W listopadzie minie 40 lat od pierwszego lotu SpacelabaCOLUMBIA GOING BACK INTO SPACE IN NEXT MISSION WITH A CREW OF 6AP Sept. 6, 1983
The first space shuttle, the Columbia, is scheduled to return to service for the next flight in the American series, and the Challenger is getting a breather after three flights in five months.
The Columbia, which has been idle for a year of modifications after making the first five flights, is scheduled to lift off again Oct. 28, carrying the European Spacelab, a research craft. A crew of six, the shuttle's largest yet, will be aboard, including two scientists who are not astronauts, one from West Germany and the other from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After that ninth flight in the program, the Columbia will again be taken out of service for several months for completion of its modifications. Because it was the first spaceship in the series, it was not as sophisticated as its successors.
Busy Schedule for 1984
Flight 10, in January, will be the Challenger's, and it will mark the beginning of a busy year in which 11 missions are scheduled. The craft was originally planned to carry a secret military satellite into space, but that mission has been delayed until later in the year because of problems with the rocket motor that is to lift the satellite to an orbit 22,300 above the earth.
Instead, the Challenger will place two communications satellites into orbit, and a member of the crew, Bruce McCandless, will don a rocket- powered backpack and maneuver up to 300 feet away from the shuttle. He will be the first space-walking astronaut not attached by a tether to his spacecraft.
That will be an important rehearsal for Flight 11 in March, when a Challenger crew attempts the first satellite rescue mission, in an effort to repair a solar-study payload that failed in orbit three years ago.
George Nelson, an astronaut, will don the rocket pack in an attempt to move over to the satellite, secure it to the shuttle's robot arm and to bring it into the cargo bay for repair. The satellite would then be returned to orbit. This flight will also deploy a 10- ton scientific satellite, which is to be left in orbit and retrieved later in the year by another shuttle crew.
Debut of Third Shuttle
Flight 12, in April, will be the first outing for the third shuttle, Discovery. The crew, including America's second woman in space, Judith Resnik, will release NASA's second Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, to be used in communications with all shuttle journeys.
Eight other flights, mostly commercial satellite-carrying and scientific missions, are planned next year.
The number of flights will increase to 16 in 1985, which will also see the debut of the shuttle Atlantis. NASA is working up to a launching rate of 24 shuttles a year by 1987.https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/06/science/columbia-going-back-into-space-in-next-mission-with-a-crew-of-6.htmlSHUTTLE'S MISSION SEEN HERALDING NEW U.S.-EUROPEAN COOPERATIONBy John Noble Wilford, Special To the New York Times Nov. 28, 1983
American and European space officials said today that the partnership that produced the Spacelab, scheduled to fly aboard the space shuttle Columbia Monday, is likely to be extended to other cooperative space ventures.
This would probably include major European participation in any American effort to develop a large space station, they said.
Preparations continued to run smoothly toward a planned liftoff at 11 A.M. for the ninth space shuttle mission, the first to carry a large pressurized laboratory in which astronauts and scientists can conduct experiments and scientific observations.
Only the weather gave launching officials at the Kennedy Space Center cause for concern. A cold front moving here from the west threatened to bring rain and possibly thunderstorms by liftoff time.
But at a preflight news conference, the storm clouds were of only passing interest compared with the more clement weather for American-European cooperation in space flight that officials said lay just over the horizon.
James M. Beggs, head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said the flight of the European- built Spacelab on the Columbia was a ''very, very important mission'' because it should ''open the door to further cooperation with the Europeans.''
Eric Quistgaard, director-general of the 11-nation European Space Agency, said the European governments had expressed ''great interest in continuing to cooperate with the United States in major manned space systems.'' He said Europe ''will be prepared to participate in one way or another'' in the space station project, which NASA hopes to get under way next year.
A decision is expected to be made soon, perhaps this week, on whether the Reagan Administration will approve the inauguration of the project to develop, at a cost of $9 billion, such a large orbiting research and observation station to be operated continuously in the 1990's by astronauts and visiting scientists. Mr. Beggs is scheduled to meet with Mr. Reagan Thursday to discuss the space station project.
The flight at hand, planned to last nine days, is expected to give scientists and engineers a foretaste of the opportunities and possible problems associated with a large research facility in space.
Samuel W. Keller, NASA's deputy associate administrator for science and applications, said the Spacelab- laden Columbia should ''demonstrate what we can do with a complete laboratory in space.''
