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By NASA
NASA and the military have shared strong connections since the agency’s early days. From the nation’s earliest aeronautic research and the recruitment of test pilot astronauts to modern-day technology development, satellite management, and planetary defense, NASA has built a longstanding partnership with the military.
This legacy of collaboration has created natural opportunities for former service members to join NASA’s ranks at the conclusion of their military careers.
Lewis Swain is one of the many veterans working at Johnson Space Center in Houston today. Swain was recruited by NASA contractor McDonnell Douglas after leaving the military in 1980. He commissioned as a second lieutenant and served in the Air Force for 12 years, flying nearly 200 combat missions during two tours in Vietnam.
“The shuttle program was starting, and they needed ex-military pilots to serve as simulation instructors,” he said. Swain specialized in control and propulsion systems instruction for several years before becoming the training team lead for shuttle missions. Following the Challenger accident in 1986, Swain transitioned to supporting the International Space Station Program and Return to Flight evaluations. He has been a civil servant since 1989 and a training facility manager since 2006.
L. Jerry Swain during his Air Force career (left) and as a facility manager at Johnson Space Center in Houston (right).Images courtesy of L. Jerry Swain NASA’s Pathways Internship Program has also provided a point of entry for former service members. John Smith was studying mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso when he made an impactful Johnson connection. “I met with a former flight director, Ms. Ginger Kerrick, at a career fair hosted by my university,” he said. “Pathways happened to be accepting applications at the time and she enthusiastically encouraged me to apply. I never expected to get a response, much less an offer. I couldn’t say yes fast enough when it came!”
For others, the NASA SkillBridge Program has been instrumental in transitioning from the military to civilian careers. The program connects individuals in their final months of military service with a NASA office or organization. SkillBridge fellows work anywhere from 90 to 180 days, contributing their unique skillsets to the agency while building their network and knowledge. Since fellows’ pay and benefits are provided by their military branch, their support comes at no additional cost to NASA.
Johnson hosted the agency’s first-ever SkillBridge fellow in spring 2019, paving the way for many others to follow. Albert Meza, an Air Force space professional, was among this first wave of service members at NASA.
Approaching retirement from the Air Force in November 2019, Meza planned to move his family back to Houston that summer, then join them in the fall once his military service ended. A colleague encouraged him to apply for SkillBridge because it would let Meza move with his family. Meza was skeptical, noting the military is not typically flexible on moves or timelines, but after a quick meeting with his commanding officer and finding a Johnson team to work with, he was on his way to Houston. “It was unbelievable,” he said. “It kind of fell into my lap.”
Albert Meza visits Johnson Space Center’s Space Vehicle Mockup Facility while serving in the Air Force (left) and receives an award from NASA astronaut Rex J. Walheim during his retirement ceremony at Space Center Houston (right). Images courtesy of Albert Meza Today Meza is a payload integration manager for NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program, working within the Exploration Architecture, Integration, and Science Directorate at Johnson. In this role, he acts as a liaison between payload teams and the vendor developing a lander to help ensure flight requirements are understood and met.
Meza is also one of SkillBridge’s on-site coordinators. He said that when he first arrived at Johnson, he realized the program was relatively unknown. “I thought, I need to take the responsibility for waving the flag for SkillBridge at NASA.” Meza works tirelessly to educate service members, military leaders, and NASA supervisors about the program’s benefits. He also emphasizes how easy it is for NASA supervisors to host a fellow. “You get someone for six months who is already disciplined, loyal, and has all of these highly trained credentials,” he said. “Any civil servant supervisor can host a SkillBridge fellow. The only real requirement is that the supervisor can provide IT assets and a work location.”
Johnson has hosted more than 25 SkillBridge fellows since the program’s inception. Many fellows have since accepted full-time positions with NASA, including Patricia “Trish” Elliston. Meza found her a SkillBridge position with the center’s Protective Services Division in spring 2023. Elliston relocated to Houston in 2020, a few years prior to her anticipated retirement from the U.S. Coast Guard. Living in Houston and interacting with numerous NASA employees, along with prior experience working with the agency in maritime safety, convinced Elliston that Johnson was the place for her.
Trish Elliston flies aboard an aircraft during a mission (left) and visits Johnson Space Center’s Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (right) while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard. Images courtesy of Trish Elliston “During my internship I networked as much as possible and made every effort to learn as much as I could so that I could be better prepared to start my civilian career,” Elliston said. “I worked hard and learned a lot, and when a job opportunity became available, I applied.” She now works as a cyber intelligence analyst within the Flight Operations Directorate.
