29 April 1985 16:04 GMT. Landing Date: 1985-05-06 16:13:38. Flight Time: 7.01 days. Flight Up: STS-51-B. Flight Back: STS-51-B. Call Sign: Challenger. Crew: Gregory, Lind, Overmyer, Thagard, Thornton Bill, van den Berg, Wang. Program: Spacelab. On the lighter side: Spacelab flight with herpes-infected monkeys and a US Marine on board, which led to no end of crude astronaut humor. The medical experiments led to the joke "Why do Spacelab missions require a crew of six? Because it takes five astronauts to hold down the experiment victim". What went wrong: Suffered the worst O-ring erosion experienced prior to the loss of Challenger on STS-51-L. The left-hand nozzle primary O-ring eroded to a depth of 4 mm inches over a 4 cm span with considerable blow-by. The secondary O-ring was eroded to a depth of 8 mm inches over an 8 cm span. The right-hand nozzle O-ring eroded as well but there was no blow-by associated with this erosion.Manned seven crew. Deployed Nusat; carried Spacelab 3. Payloads: Spacelab-3 experiments, habitable Spacelab and mission peculiar experiment support structure. The experiments represented a total of five different disciplines: materials processing in space, environmental observa-tions, life science, astrophysics, and technology experiments. Two getaway specials (GAS). The flight crew was split into gold and silver shifts working 12-hour days during the flight. Orbits of Earth: 110. Distance traveled: 4,651,620 km. Orbiter Mass at Landing: 96,370 kg. Payload to Orbit: 14,245 kg. Payload Returned: 14,198 kg. Landed at: Runway 17 dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base, . Landing Speed: 378 kph. Touchdown miss distance: 480 m. Landing Rollout: 2,535 m.
NASA Official Mission NarrativeMission Name: 51-B (17)
CHALLENGER (7)
Pad 39-A (29)
17th Shuttle mission
7th Flight OV-O99
3rd Rollback Crew:
Robert F. Overmyer (2), Commander
Frederick D. Gregory (1), Pilot
Don L. Lind (1), Mission Specialist 1
Norman E. Thagard (2), Mission Specialist 2
William E. Thornton (2), Mission Specialist 3
Lodewijk van den Berg (1), Payload Specialist 1
Taylor G. Wang (1), Payload Specialist 2 Milestones:
Flow A:
OPF - Oct. 13,1984
VAB - Feb. 10,1985
PAD - Feb. 15,1985
Flow B (rollback):
VAB - March 4,1985
OPF - March 7, 1985
VAB - April 10,1985
PAD - April 15, 1985 Payload:
SPACELAB-3
Mission Objectives: Launch:
April 29,1985,12:02:18 p.m. EDT. Flight first manifested as 51-E; rolled back from pad due to timing problem with TDRS-B payload. Mission 51-E cancelled; orbiter remanifested with 51-B payloads. Launch April 29 delayed two minutes,18 seconds due to a launch processing system failure. Launch Weight: 246,880 lbs.
Orbit:
Altitude: 222nm
Inclination: 57.0 degrees
Orbits: 111
Duration: Seven days zero hours, eight minutes, 46 seconds.
Distance: 2,890,383 miles Hardware:
SRB: BI-016
SRM: L016(HPM)
ET : 17/LWT-10
MLP : 2
SSME-1: SN-2023
SSME-2: SN-2020
SSME-3: SN-2021 Landing:
May 6, 1985,9:11:04 a.m. PDT, Runway 17, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Rollout distance: 8.317 feet. Rollout time: 59 seconds. First Crosswind Landing. Orbiter returned to KSC May 11,1985. Landing Weight: 212,465 lbs. Mission Highlights:
Primary payload was Spacelab-3. First operational flight for Spacelab orbital laboratory series developed by European Space Agency. Five basic discipline areas: materials sciences, life sciences, fluid mechanics, atmospheric physics. and astronomy main mission objective with Spacelab-3 was to provide high quality microgravity environment for delicate materials processing and fluid experiments. Two monkeys and 24 rodents observed for effects of weightlessness. Of 15 Spacelab primary experiments conducted, 14 considered successful. Two Get Away Specials on board.
STS-51-B Chronology - 1985 Apr 29 - STS-51-B Crew: Gregory, Lind, Overmyer, Thagard, Thornton Bill, van den Berg, Wang. Spacecraft: Challenger. Payload: Challenger F07 / SL 3 MPESS. Mass: 14,245 kg (31,404 lb). Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Shuttle. Duration: 7.01 days. Perigee: 346 km (214 mi). Apogee: 353 km (219 mi). Inclination: 57.00 deg. Period: 91.50 min.
Manned seven crew. Deployed Nusat; carried Spacelab 3. Payloads: Spacelab-3 experiments, habitable Spacelab and mission peculiar experiment support structure. The experiments represented a total of five different disciplines: materials processing in space, environmental observa-tions, life science, astrophysics, and technology experiments. Two getaway specials (GAS). The flight crew was split into gold and silver shifts working 12-hour days during the flight.
Bibliography and Further Reading
- Furniss, Tim, Manned Spaceflight Log, Jane's, London, 1986. ISBN: 0710604025. Summary of all manned spaceflights up to 1986. Pre-Glasnost, so many 'war stories' of Soviet manned spaceflight are not included. More at amazon.com...
- McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page, Harvard University, 1997-present. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited and over 20,000 rocket launches Accessed at: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.
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