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By NASA
The first shuttle mission of 1995, STS-63 included several historic firsts. As part of Phase 1 of the International Space Station program, space shuttle Discovery’s 20th flight conducted the first shuttle rendezvous with the Mir space station, in preparation for future dockings. The six-person crew included Commander James Wetherbee, Pilot Eileen Collins – the first woman to pilot a space shuttle mission – Payload Commander Bernard Harris, and Mission Specialists Michael Foale, Janice Voss, and Vladimir Titov. The spacewalk conducted during the mission included the first African American and the first British born astronauts to walk in space. The crew conducted 20 science and technology experiments aboard the third flight of the Spacehab module. The astronauts deployed and retrieved the SPARTAN-204 satellite that during its two-day free flight carried out observations of galactic objects using an ultraviolet instrument.
The STS-63 crew patch. The STS-63 crew of Janice Voss, front row left, Eileen Collins, James Wetherbee, and Vladimir Titov; Bernard Harris, back row left, and Michael Foale. The Shuttle-Mir program patch. NASA announced the six-person STS-63 crew in September 1993 for a mission then expected to fly in May 1994. Wetherbee, selected by NASA in 1984, had already flown twice in space, as pilot on STS-32 and commander of STS-52. For Collins, selected in the class of 1990 as the first woman shuttle pilot, STS-63 marked her first spaceflight. Also selected in 1990, Harris had flown previously on STS-55 and Voss on STS-57. Foale, selected as an astronaut in 1987, had flown previously on STS-45 and STS-56. Titov, selected as a cosmonaut in 1976, had flown two previous spaceflights – a two-day aborted docking mission to Salyut-7 and the first year-long mission to Mir – and survived a launch pad abort. He served as backup to Sergei Krikalev on STS-60, who now served as Titov’s backup.
Space shuttle Discovery rolls out to Launch Pad 39B. The STS-63 crew during the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test in the White Room of Launch Pad 39B. The STS-63 astronauts walk out of crew quarters for the van ride out to the launch pad. Space shuttle Discovery arrived back at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 27, 1994, after a ferry flight from California following its previous mission, STS-64. Workers towed it to the Orbiter Processing Facility the next day. Following installation of the Spacehab, SPARTAN, and other payloads, on Jan. 5, 1995, workers rolled Discovery from the processing facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building for mating with an external tank and twin solid rocket boosters. Rollout to Launch Pad 39B took place on Jan. 10. On Jan. 17-18, teams conducted the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, a dress rehearsal for the countdown to launch planned for Feb. 2, with the astronaut crew participating in the final few hours as they would on launch day. They returned to Kennedy on Jan. 29 for final pre-launch preparations. On Feb. 2, launch teams called a 24-hour scrub to allow time to replace a failed inertial measurement unit aboard Discovery.
Launch of space shuttle Discovery on mission STS-63. STS-63 Commander James Wetherbee on Discovery’s flight deck. STS-63 Pilot Eileen Collins on Discovery’s flight deck. On Feb. 3, Discovery and its six-person crew lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at 12:22 a.m. EST, the time dictated by orbital mechanics – Discovery had to launch into the plane of Mir’s orbit. Within 8.5 minutes, Discovery had reached orbit, for the first time in shuttle history at an inclination of 51.6 degrees, again to match Mir’s trajectory. Early in the mission, one of Discovery’s 44 attitude control thrusters failed and two others developed minor but persistent leaks, threatening the Mir rendezvous.
View of the Spacehab module in Discovery’s payload bay. The SPARTAN-204 satellite attached to the remote manipulator system or robotic arm during the flight day two operations. On the mission’s first day in space, Harris and Titov activated the Spacehab module and several of its experiments. Wetherbee and Collins performed the first of five maneuvers to bring Discovery within 46 miles of Mir for the final rendezvous on flight day four. Teams on the ground worked with the astronauts to resolve the troublesome thruster problems to ensure a safe approach to the planned 33 feet. On flight day 2, as those activities continued, Titov grappled the SPARTAN satellite with the shuttle’s robotic arm and lifted it out of the payload bay. Scientists used the ultraviolet instrument aboard SPARTAN to investigate the ultraviolet glow around the orbiter and the aftereffects of thruster firings. The tests complete, Titov placed SPARTAN back in the payload bay.