Meza notes that SkillBridge is a transition program, not a hiring program, and that some fellows have not received a job offer or have decided to pursue other opportunities. What happens after a SkillBridge fellowship depends on each individual and whether they’ve demonstrated their potential and built relationships in a way that turns this ‘foot in the door’ into a full-time position.
Interested in becoming a SkillBridge fellow at NASA? Learn more about the program and submit your application here.
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By NASA
Successfully deployed from the space shuttle Challenger during the February 1984 STS-41B mission, the Westar 6 and Palapa B2 communications satellites ended up in incorrect orbits due to failures of their upper stage rockets. During STS-51A in November 1984, Discovery’s second trip into space, the crew of Commander Frederick H. “Rick” Hauck, Pilot David M. Walker, and Mission Specialists Joseph P. Allen, Anna L. Fisher, and Dale A. Gardner worked as a team to not only deploy two new satellites but also to retrieve the two wayward but otherwise healthy satellites for return to Earth. Hauck and Walker piloted Discovery to rendezvous with each satellite in turn, Allen and Gardner retrieved them during two spacewalks, and Fisher grappled and placed them in the payload bay for return to Earth. After refurbishment, both satellites returned to space.
Left: The STS-51A crew of Dale A. Gardner, left, David M. Walker, Anna L. Fisher, Frederick “Rick” H. Hauck, and Joseph P. Allen. Right: The STS-51A crew patch.
NASA originally designated Hauck, Walker, Allen, Fisher, and Gardner as a crew in November 1983 and assigned them to STS-41H, a mission aboard Challenger planned for late September 1984 to either deploy the second Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) or fly a classified payload for the Department of Defense. Due to ongoing problems with the Inertial Upper Stage that failed to put the first TDRS satellite in its correct orbit during STS-6, NASA canceled STS-41H and shifted Hauck’s crew to STS-51A. In February 1984, an agreement between NASA and the Canadian government added an as-yet unnamed Canadian payload specialist to the STS-51A crew. Managers later named the Canadian as Marc Garneau and reassigned him to STS-41G.
A shuffling of payloads following the STS-41D launch abort resulted in STS-51A now deploying the Anik D2 satellite for Canada and Leasat 1 (also known as Syncom IV-1) for the U.S. Navy. By early August, the launch date had slipped to Nov. 2, with NASA considering the possibility of retrieving the two wayward satellites from STS-41B, officially adding that task on Aug. 13. NASA selected Allen in 1967 as one of 11 scientist-astronauts, while the rest of the crew hail from the Class of 1978. Hauck, on his second mission after serving as pilot on STS-7, has the distinction as the first from his class to command a shuttle mission. Allen and Gardner had each flown one previous mission, STS-5 and STS-8, respectively, while for Walker and Fisher STS-51A represented their first flight. Fisher has the distinction as the first mother in space.
Left: After its arrival from the Orbiter Processing Facility, workers in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) prepare to lift Discovery for mating with an External Tank (ET) and Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs). Middle: Workers lift Discovery to stack it with the ET and SRBs. Right: The completed stack prepares to leave the VAB for the rollout to Launch Pad 39A.
Discovery arrived back at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Sept. 10, returning from Edwards Air Force Base in California following the STS-41D mission. Workers towed it to the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) the next day to begin the process of refurbishing it for STS-51A. On Oct. 18, they rolled it over to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), for stacking with an External Tank and twin Solid Rocket Boosters.
At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Discovery rolls out to Launch Pad 39A, with the Saturn V rocket on display in the foreground.
The completed stack rolled out to Launch Pad 39A on Oct. 23. Two days later, the five-member STS-51A crew participated in the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, essentially a dress rehearsal for the actual countdown to launch. The crew returned to KSC on Nov. 5, the day the countdown began for a planned Nov. 7 launch. High upper-level winds that day forced a one-day delay.
Left: STS-51A astronaut Dale A. Gardner trains for the capture of a satellite using the Apogee Kick Motor Capture Device. Middle: Astronaut Anna L. Fisher trains to use the Canadian-built Remote Manipulator System, or robotic arm. Right: As part of the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, the STS-51A astronauts practice rapid evacuation from the launch pad.
