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By NASA
On Aug. 30, 1984, space shuttle Discovery lifted off on the STS-41D mission, joining NASA’s fleet as the third space qualified orbiter. The newest shuttle incorporated newer technologies making it significantly lighter than its two predecessors. Discovery lofted the heaviest payload up to that time in shuttle history. The six-person crew included five NASA astronauts and the first commercial payload specialist. During the six-day mission, the crew deployed a then-record three commercial satellites, tested an experimental solar array, and ran a commercial biotechnology experiment. The astronauts recorded many of the activities using a large format film camera, the scenes later incorporated into a motion picture for public engagement. The mission marked the first of Discovery’s 39 trips to space, the most of any orbiter.
Left: Space shuttle Discovery rolls out of Rockwell’s Palmdale, California, facility. Middle: Discovery atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft during the cross-country ferry flight. Right: Discovery arrives at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Space shuttle Discovery, the third space-qualified orbiter in NASA’s fleet and named after several historical ships of exploration, incorporated manufacturing lessons learned from the first orbiters. In addition, through the use of more advanced materials, the new vehicle weighed nearly 8,000 pounds less than its sister ship Columbia and 700 pounds less than Challenger. Discovery rolled out of Rockwell International’s plant in Palmdale, California, on Oct. 16, 1983. Five of the six crew members assigned to its first flight attended the ceremony. Workers trucked Discovery overland from Palmdale to NASA’s Dryden, now Armstrong, Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), where they mounted it atop a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a modified Boeing 747, for the transcontinental ferry flight to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Discovery arrived at KSC on Nov. 9 following a two-day stopover at Vandenberg Air Force, now Space Force Base, in California.
Left: STS-41D crew patch. Middle: Official photograph of the STS-41D crew of R. Michael “Mike” Mullane, front row left, Steven A. Hawley, Henry “Hank” W. Hartsfield, and Michael L. Coats; Charles D. Walker, back row left, and Judith A. Resnik. Right: Payloads installed in Discovery’s payload bay for the STS-41D mission include OAST-1, top, SBS-4, Telstar 3C, and Leasat-2.
To fly Discovery’s first flight, originally designated STS-12 and later renamed STS-41D, in February 1983 NASA assigned Commander Henry W. Hartsfield, a veteran of STS-4, and first-time flyers Pilot Michael L. Coats, and Mission Specialists R. Michael Mullane, Steven A. Hawley, and Judith A. Resnik, all from the 1978 class of astronauts and making their first spaceflights. In May 1983, NASA announced the addition of Charles D. Walker, an employee of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, to the crew, flying as the first commercial payload specialist. He would operate the company’s Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System (CFES) experiment. The mission’s primary payloads included the Leasat-1 (formerly known as Syncom IV-1) commercial communications satellite and OAST-1, three experiments from NASA’s Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology, including the Solar Array Experiment, a 105-foot long lightweight deployable and retractable solar array. Following the June 1984 launch abort, NASA canceled the STS-41F mission, combining its payloads with STS-41D’s, resulting in three communications satellites – SBS-4 for Small Business Systems, Telstar 3C for AT&T, and Leasat 2 (Syncom IV-2) for the U.S. Navy – launching on the flight. The combined cargo weighed 41,184 pounds, the heaviest of the shuttle program up to that time. A large format IMAX® camera, making its second trip into space aboard the shuttle, flew in the middeck to film scenes inside the orbiter and out the windows.
Left: First rollout of Discovery from the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Right: The June 26 launch abort.