The laboratory, which is 13 feet wide and 23 feet long, contains the instruments and data-processing facilities for conducting more than 70 experiments in astronomy, solar and atmospheric physics, life sciences, materials processing and earth observations. Scientists from 14 nations, including the United States, Canada, Japan and the European countries, are in charge of the experiments.
The six-man crew for the mission is the largest ever to occupy a single spaceship. They were reported to be ''rested and ready'' for the launching. The commander of the mission is John W. Young, NASA's most experienced astronaut. The 53-year-old Mr. Young has flown two Gemini and two Apollo missions and will be making his second flight on the shuttle. He commanded the Columbia's maiden flight in April 1981. Mr. Young has hinted that this may be his last spaceflight.
The other pilot will be Maj. Brewster A. Shaw Jr. of the Air Force, who will be making his first trip into orbit. He is a 38-year-old test pilot. Scientists in Crew
The two astronauts who specialize in science are Dr. Owen K. Garriott and Dr. Robert A. R. Parker. Dr. Garriott, 53, has a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University and was a member of the second Skylab crew, which occupied the experimental space station for 59 days in 1973. Dr. Parker, 46, was born in New York City and reared in Massachusetts. He earned a doctorate in astronomy at the California Institute of Technology.
A new category of shuttle passengers, payload specialists, will be represented this time. They are scientists who are not astronauts but are selected and trained specifically to operate the experiments of a particular mission.
The two payload specialists are Dr. Byron K. Lichtenberg, a 35-year-old biomedical researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dr. Ulf Merbold, a 42-year-old solid- state physicist at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart, West Germany. He is the first non-American to fly aboard an American spacecraft.
To get ready to carry its heavy load on a longer mission the Columbia has undergone extensive modifications since its last flight a year ago. Its three main rocket engines were replaced with more powerful ones. More seats were installed to accommodate the larger crew and a galley, three bunk beds, three hammock-type sleeping bags and a shower were included on the deck below the cockpit. An airlock was added at the rear of the shuttle's crew compartment. This connects to a tunnel leading from the compartment to the Spacelab.
Through that tunnel the astronauts and payload specialists will pass frequently as they work round the clock in the mission. Two scientists and a pilot will be on duty at all times.https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/28/us/shuttle-s-mission-seen-heralding-new-us-european-cooperation.htmlCOMPUTER AND NAVIGATION SYSTEM TROUBLE DELAYS SPACE SHUTTLE RETURN BY 8 HOURSBy John Noble Wilford, Special To the New York Times Dec. 9, 1983
The space shuttle Columbia landed safely today, but almost eight hours late, after a cascade of malfunctions struck and spread concern for the spaceship's critical navigation system.
The six-man crew rode the winged spaceship carrying the Spacelab to a landing here at 6:47 P.M., Eastern standard time. This brought to a successful conclusion the longest shuttle mission, a 10-day flight, and the first test of the European-built Spacelab as an orbital research facility.
At the moment of touchdown, Mission Control told the crew: ''Columbia, welcome home. Beautiful landing!''
For a time, however, there was doubt as to when the Columbia would be coming home, today or possibly a day later. The suspense built in the morning, the result of a mysterious sequence of failures. A thruster firing jolted the spaceship. A computer failed and then another computer failed. These were computers handling guidance and navigation functions. Finally, a navigation measuring system also shut down. Lieut. Gen. James A. Abrahamson of the Air Force, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's shuttle chief, said there was concern that ''this was a kind of problem that would ripple through all'' the computers and other systems. After hours of trouble-shooting, Mission Control in Houston decided it was safe to attempt the landing, even though engineers still did not understand the source of the malfunctions. At a news conference here, General Abrahamson said tests showing that one of the key computers used in navigation had survived without flaw gave flight controllers the confidence to proceed with the landing plans. This suggested that the problems were not necessarily widespread. General Abrahamson emphasized that at no time did Mission Control feel that the situation bordered on ''a potential disaster.'' Nonetheless, he said, ''We were going to be very careful, and we were.''
The two pilots and four scientists aboard the Columbia remained cool through the day. The crew members were John W. Young, Maj. Brewster H. Shaw Jr. of the Air Force, Dr. Owen K. Garriott, Dr. Robert A. R. Parker, Dr. Byron K. Lichtenberg and Dr. Ulf Merbold of West Germany. This is the largest crew to fly in a spacecraft.
The descent from orbit apparently went without flaw, despite the earlier equipment problems. But just as Mr. Young brought the nose wheels of the Columbia to the ground, one of the suspect computers failed again.
When the Columbia came to a stop, John Blaha, the spacecraft communicator at Mission Control, said to the crew: ''We've got some good news and bad news. The good news is we've got lots of beer waiting for you. The bad news is we drank it eight hours ago.''