Following deployment from Challenger during STS-41B, the upper stages of both the Westar 6 and Palapa B2 satellites malfunctioned, leaving them in non-useable 160-by-600-mile-high orbits instead of the intended 22,300-mile-high geostationary orbits required for their normal operations. While both satellites remained healthy, their own thrusters could not boost them to the proper orbits. NASA devised a plan to have astronauts retrieve the satellites during spacewalks using the jetpack known as the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), after which the shuttle’s Canadian-built Remote Manipulator System (RMS) or robot arm would grapple them and place them into the cargo bay for return to Earth. Astronauts had demonstrated the capability of the MMU during the STS-41C Solar Max satellite repair mission in April 1984 and NASA felt confident of its ability to capture and return Westar and Palapa.
In the weeks prior to STS-51A, ground controllers lowered the orbits of both satellites and reduced their spin rates from 50 to 1 rpm to enable capture by the shuttle astronauts. Engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston developed the Apogee Kick Motor Capture Device (ACD), otherwise known as the stinger due to its appearance, to allow an astronaut to capture the satellites while flying the MMU. Once relocated over the payload bay, a second astronaut would remove the satellite’s omnidirectional antenna with pruning shears and install an Antenna Bridge Structure (ABS) with a grapple fixture over the satellite’s main antenna dish. Allen would fly the MMU to capture Palapa, then he would switch roles with Gardner who would capture Westar. Fisher would use the RMS to grapple the satellites by this second fixture and lower them into specially built cradles to secure them into the payload bay.
Left: The STS-51A crew leaves crew quarters on their way to Launch Pad 39A. Middle: Liftoff of Discovery on the STS-51A mission. Right: View inside Discovery’s payload bay shortly after orbital insertion – the top of Anik D2 is visible, with Leasat 1 hidden behind it.
Space shuttle Discovery roared off KSC’s Launch Pad 39A on Nov. 8, 1984, to begin the STS-51A mission and mark the orbiter’s first return to space. For Gardner, launch day coincided with his 36th birthday. The launch took place just 26 days after the landing of the previous mission, STS-41G, a then record-breaking turnaround time between shuttle flights. Eight and a half minutes after liftoff, Discovery and its five-member crew reached space and shortly thereafter settled into a 182-by-172-mile-high initial orbit. As their first order of business, the crew checked out the RMS to ensure its functionality for the satellite captures later in the mission. They also performed the first rendezvous burn to begin the approach to the Palapa satellite. The crew then settled down for its first night’s sleep in orbit.
Left: Nighttime deploy of the Anik D2 satellite. Middle: Deploy of the Leasat 1 satellite. Right: Leasat 1 as it departs from Discovery.
The primary activity of the second flight day involved Allen deploying the 2,727-pound Anik D2 satellite via a spring ejection mechanism, occurring on time and with no issues. The crew also circularized the shuttle’s orbit at 186 miles. The next day, Gardner deployed the 17,000-pound Leasat 1 using the Frisbee style mechanism used to deploy the first Leasat during STS-41D two months earlier. With the satellite deployments complete, the crew began to focus on the rendezvous maneuvers to bring them close to the Palapa B2 satellite while Allen and Gardner verified the functionality of their spacesuits. On flight day 4, the astronauts reduced the pressure inside the shuttle from 14.7 pounds per square inch (psi) to 10.2 psi in order to prevent the spacewalking astronauts from developing the bends inside the spacesuits that operated at 4.3 psi.
Left: During the first spacewalk, Jospeh P. Allen captures the Palapa B2 satellite. Middle: Anna L. Fisher grasps Allen and Palapa with the Remote Manipulator System, or robotic arm. Right: Allen, left, and Dale A. Gardner prepare to place Palapa in its cradle in the payload bay.
On the fifth mission day, after Hauck and Walker piloted Discovery to within 35 feet of Palapa, Allen and Gardner exited the airlock to begin the spacewalk portion of the satellite capture. Allen donned the MMU mounted on the side wall of the cargo bay, attached the stinger to its arms, and flew out to Palapa. Once there, he inserted the stinger into the satellite’s Apogee Kick Motor bell and using the MMU’s attitude control system stopped Palapa’s spin.
Fisher then steered the RMS to capture a grapple fixture mounted on the stinger between Allen and the satellite. She then maneuvered them over the payload bay where Gardner waited to remove its omnidirectional antenna and install the bridge structure. However, Gardner could not attach the ABS to the satellite due to an unexpected clearance issue on the satellite. Using a backup plan, Allen undocked from the stinger, leaving it attached to the satellite as well as the RMS, and stowed the MMU in the payload bay. With Allen now holding the satellite by its antenna, Gardner attached an adaptor to the bottom end of the satellite to secure it in its cradle in the payload bay. This plan worked and Allen and Gardner completed the spacewalk in exactly six hours.