The day after its arrival at KSC, workers towed Discovery to the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) to begin preparing it for its first space flight. They towed it to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on May 12, 1984, for mating with its External Tank (ET) and Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs). The completed stack rolled out to Launch Pad 39A a week later. On June 2, engineers successfully completed an 18-second Flight Readiness Firing of Discovery’s main engines. Post test inspections revealed a debonding of a thermal shield in main engine number 1’s combustion chamber, requiring its replacement at the pad. The work pushed the planned launch date back three days to June 25. The failure of the shuttle’s backup General Purpose Computer (GPC) delayed the launch by one day. The June 26 launch attempt ended just four seconds before liftoff, after two of the main engines had already ignited. The GPC detected that the third engine had not started and shut all three down. It marked the first time a human spaceflight launch experienced an abort after the start of its engines since Gemini VI in October 1965. The abort necessitated a rollback to the VAB on July 14 where workers demated Discovery from the ET and SRBs. Engineers replaced the faulty engine, and Discovery rolled back out to the launch pad on Aug. 9 for another launch attempt. The six-person crew participated in the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, essentially a dress rehearsal for the actual countdown to launch, on Aug. 15. A software issue delayed the first launch attempt on Aug. 29 by one day.
Left: The STS-41D crew pose at Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida following the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test. Right: Liftoff of Discovery on the STS-41D mission.
Finally, on Aug. 30, 1984, Discovery roared off its launch pad on a pillar of flame and within 8 and a half minutes entered orbit around the Earth. The crew got down to work and on the first day Mullane and Hawley deployed the SBS-4 satellite. On the second day in space, they deployed Leasat, the first satellite designed specifically to be launched from the shuttle. On the third day, they deployed the Telstar satellite, completing the satellite delivery objectives of the mission. Resnik deployed the OAST-1 solar array to 70% of its length to conduct dynamic tests on the structure. On the fourth day, she deployed the solar array to its full length and successfully retracted it, completing all objectives for that experiment.
The deployment of the SBS-4, left, Leasat-2, and Telstar 3C satellites during STS-41D.
Walker remained busy with the CFES, operating the unit for about 100 hours, and although the experiment experienced two unexpected shutdowns, he processed about 85% of the planned samples. Hartsfield and Coats exposed two magazines and six rolls of IMAX® film, recording OAST-1 and satellite deployments as well as in-cabin crew activities. Clips from the mission appear in the 1985 IMAX® film “The Dream is Alive.” On the mission’s fifth day, concern arose over the formation of ice on the orbiter’s waste dump nozzle. The next day, Hartsfield used the shuttle’s robotic arm to dislodge the large chunk of ice.
Left: Payload Specialist Charles D. Walker in front of the Continuous Flow Experiment System. Middle: Henry “Hank” W. Hartsfield loading film into the IMAX® camera. Right: The OAST-1 Solar Array Experiment extended from Discovery’s payload bay.
On Sep. 5, the astronauts closed Discovery’s payload bay doors in preparation for reentry. They fired the shuttle’s Orbital Maneuvering System engines to slow their velocity and begin their descent back to Earth. Hartsfield guided Discovery to a smooth landing at Edwards AFB in California, completing a flight of 6 days and 56 minutes. The crew had traveled 2.5 million miles and orbited the Earth 97 times.
Left: The STS-41D crew pose in Discovery’s middeck. Right: Space shuttle Discovery makes a perfect landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California to end the STS-41D mission.
By Sept. 10, workers had returned Discovery to KSC to prepare it for its next mission, STS-51A, in November 1984. During its lifetime, Discovery flew a fleet leading 39 missions, making its final trip to space in February 2011. It flew both return to flight missions, STS-26 in 1988 and STS-114 in 2005. It launched the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 and flew two of the missions to service the facility. Discovery flew two mission to Mir, docking once. It completed the first docking to the International Space Station in 1999 and flew a total of 13 assembly and resupply missions to the orbiting lab. By its last mission, Discovery had traveled 149 million miles, completed 5,830 orbits of the Earth, and spent a cumulative 365 days in space in the span of 27 years. The public can view Discovery on display at the National Air and Space Museum’s Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
Read recollections of the STS-41D mission by Hartsfield, Coats, Mullane, Hawley, and Walker in their oral histories with the JSC History Office. Enjoy the crew’s narration of a video about the STS-41D mission.
