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Anderson Dunbar Edwards Reilly Sharipov Wilcutt

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STS-89 Credit - NASA

23 January 1998 02:48 GMT. Landing Date: 1998-01-31 22:35:00. Flight Time: 8.82 days. Flight Up: STS-89. Flight Back: STS-89. Call Sign: Endeavour. Crew: Anderson, Dunbar, Edwards, Reilly, Sharipov, Wilcutt. Program: Mir.

Of note: First Uzbek astronaut. First flight of Block IIA SSME engines. Penultimate Shuttle mission to Mir. Andy Thomas replaced David Wolf as the resident NASA astronaut. Endeavour docked with the SO module on Mir at 20:14 GMT on January 24, 1998.

Payloads included:

• Orbiter middeck: CEBAS (German/US biological module with fish and snails); dinosaur skull (part of a museum educational program)
• Bay 1: Tunnel Adapter
• Bay 3: Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock
• Bay 4-7: Transfer Tunnel
• Bay 8-12: Spacehab Double Module (payloads included supplies for Mir, X-ray crystallography detector planned for the International Space Station)
• Bay 13P: Getaway Special GABA carrier with G-141, G-145 (German materials processing experiments)
• Bay 13S: Getaway Special GABA carrier with G-093 (University of Michigan fluid dynamics experiment), G-432 (Chinese materials processing experiment)

Despite fits problems with his Sokol emergency spacesuit, Andy Thomas replaced David Wolf as a Mir crew member on January 25. Endeavour undocked from Mir on January 29 at 16:57 GMT and made one flyaround of the station before departing and landing at Kennedy Space Center's runway 15 at 22:35 GMT on January 31.

Launch:

January 22, 1998, 9:48:15 p.m. EST. Endeavour returned to space after completing its first Orbiter Maintenance Down Period, becoming first orbiter other than Atlantis to dock with Mir. On May 22, 1997, mission managers announced Endeavour would fly STS- 89 instead of Discovery. Launch originally targeted for Jan. 15, 1998, changed first to no earlier than Jan. 20 and then Jan. 22, per request from the Russian space program to allow completion of activities on Mir. First launch overseen by one of two new rotational launch directors, Dave King, following retirement of veteran Launch Director Jim Harrington.

Landing:

January 31, 1998, 5:35:09 p.m. EST, Runway 15, Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Rollout distance: 9,790 feet (2,984 meters). Rollout time: One minute, 10 seconds. Mission duration: eight days, 19 hours, 46 minutes, 54 seconds. Landed on orbit 139. Logged 3.6 million statute miles. Landed on first opportunity at KSC, marking 13th consecutive landing in Florida and 20th in the last 21 missions.

Mission Highlights:

Docking of Endeavour to Mir occurred at 3:14 p.m., Jan. 24, at an altitude of 214 nautical miles. Hatches opened at 5:25 p.m. the same day. Transfer of Andy Thomas to Mir and return of David Wolf to the U.S. orbiter occurred at 6:35 p.m., Jan. 25. Initially, Thomas thought his Sokol pressure suit did not fit, and the crew exchange was allowed to proceed only after Wolf’s suit was adjusted to fit Thomas. Once on Mir, Thomas was able to make adequate adjustments to his own suit (which would be worn should the crew need to return to Earth in the Soyuz capsule) and this remained on Mir with him. Wolf spent a total of 119 days aboard Mir, and after landing, his total on-orbit time was 128 days.

Hatches between the two spacecraft closed at 5:34 p.m., Jan. 28, and two spacecraft undocked at 11:57 a.m., Jan. 29. More than 8,000 pounds (3,629 kilograms) of scientific equipment, logistical hardware and water were taken from Endeavour to Mir. On Jan. 31, a new crew docked with Mir to begin a three-week handover. Thomas and his Mir 24 crewmates, Commander Anatoly Solvyev and Flight Engineer Pavel Vinogradov, greeted Mir 25 Commander Talgat Musabayev, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and French researcher Leopold Eyharts following a soft docking on Jan. 31, just hours before the STS-89 crew touched down in Florida. Eyharts was to return to Earth Feb. 19 with the two Mir 24 cosmonauts, leaving Thomas, Musabayev and Budarin on Mir. Thomas, the last U.S. astronaut assigned to complete a lengthy stay on Mir, will return to Earth after a four-month stay as Phase I activities draw to a close.