Left: Dale A. Gardner flies the Manned Maneuvering Unit to capture Westar 6 during the second spacewalk. Middle: Anna L. Fisher operates the Remote Manipulator System from Discovery’s aft flight deck. Right: Gardner, left, and Joseph P. Allen maneuver Westar prior to placing it in its cradle in the payload bay.
Between the two spacewalk days, the crew serviced the spacesuits, conducted routine maintenance on the shuttle, and prepared for the second rendezvous, this time to retrieve Westar. Allen and Gardner switched roles for the second spacewalk on flight day seven, with Gardner flying the MMU to capture Westar. The astronauts repeated the procedure from the first spacewalk, except for not removing the omni antenna so they could use it as a handhold. With Westar secured in the payload bay, Gardner and Allen completed the second spacewalk in 5 hours and 42 minutes.
Left: Dale A. Gardner, left, and Joseph P. Allen pose at the end of the Remote Manipulator System controlled by Anna L. Fisher, holding a For Sale sign above the two retrieved satellites secured in Discovery’s payload bay. Middle: Inflight photo of the STS-51A crew after the successful satellite retrievals. Right: View inside Discovery’s payload bay shortly before the deorbit burn, with Westar 6 in the foreground and Palapa B2 behind it.
During their final full day in space, Discovery’s crew repressurized the shuttle’s cabin to 14.7 psi and tidied the cabin in preparation for reentry. On Nov. 16, the astronauts closed the payload bay doors and fired the Orbital Maneuvering System engines to begin the descent back to Earth. Hauck guided Discovery to a smooth landing at KSC, completing a flight of 7 days, 23 hours, and 45 minutes. The crew had traveled nearly 3.3 million miles and completed 127 orbits around the Earth. The next day, workers towed Discovery to the OPF to begin preparing it for its next flight, STS-51C in January 1985.
Left: Discovery streaks over Houston on its way to land at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Middle: Discovery moments before touchdown at KSC. Right: NASA officials greet the STS-51A astronauts as they exit Discovery.
As a postscript, STS-51A marked the last flight to use the MMUs, and the last untethered spacewalks until 1994 when STS-64 astronauts tested the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER). All subsequent spacewalks on the space shuttle and the International Space Station used safety tethers, with the SAFER as a backup in case a crew member disconnects from the vehicle.
Left: In the Orbiter Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers inspect the Westar 6, left, and Palapa B2 satellites in Discovery’s payload bay. Right: The STS-51A crew, with Lloyd’s of London representative Stephen Merritt, sitting at right, during their visit to London.
On Dec. 7, 1984, in a ceremony at the White House, President Ronald W. Reagan presented the STS-51A crew with the Lloyd’s of London – the company had insured the two satellites they returned to Earth – Silver Medal for Meritorious Salvage Operations. Fisher has the distinction as only the second woman to receive that award. In February 1985, Lloyd’s flew the crew to London on the Concorde for a week of activities, including addressing the Lloyd’s underwriters and tea with Prince Charles at Kensington Palace.
Hong Kong-based AsiaSat purchased the Westar 6 satellite, refurbished it, and relaunched it as AsiaSat 1 on April 7, 1990, on a Chinese CZ-3 rocket. Title to the Palapa B2 satellite returned to Indonesia after its relaunch as Palapa B2R on April 13, 1990, aboard a Delta rocket.
Read recollections of the STS-51A mission by Hauck, Allen, and Fisher in their oral histories with the JSC History Office. Enjoy the crew’s narration of a video about the STS-51A mission.
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In Punakha, Bhutan, Dr. Aparna Phalke (left) from SERVIR works with a translator to converse with a local chili farmer (center) about his experiences cultivating these fields for over 30 years– including agricultural management practices, market prices, and farming challenges Sarah Cox/SERVIR NASA and the Kingdom of Bhutan have been actively learning from each other and growing together since 2019. The seeds planted over those years have ripened into improved environmental conservation, community-based natural resource management, and new remote sensing tools.
Known for its governing philosophy of “gross national happiness,” and has a constitutional mandate to maintain at least 60% forest cover. The government’s goals include achieving nationwide food security by 2030.
Bhutan first approached the U.S. State Department to partner on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) opportunities for the country, and NASA was invited to help lead these opportunities. In 2019, Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck visited NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, and was introduced to several NASA programs.
NASA’s Earth scientists and research staff from several complementary programs have helped support Bhutan’s goals by providing data resources and training to make satellite data more useful to communities and decision makers. Bhutan now uses NASA satellite data in its national land management decisions and plans to foster more geospatial jobs to help address environmental issues.