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Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 4 min read
Sols 4289-4290: From Discovery Pinnacle to Kings Canyon and Back Again
This image shows the workspace in front of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, taken by the Left Navigation Camera aboard the rover on sol 4287 — Martian day 4,287 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — on Aug. 28, 2024, at 02:23:27 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Wednesday, Aug. 28 2024
We are back … almost, anyways. Today’s parking location is very close to where we parked on sol 4253, and in an area near one of the previous contact science targets “Discovery Pinnacle.” You can read in this blog post that most of the team, this blogger included, was in Pasadena for our team meeting when we were last in this area. That was July and Curiosity was about to turn 12 on Mars. Coming back is a very rare occasion and is always planned carefully. Once or twice during the last 12 years it happened because we saw something “in the rear mirror.” One of the examples is the target “Old Soaker,” where we spotted mud cracks in the images from a previous parking position, and promptly went back because this was such an important discovery. At other times it was carefully planned, such as the “walkabout” at “Pink Cliffs,” which you can watch in this video from as long back as Earth year 2015. In the past few planning cycles, it’s more of the latter as we made our way from Discovery Pinnacle, where we were on sol 4253, “Just passing through” “Russell Pass” and arriving at “Kings Canyon,” our drill location, which we reached on sol 4257. You can follow all the action of the drilling at Kings Canyon on the blogs. It took a while — it always does — because it’s an activity with many steps and investigations to complete. We actually celebrated Curiosity’s 12th birthday at Kings Canyon! We departed on sol 4283, came back via “Cathedral Peak,” and are now near the Discovery Pinnacle location again. After that little walkabout through the history of (some) of Curiosity’s walkabouts, especially the very last one, let’s look at today’s plan.
It is a pretty normal two-sol plan, with a one-hour science block before we drive away from this location. We were greeted by a nicely flat surface, and the engineers informed us that we have all six wheels firmly on flat and stable ground. That’s always a relief, because only then can we use the arm. That nice piece of flat rock Curiosity is so firmly parked on became our science target …well, mostly. Some of the little pebbles on the surface attracted our attention, too. The very eagle-eyed can spot a small white spot in the image above. It’s right between the arm and the rover itself, about where the C is written. That’s a rock that we likely broke up with our wheel and that has a very white part to it. We called it “Thousand Island Lake,” and will image it with MAHLI. APXS is investigating a target called “Eichorn Pinnacle,” squarely on the big flat area. LIBS is also making the most of the large target underneath and in front of us, investigating the target “Nine Lakes Basin.”
In recent blogs you will have read about the dust-storm watch making the atmospheric investigations even more important, so we don’t miss any changes. We are looking for dust devils, atmospheric opacity, and are of course monitoring the weather throughout the plan.
Our drive will hopefully — if Mars agrees — be a long one, and we will also plan an activity that we call MARDI sidewalk. That’s when we take very frequent pictures with the MARDI instrument while driving. This results in a long strip of images nicely showing the nature of the terrain the rover has driven over. This is in addition to the MARDI single frame we are taking every time the rover stops. I often get the question, why are we taking an image just downwards whenever the rover stops? Well, humans are easy to bias toward the outliers, toward the things that look special, and of course the Curiosity team is no exception. For some things this is great, because it allows for the discoveries of new things. But it doesn’t provide an unbiased overview. That’s what MARDI does: It always points down and reliably records the terrain under the rover. We don’t have to do anything but put the commands for that one image into our plan after the drive — something that’s pretty routine after 12 years now!
Written by Susanne Schwenzer, Planetary Geologist at The Open University
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Last Updated Aug 29, 2024 Related Terms
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On 5/24/24, Astronomy and Astrophysics published online “Pulsar-wind-nebula-powered Galactic center X-ray filament G0.13–0.11” by Eugene Churazov et al. On 5/30/24, Astrophysical Journal Letters published online “Discovery of a Shock-compressed Magnetic Field in the Northwestern Rim of the Young Supernova Remnant RX J1713.7–3946 with X-Ray Polarimetry” by Riccardo Ferrazzoli et al.
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4 min read
Discovery Alert: With Six New Worlds, 5,500 Discovery Milestone Passed!