The Mir space station as seen from Discovery during the rendezvous. Space shuttle Discovery as seen from Mir during the rendezvous. Mir during Discovery’s flyaround. On flight day three, the astronauts continued working on science experiments while Wetherbee and Collins completed several more burns for the rendezvous on flight day four, the thruster issues resolved to allow the close approach to 33 feet. Flying Discovery manually from the aft flight deck, and assisted by his crew mates, Wetherbee slowly brought the shuttle to within 33 feet of the Kristall module of the space station. The STS-63 crew communicated with the Mir-17 crew of Aleksandr Viktorenko, Elena Kondakova, and Valeri Polyakov via VHF radio, and the crews could see each other through their respective spacecraft windows. After station-keeping for about 10 minutes, Wetherbee slowly backed Discovery away from Mir to a distance of 450 feet. He flew a complete circle around Mir before conducting a final separation maneuver.
The SPARTAN-204 satellite as it begins its free flight on flight day five. STS-63 crew member Vladimir Titov works on an experiment in the Spacehab module. On the mission’s fifth day, Titov once again grappled SPARTAN with the robotic arm, but this time after raising it above the payload bay, he released the satellite to begin its two-day free flight. Wetherbee steered Discovery away from the departing satellite. During its free flight, the far ultraviolet imaging spectrograph aboard SPARTAN recorded about 40 hours of observations of galactic dust clouds. During this time, the astronauts aboard the shuttle continued work on the 20 experiments in Spacehab and prepared for the upcoming spacewalk.
STS-63 crew member Janice Voss operates the remote manipulator system during the retrieval of the SPARTAN-204 satellite. STS-63 astronauts Bernard Harris, left, and Michael Foale at the start of their spacewalk. Wetherbee and the crew flew the second rendezvous of the mission on flight day seven to retrieve SPARTAN. Voss operated the robotic arm to capture and stow the satellite in the payload bay following its 43-hour free flight. Meanwhile, Foale and Harris suited up in the shuttle’s airlock and spent four hours breathing pure oxygen to rid their bodies of nitrogen to prevent decompression sickness, also known as the bends, when they reduced their spacesuit pressures for the spacewalk.
Astronauts Bernard Harris, left, and Michael Foale during the spacesuit thermal testing part of their spacewalk. Foale, left, and Harris during the mass handling part of their spacewalk. Foale and Harris exited the airlock minutes after Voss safely stowed SPARTAN. With Titov operating the robotic arm, Harris and Foale climbed aboard its foot restraint to begin the first phase of the spacewalk, testing modifications to the spacesuits for their thermal characteristics. Titov lifted them well above the payload bay and the two spacewalkers stopped moving for about 15 minutes, until their hands and feet got cold. The spacewalk then continued into its second portion, the mass handling activity. Titov steered Foale above the SPARTAN where he lifted the satellite up and handed it off to Harris anchored in the payload bay. Harris then moved it around in different directions to characterize handling of the 2,600-pound satellite. Foale and Harris returned to the airlock after a spacewalk lasting 4 hours 39 minutes.
The STS-63 astronauts pose for their inflight crew photo. Discovery makes a successful landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The day following the spacewalk, the STS-63 crew finished the science experiments, closed down the Spacehab module, and held a news conference with reporters on the ground. Wetherbee and Collins tested Discovery’s thrusters and aerodynamic surfaces in preparation for the following day’s reentry and landing. The next day, on Feb. 11, they closed Discovery’s payload bay doors and put on their launch and entry suits. Wetherbee guided Discovery to a smooth landing on Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility, ending the historic mission after eight days, six hours, and 28 minutes. They orbited the Earth 129 times. The mission paved the way for nine shuttle dockings with Mir beginning with STS-71, and 37 with the International Space Station. Workers at Kennedy towed Discovery to the processing facility to prepare it for its next mission, STS-70 in July 1995.