Supporting Bhutan’s Environmental Decision Makers
Bhutan’s National Land Commission offers tax breaks to farmers to support food security and economic resilience. However, finding and reaching eligible farmers on the ground can be expensive and time consuming, which means small farmers in remote areas can be missed.
A team from SERVIR – a joint NASA-U.S. Agency for International Development initiative – worked with Bhutanese experts to create decision-making tools like the Farm Action Toolkit (FAcT). The tool uses imagery from the NASA-U.S. Geological Survey Landsat satellites to identify and measure the country’s farmland. SERVIR researchers met with agricultural organizations – including Bhutan’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, National Statistics Bureau, and National Center for Organic Agriculture – to adjust the tool for the country’s unique geography and farming practices. The Land Commission now uses FAcT to identify small farms and bring support to more of the country.
NASA also develops local capacity to use Earth data through efforts like the Applied Remote Sensing Training Program (ARSET). In early 2024, ARSET staff worked with SERVIR and Druk Holdings and Investments (DHI) to host a workshop with 46 Bhutanese government personnel. Using tailored local case studies, the teams worked to find ways to better manage natural resources, assist land use planning, and monitor disasters.
“We look forward to continuing this collaboration, as there are still many areas where NASA’s expertise can significantly impact Bhutan’s development goals,” said Manish Rai, an analyst with DHI who helped coordinate the workshop. “This collaboration is a two-way street. While Bhutan has benefited greatly from NASA’s support, we believe there are also unique insights and experiences that Bhutan can share with NASA, particularly in areas like environmental conservation and community-based natural resource management.”
Dr. Aparna Phalke gives a presentation on NASA technology and the SERVIR program to a group of 100 students at the Royal University of Bhutan College of Natural Resources. Sarah Cox/SERVIR Encouraging Bhutan’s Future Environmental Leaders
By working with students and educators from primary schools to the university level, Bhutan and NASA have been investing in the country’s future environmental leadership. Supporting educators and “training trainers” have been pillars of this collaboration.
NASA and Bhutan have worked together to boost the skills of early-career Earth scientists. For example, NASA’s DEVELOP program for undergraduates worked directly with local institutions to create several applied science internships for Bhutanese students studying in the U.S.
Tenzin Wangmo, a high school biology teacher in Bhutan, participated in DEVELOP projects focusing on agriculture and water resources. According to Wangmo, the lessons learned from those projects have been helpful in connecting with her students about STEM opportunities and environmental issues. “Most people only think of NASA as going to space, rather than Earth science,” she said. “It was encouraging to my students that there are lots of opportunities for you if you try.”
NASA is also supporting Bhutan’s future environmental leadership through the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Program. The GLOBE program is a U.S. interagency outreach program that works with teachers to support STEM literacy through hands-on environmental learning. Since 2020, GLOBE has worked through the U.S. State Department and organizations like the Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Forest Research and Training to support educators at two dozen schools in Bhutan. The program reached more than 650 students with activities like estimating their school’s carbon footprint.
This focus on STEM education enables students and professionals to contribute to Bhutan’s specific development goals now and in the future.
Sonam Tshering, a student who completed two DEVELOP projects on Bhutanese agriculture while studying at the University of Texas at El Paso, was able to share the value of these efforts at the 2023 United Nations Climate Conference. “By applying satellite data from NASA, we aimed to create actionable insights for our local farmers and our policymakers back in Bhutan,” she said.
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Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256.544.0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
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By NASA
On Nov. 3, 1994, space shuttle Atlantis took to the skies on its 13th trip into space. During the 11-day mission, the STS-66 crew of Commander Donald R. McMonagle, Pilot Curtis L. Brown, Payload Commander Ellen Ochoa, and Mission Specialists Joseph R. Tanner, Scott E. Parazynski, and French astronaut Jean-François Clervoy representing the European Space Agency (ESA) operated the third Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Sciences (ATLAS-3), and deployed and retrieved the U.S.-German Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere-Shuttle Pallet Satellite (CRISTA-SPAS), as part of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth. The remote sensing instruments studied the Sun’s energy output, the atmosphere’s chemical composition, and how these affect global ozone levels, adding to the knowledge gained during the ATLAS-1 and ATLAS-2 missions.
Left: Official photo of the STS-68 crew of Jean-François Clervoy, left, Scott E. Parazynski, Curtis L. Brown, Joseph R. Tanner, Donald R. McMonagle, and Ellen Ochoa. Middle: The STS-66 crew patch. Right: The ATLAS-3 payload patch.
