divided into red and blue teams which would work in two 12-hour shifts for around-the-clock operations. Brown, Lee, and Mohri were assigned to the red team, and would conduct experiments while Apt, Davis, and Jemison, assigned to the blue team, would rest, and vice versa. As the mission commander, Gibson was free to work with both teams. Because of the 24-hour schedule, the crew wasn't sent any traditional wake-up calls by mission control.
Spacelab-J included 24 experiments in materials science and 20 life sciences experiments, the majority of which were sponsored by NASDA and NASA, while 2 were sponsored by collaborative civilian efforts.
The Payload Crew Training Manager was
Homer Hickam, who also worked during the mission as a Crew Interface Coordinator to talk to the crew during their science experiments and relay any concerns from the scientists on the ground.
[ ]
Materials science investigations covered such fields as
biotechnology
Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...
,
electronic materials,
fluid dynamics
In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids – liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including (the study of air and other gases in motion ...
and
transport phenomena
In engineering, physics, and chemistry, the study of transport phenomena concerns the exchange of mass, energy, charge, momentum and angular momentum between observed and studied systems. While it draws from fields as diverse as continuum mec ...
,
glass
Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...
and
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...
s,
metal
A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...
s and
alloy
An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which in most cases at least one is a metal, metallic element, although it is also sometimes used for mixtures of elements; herein only metallic alloys are described. Metallic alloys often have prop ...
s, and
acceleration
In mechanics, acceleration is the Rate (mathematics), rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Acceleration is one of several components of kinematics, the study of motion. Accelerations are Euclidean vector, vector ...
measurements. Life sciences included experiments on
human health
Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, pain ...
, cell separation and
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
,
developmental biology
Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of Regeneration (biology), regeneration, asexual reproduction, metamorphosis, and the growth and di ...
,
animal
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Biology, biological Kingdom (biology), kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, ...
and
human physiology
The human body is the entire structure of a human being. It is composed of many different types of cells that together create tissues and subsequently organs and then organ systems.
The external human body consists of a head, hair, neck, ...
and behavior,
space radiation
Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...
, and
biological rhythms. Test subjects included the crew,
Japanese koi fish (carp), cultured animal and plant cells, chicken embryos,
fruit flies,
fungi
A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...
, plant seeds,
frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...
s and frog eggs, and
oriental hornet
The Oriental hornet (''Vespa orientalis'') is a social insect species of the family Vespidae. It can be found in Southwest Asia, Northeast Africa, the island of Madagascar (but no reports have been made of its presence on the island for many year ...
s.
Jemison and Japanese astronaut
Mamoru Mohri were trained to use the Autogenic Feedback Training Exercise (AFTE), a technique developed by
Patricia S. Cowings that uses
biofeedback
Biofeedback is the technique of gaining greater awareness of many physiology, physiological functions of one's own body by using Electronics, electronic or other instruments, and with a goal of being able to Manipulation (psychology), manipulate ...
and
autogenic training
Autogenic training is a relaxation technique first published by the German and Nazi psychiatrist Johannes Heinrich Schultz in 1932. The technique involves repetitions of a set of visualisations accompanied by vocal suggestions that induce a sta ...
to help patients monitor and control their physiology as a possible treatment for
motion sickness
Motion sickness occurs due to a difference between actual and expected motion. Symptoms commonly include nausea, vomiting, cold sweat, headache, dizziness, tiredness, loss of appetite, and increased salivation. Complications may rarely include ...
,
anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion characterised by an unpleasant state of inner wikt:turmoil, turmoil and includes feelings of dread over Anticipation, anticipated events. Anxiety is different from fear in that fear is defined as the emotional response ...
and
stress-related disorders.

Aboard the Spacelab Japan module, Jemison tested NASA's Fluid Therapy System, a set of procedures and equipment to produce
water for injection, developed by Sterimatics Corporation. She then used
IV bags and a mixing method, developed by
Baxter Healthcare
Baxter International Inc. is an American multinational healthcare company with headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois.
The company primarily focuses on products to treat chronic and acute medical conditions. The company had 2023 global net sa ...