• 1998 Jan 23 - STS-89  Crew: Wilcutt, Edwards, Reilly, Anderson, Thomas Andrew, Dunbar, Sharipov. Spacecraft: Endeavour. Payload: Endeavour F12 / Spacehab Double Module. Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Shuttle. Duration: 8.82 days. Perigee: 359 km (223 mi). Apogee: 382 km (237 mi). Inclination: 51.60 deg. Period: 92.00 min.

  Penultimate Shuttle mission to Mir. Andy Thomas replaced David Wolf as the resident NASA astronaut. Endeavour docked with the SO module on Mir at 20:14 GMT on January 24, 1998.

  Payloads included:

  • Orbiter middeck: CEBAS (German/US biological module with fish and snails); dinosaur skull (part of a museum educational program)
  • Bay 1: Tunnel Adapter
  • Bay 3: Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock
  • Bay 4-7: Transfer Tunnel
  • Bay 8-12: Spacehab Double Module (payloads included supplies for Mir, X-ray crystallography detector planned for the International Space Station)
  • Bay 13P: Getaway Special GABA carrier with G-141, G-145 (German materials processing experiments)
  • Bay 13S: Getaway Special GABA carrier with G-093 (University of Michigan fluid dynamics experiment), G-432 (Chinese materials processing experiment)

  Despite fits problems with his Sokol emergency spacesuit, Andy Thomas replaced David Wolf as a Mir crew member on January 25. Endeavour undocked from Mir on January 29 at 16:57 GMT and made one flyaround of the station before departing and landing at Kennedy Space Center's runway 15 at 22:35 GMT on January 31.

• 1998 Jan 26 - Mir News 404: Mir-routine 

  During the weekend of 17.01.98 Solovyov and Vinogradov entered the airlock (Sh.S.O.) ...more...

• 1998 Jan 29 - Soyuz TM-27  Crew: Musabayev, Budarin, Eyharts. Spacecraft: Soyuz TM. Payload: Soyuz TM 11F732 s/n 76. Launch Site: Baikonur. Launch Vehicle: Soyuz 11A511U. Duration: 207.53 days. Perigee: 363 km (225 mi). Apogee: 373 km (231 mi). Inclination: 51.70 deg. Period: 91.90 min.

  Soyuz TM-27 carried the Mir EO-25 crew and French astronaut Leopold Eyharts. NASA and the Russian Space Agency had hoped Soyuz TM-27 could dock with Mir while Endeavour was still there, resulting in an on-board crew of 13, a record which would have stood for years or decades. But the French vetoed this, saying the commotion and time wasted would ruin Eyharts Pegase experimental programme. Soyuz TM-27 docked at the Kvant module port at 17:54 GMT on January 31, 1998, less than five hours before Endeavour landed in Florida.

  Solovyov handed over command of Mir to EO-25 commander Musabayev, and the Mir EO-24 crew and Eyharts undocked from the forward port of Mir at 05:52 GMT on February 19 aboard the Soyuz TM-26 for their return home. On February 20, the EO-25 crew and Andy Thomas of the NASA-7 mission boarded Soyuz TM-27 and undocked from the Kvant port at 08:48 GMT. They redocked with the forward port on Mir at 09:32 GMT. This freed up the Kvant port for a test redocking of the Progress M-37 cargo ship, parked in a following orbit with Mir during the crew transfer.

• 1998 Jan 31 - Landing of STS-89 

  STS-89 landed at 22:35 GMT with the crew of Wilcutt, Edwards, Reilly, Anderson, Wolf, Dunbar and Sharipov aboard.

• 1998 Feb 1 - Mir News 405: Mir-ENDEAVOUR 

  During the combined flight the 'Russian segment' continued to maintain direct communications ...more...

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