In August 1993, NASA named Ochoa as the ATLAS-3 payload commander, and in January 1994, named the rest of the STS-66 crew. For McMonagle, selected as an astronaut in 1987, ATLAS-3 marked his third trip into space, having flown on STS-39 and STS-54. Brown, also from the class of 1987, previously flew on STS 47, while Ochoa, selected in 1990, flew as a mission specialist on STS-56, the ATLAS-2 mission. For Tanner, Parazynski, and Clervoy, all from the Class of 1992 – the French space agency CNES previously selected Clervoy as one of its astronauts in 1985 before he joined the ESA astronaut cadre in 1992 – STS-66 marked their first spaceflight.
Left: Schematic illustration of ATLAS-3 and its instruments. Right: Schematic illustration of CRISTA-SPAS retrievable satellite and its instruments.
The ATLAS-3 payload consisted of six instruments on a Spacelab pallet and one mounted on the payload bay sidewall. The pallet mounted instruments included Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy (ATMOS), Millimeter-Wave Atmospheric Sounder (MAS), Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (ACRIM), Measurement of the Solar Constant (SOLCON), Solar Spectrum Measurement from 1,800 to 3,200 nanometers (SOLSCAN), and Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SUSIM).
The Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SSBUV) instrument constituted the payload bay sidewall mounted experiment. While the instruments previously flew on the ATLAS-1 and ATLAS-2 missions, both those flights took place during the northern hemisphere spring. Data from the ATLAS-3’s mission in the fall complemented results from the earlier missions. The CRISTA-SPAS satellite included two instruments, the CRISTA and the Middle Atmosphere High Resolution Spectrograph Investigation (MAHRSI).
Left: Space shuttle Atlantis at Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Middle: Liftoff of Atlantis on STS-66. Right: Atlantis rises into the sky.
Following its previous flight, STS-46 in August 1992, Atlantis spent one and a half years at the Rockwell plant in Palmdale, California, undergoing major modifications before arriving back at KSC on May 29, 1994. During the modification period, workers installed cables and wiring for a docking system for Atlantis to use during the first Shuttle-Mir docking mission in 1995 and equipment to allow it to fly Extended Duration Orbiter missions of two weeks or longer. Atlantis also underwent structural inspections and systems upgrades including improved nose wheel steering and a new reusable drag chute. Workers in KSC’s Orbiter Processing Facility installed the ATLAS-3 and CRISTA-SPAS payloads and rolled Atlantis over to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Oct. 4 for mating with its External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters. Atlantis rolled out to Launch Pad 39B six days later. The six-person STS-66 crew traveled to KSC to participate in the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, essentially a dress rehearsal for the launch countdown, on Oct. 18.
They returned to KSC on Oct. 31, the same day the final countdown began. Following a smooth countdown leading to a planned 11:56 a.m. EST liftoff on Nov. 3, 1994, Atlantis took off three minutes late, the delay resulting from high winds at one of the Transatlantic Abort sites. The liftoff marked the third shuttle launch in 55 days, missing a record set in 1985 by one day. Eight and a half minutes later, Atlantis delivered its crew and payloads to space. Thirty minutes later, a firing of the shuttle’s Orbiter Maneuvering System (OMS) engines placed them in a 190-mile orbit inclined 57 degrees to the equator. The astronauts opened the payload bay doors, deploying the shuttle’s radiators, and removed their bulky launch and entry suits, stowing them for the remainder of the flight.
Left: Atlantis’ payload bay, showing the ATLAS-3 payload and the CRISTA-SPAS deployable satellite behind it. Middle: European Space Agency astronaut Jean-François Clervoy uses the shuttle’s Remote Manipulator System (RMS) to grapple the CRISTA-SPAS prior to its release. Right: Clervoy about to release CRISTA-SPAS from the RMS.
The astronauts began to convert their vehicle into a science platform, and that included breaking up into two teams to enable 24-hour-a-day operations. McMonagle, Ochoa, and Tanner made up the Red Team while Brown, Parazynski, and Clervoy made up the Blue Team. Within five hours of liftoff, the Blue Team began their sleep period while the Red Team started their first on orbit shift by activating the ATLAS-3 instruments, the CRISTA-SPAS deployable satellite, and the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) or robotic arm in the payload bay and some of the middeck experiments. The next day, Clervoy, operating the RMS, grappled CRISTA-SPAS, lifted it from its cradle in the payload bay, and while Atlantis flew over Germany, deployed it for its eight-day free flight. McMonagle fired Atlantis’ thrusters to separate from the satellite.