NASA’s Exoplanet Archive confirmed four new worlds, bringing the total past 5,500. On Aug. 24, 2023, more than three decades after the first confirmation of planets beyond our own solar system, scientists announced the discovery of six new exoplanets, stretching that number to 5,502. From zero exoplanet confirmations to over 5,500 in just a few decades, this new milestone marks another major step in the journey to understand the worlds beyond our solar system.
The Discovery
With the discovery of six new exoplanets, scientists have tipped the scales and surpassed 5,500 exoplanets found (there are now 5,502 known exoplanets, to be exact).
Just about 31 years ago, in 1992, the first exoplanets were confirmed when scientists detected twin planets Poltergeist and Phobetor orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. In March 2022, just last year, scientists celebrated passing 5,000 exoplanets discovered.
Key Facts
Scientists have discovered six new exoplanets — HD 36384 b, TOI-198 b, TOI-2095 b, TOI-2095 c, TOI-4860 b, and MWC 758 c — this has pushed the total number of confirmed exoplanets discovered to 5,502.
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HD 36384 b is a super-Jupiter that orbits an enormous M giant star.
This planet was discovered using the radial velocity method, which measures the “wobble” of far-off stars that is caused by the gravitational tug of orbiting planets. Orbits a star so large that it clocks in at nearly 40 times the size of our Sun. TOI-198 b is a potentially rocky planet that orbits on the innermost edge of the habitable zone around its star, an M dwarf.
This planet was discovered using the transit method, which detects exoplanets as they cross the face of their stars in their orbit, causing the star to temporarily dim. TOI-2095 b and TOI-2095 c are both large, hot super-Earths that orbit in the same system around a shared star, an M dwarf.
Planets were both discovered using the transit method. Are close enough to their star that they are likely more similar to Venus than Earth. TOI-4860 b is a Jupiter-sized gas giant, or a “hot Jupiter,” that orbits an M dwarf star.
This planet was discovered using the transit method. Completes an orbit every 1.52 days, meaning it is very close to its star. While it is extremely rare for giant planets like this to orbit so closely to Sun-like stars, it is even rarer for them to orbit M-dwarf stars as is the case here. MWC 758 c is a giant protoplanet that orbits a very young star. This star still has its protoplanetary disk, which is a rotating disc of gas and dust that can surround a young star.
This planet was discovered using direct imaging. Was found carving spiral arms into its star’s protoplanetary disk. Is one of the first exoplanets discovered in a system where the star has a protoplanetary disk. The field of exoplanet science has exploded since the first exoplanet confirmation in 1992, and with evolving technology, the future for this field looks brighter than ever.
In March 2022, NASA passed 5,000 confirmed exoplanets. Tis data sonification allows us to hear the pace of the discovery of those worlds. In this animation, exoplanets are represented by musical notes played across decades of discovery. Circles show location and size of orbit, while their color indicates the detection method. Lower notes mean longer orbits, higher notes mean shorter orbits. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/M. Russo, A. Santaguida (SYSTEM Sounds) Watch this video in 3D There are a number of both space and ground-based instruments and observatories that scientists have used to detect and study exoplanets.
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) launched in 2018 and has identified thousands of exoplanet candidates and confirmed over 320 planets.
NASA’s flagship space telescopes Spitzer, Hubble, and most recently the James Webb Space Telescope have also been used to discover and study exoplanets.
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to launch in May 2027. Roman will be carrying a technology demonstration called the Roman Coronagraph Instrument. This coronagraph will work by using a series of complex masks and mirrors to distort the light coming from far-away stars. By distorting this starlight, the instrument will reveal and directly-image hidden exoplanets.
With the success of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument, NASA could push the envelope even further with is a concept for the mission the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which would search for “signatures of life on planets outside of our solar system,” according to the 2020 Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics.
The Discoverers
These six exoplanets were discovered by different teams as part of five separate studies:
TOI-4860 b TOI-2095 b & c HD 36384 b TOI-198 b MWC 758 c Share
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Last Updated Jul 16, 2024 Related Terms
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