The spaceship was originally scheduled to land at 10:58 A.M. This was a one-day extension of the mission decided on because of the Columbia's smooth performance, until the final hours, and because the spacecraft had ample reserves of fuel and oxygen.
This was the first time in nine flights that a space shuttle had failed to land on time because of mechanical problems. The third flight, in 1982, and the seventh flight, last June, had to stay aloft longer than planned because of weather conditions at their landing sites.
The flight of the Columbia had been remarkably free of trouble until the multitude of malfunctions struck this morning. It was 5:13 A.M., Eastern standard time. The Columbia was 155 miles up in orbit when an automatic firing of jet thrusters in the nose rocked the spaceship. Nothing quite so jarring had ever occurred on a shuttle. Mr. Young, the commander, estimated that the force was 19 or 20 times greater than the normal force of the earth's gravity. 'It Was Really an Impact'
''It really hit the vehicle hard,'' Mr. Young reported to Mission Control. ''It was really an impact. It was probably as high a magnitude type thing as we have seen.''
At precisely the same time, the computer handling the spaceship's guidance and navigation systems shut down. This was the No. 1 general purpose computer, one of four identical computers on board that bear the burden of controlling the craft's complex systems. Any one of the four is capable of taking over for the others. In addition, a fifth, independent computer is available as a backup system.
The No. 2 computer immediately took over from the troubled No. 1 computer. Five minutes later, in another thruster firing, the No. 2 computer also shut down, apparently because it became overloaded. For about one minute, the Columbia had no computer-operated guidance and navigation capability.
Mission control then commanded the No. 3 computer to the rescue. It had been turned off during the problem; the No. 4 computer was handling the spaceship's environmental control systems and other tasks.
Flight controllers were mystified. They ordered the No. 2 computer back on, and it worked. They tried to re-start No. 1, but it did not work. It was presumed dead. The No. 2 computer resumed its guidance and navigation duties, as the No. 3 computer was switched off; it held the vital re-entry programs and had to be kept available for any updating of those instructions. Officials Are Baffled
Still, no one understood the cause and nature of the malfunctions, or whether they were linked or independent problems. Mission Control decided to postpone the landing. Theoretically, it would be possible to land the shuttle without the computers but it is believed that, in practice, a human pilot could not execute commands fast enough to make the maneuvers necessary for re- entry into the earth's atmosphere.
''We need time to better understand the problem before we commit to re- entry,'' Mission Control told the crew.
Two more landing opportunities were available in the evening, at 5:17 or an orbit later at 6:47. Mr. Blaha, the spacecraft communicator at Mission Control, asked Mr. Young if he had any preference.
''I have no druthers,'' Mr. Young replied, though he noted that the later landing would give him a chance to take a nap. He had been up all night at the controls.
Mr. Young had one suggestion, though. ''I recommend we close the forward R.C.S.,'' he said, referring to the reaction control system thrusters, ''and not run any more of those rascals.''
While hundreds of engineers at Houston analyzed data from the Columbia's computers, searching for clues to the malfunctions, another gremlin struck. This time it was one of the three inertial measuring units that failed. This system senses the spaceship's acceleration, position and angle of attack to provide reference data needed by the computers in issuing commands to the propulsion system.
Major Shaw, who had taken over the controls while Mr. Young slept, reported at about 9 A.M. ''fault signals'' from the inertial unit. Attempts to re- start the system were futile.
Soon afterward, Mission Control elected to wait and attempt the landing on the final opportunity of the day. Even though the cause of the problems ''is not obvious with analysis,'' Mr. Blaha told the crew, it was decided to go ahead with ''de-orbit preps.''
Flight engineers readjusted the computers so that if the No. 2 machine failed again, the No. 5 computer would take over immediately and guide the ship home. The interconnections between the various machines were also adjusted to ''minimize the impact'' on them if No. 2 should fail.
At 5:14 Mission Control announced the decision to return to the earth as planned. Gary Coen, the flight director, was chain-smoking.
The Columbia was out of radio contact when it began its descent. At 5:52, while over the Indian Ocean. It would be almost 45 anxious minutes before Mission Control would know if the computers were working and navigating the Columbia through the many thruster firings and body-flap settings necessary to keep it on course. It was out of range of any tracking stations.
By the time word came, the Columbia was off the west coast of the United States. Mission Control began receiving tracking data at 6:31. All was well.https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/09/us/computer-and-navigation-system-trouble-delays-space-shuttle-return-by-8-hours.html