Left: Ellen Ochoa and Donald R. McMonagle on the shuttle’s flight deck. Middle: European Space Agency astronaut Jean-François Clervoy in the commander’s seat during the mission. Right: Scott E. Parazynski operates a protein crystallization experiment in the shuttle middeck.
Left: Joseph R. Tanner operates a protein crystallization experiment. Middle: Curtis L. Brown operates a microgravity acceleration measurement system. Right: Ellen Ochoa uses the shuttle’s Remote Manipulator System to grapple CRISTA-SPAS following its eight-day free flight.
For the next eight days, the two teams of astronauts continued work with the ATLAS instruments and several middeck and payload bay experiments such as protein crystal growth, measuring the shuttle microgravity acceleration environment, evaluating heat pipe performance, and a student experiment to study the Sun that complemented the ATLAS instruments. On November 12, the mission’s 10th day, the astronauts prepared to retrieve the CRISTA-SPAS satellite. For the retrieval, McMonagle and Brown used a novel rendezvous profile unlike previous ones used in the shuttle program. Instead of making the final approach from in front of the satellite, called the V-bar approach, Atlantis approached from below in the so-called R-bar approach. This is the profile Atlantis planned to use on its next mission, the first rendezvous and docking with the Mir space station. It not only saved fuel but also prevented contamination of the station’s delicate sensors and solar arrays. Once within 40 feet of CRISTA-SPAS, Ochoa reached out with the RMS, grappled the satellite, and then berthed it back in the payload bay.
A selection from the 6,000 STS-66 crew Earth observation photographs. Left: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Middle left: Hurricane Florence in the North Atlantic. Middle right: The Ganges River delta. Right: The Sakurajima Volcano in southern Japan.
As a Mission to Planet Earth, the STS-66 astronauts spent considerable time looking out the window, capturing 6,000 images of their home world. Their high inclination orbit enabled views of parts of the planet not seen during typical shuttle missions.
Left: The inflight STS-66 crew photo. Right: Donald R. McMonagle, left, and Curtis R. Brown prepare for Atlantis’ deorbit and reentry.
On flight day 11, with most of the onboard film exposed and consumables running low, the astronauts prepared for their return to Earth the following day. McMonagle and Brown tested Atlantis’ reaction control system thrusters and aerodynamic surfaces in preparation for deorbit and descent through the atmosphere, while the rest of the crew busied themselves with shutting down experiments and stowing away unneeded equipment.
Left: Atlantis makes a perfect touchdown at California’s Edwards Air Force Base. Middle: Atlantis deploys the first reusable space shuttle drag chute. Right: Mounted atop a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, Atlantis departs Edwards for the cross-country trip to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
On Nov. 14, the astronauts closed Atlantis’ payload bay doors, donned their launch and entry suits, and strapped themselves into their seats for entry and landing. Tropical Storm Gordon near the KSC primary landing site forced a diversion to Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in California. The crew fired Atlantis’ OMS engines to drop out of orbit. McMonagle piloted Atlantis to a smooth landing at Edwards, ending the 10-day 22-hour 34-minute flight, Atlantis’ longest flight up to that time. The crew had orbited the Earth 174 times. Workers at Edwards safed the vehicle and placed it atop a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the ferry flight back to KSC. The duo left Edwards on Nov. 21, and after stops at Kelly Field in San Antonio and Eglin AFB in the Florida panhandle, arrived at KSC the next day. Workers there began preparing Atlantis for its next flight, STS-71 in June 1995, the first Shuttle-Mir docking mission. Meanwhile, a Gulfstream jet flew the astronauts back to Ellington Field in Houston for reunions with their families. As it turned out, STS-66 flew Atlantis’ last solo flight until STS-125 in 2009, the final Hubble Servicing Mission. The 16 intervening flights, and the three that followed, all docked with either Mir or the International Space Station.
“The mission not only met all our expectations, but all our hopes and dreams as well,” said Mission Scientist Timothy L. Miller of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “One of its high points was our ability to receive and process so much data in real time, enhancing our ability to carry out some new and unprecedented cooperative experiments.” McMonagle said of STS-66, “We are very proud of the mission we have just accomplished. If there’s any one thing we all have an interest in, it’s the health of our planet.”
Enjoy the crew narrate a video about the STS-66 mission.