, to use the water from the previous step to produce
saline solution in space. Jemison was also a co-investigator of two
bone cell
An osteocyte, an oblate-shaped type of bone cell with dendritic processes, is the most commonly found cell in mature bone. It can live as long as the organism itself. The adult human body has about 42 billion of them. Osteocytes do not divide an ...
research experiments.
Another experiment she participated in was to induce female frogs to ovulate, fertilize the eggs, and then see how
tadpole
A tadpole or polliwog (also spelled pollywog) is the Larva, larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully Aquatic animal, aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial animal, ...
s developed in zero gravity.
Secondary Experiments
On the middeck, a variety of experiments were conducted, including the
Israel Space Agency Investigation About Hornets (ISAIAH), the Solid Surface Combustion Experiment (SSCE), and the
Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX II).
External experiments using the Ultraviolet Plume Imager (UVPI) on the LACE satellite and observations at the
Air Force Maui Optical Station (AMOS) were also conducted while ''Endeavour'' was in orbit.
ISAIAH was the first microgravity experiment flown for the Israel Space Agency (ISA). Originating from
Tel-Aviv University
Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...
, it was intended to observe the effects of microgravity on
oriental hornets and their ability to build combs in zero-g.
However, a failure in the water system resulted in an unexpected rise of the humidity level in the experiment, which resulted in the deaths of 202 out of the 230 hornets and 103
pupae
A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages th ...
out of the 120 in the experiment. While some of the hornets in the bottom container of the experiment remained active through flight day 7, no new nests were created until after the mission's completion, and the average lifespan of the hornets that flew into space was considerably less than that of the control group. None of the hornet pupae that flew into space metamorphized.
Twelve
Get Away Special (GAS) canisters (10 with experiments, 2 with ballast) were carried in the payload bay. Among the GAS canisters was G-102, sponsored by the
Boy Scouts of America
Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...
's Exploring Division in cooperation with the
TRW Systems Integration Group,
Fairfax, Virginia
Fairfax ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia and the county seat of Fairfax County, Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 24,146.
Fairfax is pa ...
. The project was named
Project POSTAR and was the first space experiment created entirely by members of the Boy Scouts of America.
Also on board were two experiments prepared by
Ashford School of Art & Design in
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
,
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, which, at the time, was a girls-only school.
The school had won a competition run by
Independent Television News
Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washington, D.C.
I ...
. The experiments were contained in G-520. The first one injected a few grams of
cobalt nitrate crystals to a
sodium silicate
Sodium silicate is a generic name for chemical compounds with the formula or ·, such as sodium metasilicate (), sodium orthosilicate (), and sodium pyrosilicate (). The anions are often polymeric. These compounds are generally colorless tra ...
to create a
chemical garden in weightless condition. The growths, which were photographed 66 times as they developed, spread out in random directions, twisted, and, in some cases, formed spirals. A second experiment to investigate how
Liesegang rings formed in space failed to operate correctly due to friction in parts of the mechanism. On its return, the experiment was exhibited in the
London Science Museum.
While in orbit, Jemison planned to speak from orbit on a live TV conference to
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
grade-school students at an event hosted by NASA and the
Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. The event was planned for September 16, 1992, at 7:00 p.m.
central time.
The mission, scheduled to end on September 19, 1992, was extended for one more day to complete certain experiments.
Gallery
STS-047 shuttle.jpg, Launch of STS-47
STS-47 in-flight crew portrait.jpg, STS-47 crew pose for a portrait inside the Spacelab-J module during the mission.
Hurricane Bonnie STS-47 1992-09-19 1101z (3).jpg, Eye
An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system.
In higher organisms, the ey ...
of Hurricane Bonnie (1992) photographed onboard ''Endeavour''.
STS-47 Crew and Support Staff.jpg, Alternate crew and support staff photo, featuring the seven crewmembers and spacesuit technician Sharon McDougle, front center, among others.
See also
*
List of human spaceflights
*
List of Space Shuttle missions
The Space Shuttle is a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a sy ...
*
Nikon NASA F4
*
Outline of space science
References
External links
STS-47 Media Resource Kit
Videos and Media
STS-47 Mission Highlights Resource TapeSTS-47 Launch Flight and Landing RecapSTS-47 Post-flight Crew NarrationSTS-47 NASA Post-flight press conference*
{{Orbital launches in 1992
Space Shuttle missions
Spacecraft launched in 1992