Covey

Hauck

Hilmers

Lounge

Nelson

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STS-26 Credit - NASA

29 September 1988 15:50 GMT. Landing Date: 1988-10-03 16:50:35. Flight Time: 4.04 days. Flight Up: STS-26. Flight Back: STS-26. Call Sign: Discovery. Crew: Covey, Hauck, Hilmers, Lounge, Nelson. Program: STS.

On the lighter side: Dubbed the 'Quiche Mission' because it involved release of a single satellite and little else. Unable to bear the publicity the crew was getting, and encouraging, about their brave and valiant mission, other astronauts swallowed helium at a reception for the Apollo astronauts and pranced through the room, squeaking in Donald Duck helium voices "Hi there, I'm Rick Hauck, commander of STS-26. Would you like my autograph". Manned five crew. First shuttle reflight after Challenger disaster. Deployed TDRS 3. Payloads: Deploy IUS (lnertial Upper Stage) with Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS)-C. 3M's Physical Vapor Transport Organics Solids 2 experiment (PVTOS), Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (ADSF), Infrared Communi-cations Flight Experiment (lRCFE), Protein Crystal Growth Il (PCG), Isoelectric Focusing (ISF)-2, Phase Partitioning Experiment (PPE), Aggrega-tion of Red Blood Cells (ARC)-2, Mesoscale Lightning Experiment (MLE)-1, Earth Limb Radiance (ELRAD), Orbiter Experiments (OEX), Autonomous Supporting Instrumentation System (OASlS)-I, two Shuttle Student Involvement Project (SSIP) experiments.

The crew was announced by George Abbey to the astronauts on 9 January 1987. Nelson's selection as commander angered the other astronauts. He had made the last flight before the shuttle, and instead of working on returning the shuttle to flight during the long stand-down, had taken a sabbatical and taken management courses at the University of Washington. It was seen as another example of Abbey governing through intentional chaos, using (in the words of the NASA psychiatrist) "inconsistency, ambiguity, silence, evasion" as part of "studied unpredictability".

STS-26 STS-26 Discovery, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 103, IUS / TDRS-C deployment... Credit- NASA

Return-to-flight mission after the Challenger disaster. Although receiving great press attention, the mission itself was pretty limited, involving only release of a TDRS satellite - leading other astronauts to dub it 'The Quiche Mission'. The other astronauts came to resent the publicity being given to the "brave crew" of Hauck's STS-26 mission, who they felt they had broken the second astronaut commandment, "Thou shalt not bask in glory".

NASA was upset when the press ignored the 'glorious' footage of the TDRS deployment on STS-26 and instead insisted on running the in-cabin 'horsing around' stuff, which they felt made the space program look like a multi-billion dollar junket for spoiled astronauts. They would sharply restrict release of such footage in the future.

Mission Name: STS-26 (26)
DISCOVERY (7)
Pad 39-B (7)
26th Shuttle mission
7th Flight OV-103

Crew:
Frederick H. Hauck (3), Commander
Richard O. Covey (2), Pilot
John M. Lounge (2), Mission Specialist 1
George D. Nelson (3), Mission Specialist 2
David C. Hilmers (2), Mission Specialist 3

Milestones:
OPF - Oct. 30, 1986
VAB - June 21, 1988
PAD - July 4, 1988

Payload:
TDRS-C,PVTOS,PCG,IRCFE,ARC,IFE,MLE,PPE,ELRAD,ASDF,SSIP(x2),OASIS-I
Mission Objectives:

Launch:
September 29, 1988,11:37:00 a.m. EDT. Launch delayed one hour, 38 minutes to replace fuses in cooling system of two of crew's flight pressure suits, and due to lighter than expected upper atmospheric winds. Suit repairs successful and countdown continued after waiver of wind condition constraint. Launch Weight: 254,606 lbs.
Orbit:
Altitude: 203nm
Inclination: 28.5degrees
Orbits: 64
Duration: Four days, one hour, zero minutes, 11 seconds.
Distance: 1,680,000 miles

Hardware:
SRB: BI-029
SRM: 360L001
ET : 28/LWT-21
MLP : 2
SSME-1: SN-2019
SSME-2: SN-2022
SSME-3: SN-2028

Landing:
October 3, 1988, 9:37:11 a.m. PDT, Runway 17, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Rollout distance: 7,451 feet. Rollout time: 49 seconds. Orbiter returned to KSC Oct. 8,1988. Landing Weight: 194,184 lbs.

STS-26 STS-26 Discovery, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 103, IUS / TDRS-C deployment... Credit- NASA

Mission Highlights:
Primary payload, NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-3 (TDRS-3) attached to an Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), became second TDRS deployed. After deployment, IUS propelled satellite to geosynchronous orbit. Secondary payloads: Physical Vapor Transport of Organic Solids (PVTOS); Protein Crystal Growth (PCG); Infrared Communications Flight Experiment (IRCFE); Aggregation of Red Blood Cells (ARC); Isoelectric Focusing Experiment (IFE); Mesoscale Lightning Experiment (MLE); Phase Partitioning Experiment (PPE); Earth-Limb Radiance Experiment (ELRAD); Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (ADSF) and two Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP) experiments. Orbiter Experiments Autonomous Supporting Instrumentation System-I (OASIS-I) recorded variety of environmental measurements during various inflight phases of orbiter. Ku-band antenna in payload bay deployed; however, dish antenna command and actual telemetry did not correspond. Also, orbiter cabin Flash Evaporator System iced up, raising crew cabin temperature to mid-80s.

• 1988 Sep 29 - STS-26  Crew: Covey, Hauck, Hilmers, Lounge, Nelson. Spacecraft: Discovery. Payload: Discovery F07 / PDP. Mass: 21,082 kg (46,477 lb). Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Shuttle. Duration: 4.04 days. Perigee: 301 km (187 mi). Apogee: 306 km (190 mi). Inclination: 28.50 deg. Period: 90.60 min.

  Manned five crew. First shuttle reflight after Challenger disaster. Deployed TDRS 3. Payloads: Deploy IUS (lnertial Upper Stage) with Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS)-C. 3M's Physical Vapor Transport Organics Solids 2 experiment (PVTOS), Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (ADSF), Infrared Communi-cations Flight Experiment (lRCFE), Protein Crystal Growth Il (PCG), Isoelectric Focusing (ISF)-2, Phase Partitioning Experiment (PPE), Aggrega-tion of Red Blood Cells (ARC)-2, Mesoscale Lightning Experiment (MLE)-1, Earth Limb Radiance (ELRAD), Orbiter Experiments (OEX), Autonomous Supporting Instrumentation System (OASlS)-I, two Shuttle Student Involvement Project (SSIP) experiments.

• 1988 Oct 3 - Landing of STS-26 

  STS-26 landed at 16:50 GMT.