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30 Years On, NASA’s Wind Is a Windfall for Studying our Neighborhood in Space
An artist’s concept of NASA’s Wind spacecraft outside of Earth’s magnetosphere. NASA Picture it: 1994. The first World Wide Web conference took place in Geneva, the first Chunnel train traveled under the English Channel, and just three years after the end of the Cold War, the first Russian instrument on a U.S. spacecraft launched into deep space from Cape Canaveral. The mission to study the solar wind, aptly named Wind, held promise for heliophysicists and astrophysicists around the world to investigate basic plasma processes in the solar wind barreling toward Earth —key information for helping us understand and potentially mitigate the space weather environment surrounding our home planet.
Thirty years later, Wind continues to deliver on that promise from about a million miles away at the first Earth-Sun Lagrange Point (L1). This location is gravitationally balanced between Earth and the Sun, providing excellent fuel economy that requires mere puffs of thrust to stay in place.
According to Lynn Wilson, who is the Wind project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, fuel is only one indicator of Wind’s life expectancy, however. “Based on fuel alone, Wind can continue flying until 2074,” he said. “On the other hand, its ability to return data hinges on the last surviving digital tape recorder onboard.”
An artist’s concept shows a closeup of the Wind spacecraft. NASA Wind launched with two digital tape recorders to record data from all the instruments on the spacecraft and provide reports on the spacecraft’s thermal conditions, orientation, and overall health. Each recorder has two tape decks, A and B, which Wilson affectionately refers to as “fancy eight-tracks.”
After six years of service, the first digital tape recorder failed in 2000 along with its two tape decks, forcing mission operators to switch to the second one. Tape Deck A on that one started showing signs of wear in 2016, so the mission operators now use Tape Deck B as the primary deck, with A as a backup.
“They built redundancy into the digital tape recorder system by building two of them, but you can never predict how technology will perform when it’s a million miles away, bathing in ionizing radiation,” said Wilson. “We’re fortunate that after 30 years, we still have two functioning tape decks.”
Wind launched on Nov. 1, 1994, on a Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. NASA Bonus Science
When Wind launched on Nov. 1, 1994, nobody could have possibly predicted that exactly 30 years later, NASA would be kicking off “Bonus Science” month in the Heliophysics Big Year. Beyond the mission’s incredible track record of mesmerizing discoveries about the solar wind — some detailed on its 25th anniversary — Wind continues to deliver with bonus science abound.
Opportunity and Collaborative Discovery
Along its circuitous journey to L1, Wind dipped in and out of Earth’s magnetosphere more than 65 times, capturing the largest whistler wave — a low-frequency radio wave racing across Earth’s magnetic field — ever recorded in Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts. Wind also traveled ahead of and behind Earth — about 150 times our planet’s diameter in both directions, informing potential future missions that would operate in those areas with extreme exposure to the solar wind. It even took a side quest to the Moon, cruising through the lunar wake, a shadow devoid of solar wind on the far side of the Moon.
Later, from its permanent home at L1, Wind was among several corroborating spacecraft that helped confirm what scientists believe is the brightest gamma-ray burst to occur since the dawn of human civilization. The burst, GRB 221009A, was first detected by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in October 2022. Although not in its primary science objectives, Wind carries two bonus instruments designed to observe gamma-ray bursts that helped scientists confirm the burst’s origin in the Sagitta constellation.
Academic Inspiration
More than 7,200 research papers have been published using Wind data, and the mission has supported more than 100 graduate and post-graduate degrees.
Wilson was one of those degree candidates. When Wind launched, Wilson was in sixth grade, on the football, baseball, and wrestling teams, with spare time spent playing video games and reading science fiction. He had a knack for science and considered becoming a medical doctor or an engineer before committing to his love of physics, which ultimately led to his current position as Wind’s project scientist. While pursuing his doctorate, he worked with Adam Szabo who was the Wind project scientist at NASA Goddard at the time and used Wind data to study interplanetary collisionless shock waves. Szabo eventually hired Wilson to work on the Wind mission team at Goddard.
Also in sixth grade at the time, Joe Westlake, NASA Heliophysics division director,was into soccer and music, and was a voracious reader consumed with Tolkein’s stories about Middle Earth. Now he leads the NASA office that manages Wind.
“It’s amazing to think that Lynn Wilson and I were in middle school, and the original mission designers and scientists have long since retired,” said Westlake. “When a mission makes it to 30 years, you can’t help but be inspired by the role it has played not only in scientific discovery, but in the careers of multiple generations of scientists.”
By Erin Mahoney
NASA Headquarters, Washington
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Last Updated Nov 01, 2024 Related Terms
Goddard Space Flight Center Heliophysics Heliophysics Division Science & Research Solar Wind The Sun Wind Mission Explore More
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