Over the next three years, Wetherbee, Collins, Foale, and Titov all returned to Mir during visiting shuttle flights, with Foale staying aboard as the NASA-5 long-duration crew member. Between 2001 and 2005, Wetherbee, Collins, and Foale also visited the International Space Station. Wetherbee commanded two assembly flights, Collins commanded the return to flight mission after the Columbia accident, and Foale commanded Expedition 8.
Enjoy the crew narrate a video about their STS-63 mission.
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By NASA
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov approaches the International Space Station as it orbits 259 miles above Oregon.Credit: NASA In preparation for the arrival of NASA’s SpaceX 31st commercial resupply services mission, four crew members aboard the International Space Station will relocate the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon spacecraft to a different docking port Sunday, Nov. 3.
Live coverage begins at 6:15 a.m. EDT on NASA+ and will end shortly after docking. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, will undock the spacecraft from the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module at 6:35 a.m., and redock to the module’s space-facing port at 7:18 a.m.
The relocation, supported by flight controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Mission Control team at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, will free Harmony’s forward-facing port for a Dragon cargo spacecraft mission scheduled to launch no earlier than Monday, Nov. 4.
This will be the fifth port relocation of a Dragon spacecraft with crew aboard following previous moves during the Crew-1, Crew-2, Crew-6, and Crew-8 missions.
Learn more about space station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook, ISS Instagram, and the space station blog.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission launched Sept. 28 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and docked to the space station Sept. 29. Crew-9, targeted to return February 2025, is the company’s ninth rotational crew mission as a part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
Find NASA’s commercial crew blog and more information about the Crew-9 mission at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Jimi Russell / Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
james.j.russell@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Oct 29, 2024 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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By NASA
Learn Home Earth Educators Rendezvous… Earth Science Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Stories Science Activation Highlights Citizen Science 3 min read
Earth Educators Rendezvous with Infiniscope and Tour It
At the Earth Educator’s Rendezvous, held July 15-19, 2024, NASA’s Infiniscope project from Arizona State University hosted a two-day workshop aimed at empowering Earth educators with the tools to design and build virtual tours (VTs). This hands-on session provided participants with a unique opportunity to experience first-hand how to create immersive virtual tours using Tour It, a free virtual tour creator developed by the NASA Science Activation program’s Infiniscope team. The workshop focused on making the benefits of place-based education more accessible through digital means. One participant remarked, “I have learned more than I could imagine about teaching, communicating, how to be a student, and how to human.”
The workshop encouraged participation in a Sunday pre-Rendezvous field trip titled “Crossing the Pennsylvania-New Jersey Fall Zone: from the Neoproterozoic and into the Cenozoic.” The Infiniscope team joined this field trip to gather media that workshop participants could use to create their own VTs. This media included 360-degree images, photos, resource documents, diagrams and video interviews with tour guides, Dr. Lily Pfeifer and Dr. Aaron Barth, both of Rowan University.
Throughout the workshop, participants learned to capture media, design for place-based learning, and accommodate the diverse needs of their students, ultimately equipping them to create immersive virtual field experiences that enrich their educational practices. Reflecting on their experience, a participant shared, “I have been exposed to so many things such as the use of place-based learning, creating my own digital content, and publishing – which seemed daunting hitherto, but now, I feel comfortable.”
When asked how they might use Tour It in their teaching, one educator responded, “Not only will I finish the work on the Sunday field trip and submit it to the [contributed content] of [Infiniscope], I will actually USE THIS IN MY K-12 classroom. Without a doubt, I have found an excellent way to get kids to experience the geology out there in a personal way that might just spur them to make a trip to see it in real life.”
Additionally, another attendee remarked, “I feel much more prepared to make an effective virtual tour for my courses and other courses at my institution or in collaboration with others. I appreciate the acknowledgement that there are cultural aspects to locations that should be included and the rubric offers a framework to build balanced experiences.”
The workshop highlighted the power and value of in-person field trips for educators in field sciences while addressing practical challenges, such as lack of transportation and funding. VTs, offering similar educational impacts, can be used more frequently and are not hindered by logistical constraints. Tour It, a user-friendly, NASA-funded tool, was introduced as a solution to the accessibility barriers of creating digital learning experiences. Unlike more complex VT tools, Tour It requires minimal training and operates within a web browser, allowing educators to upload 360° imagery and build comprehensive virtual tours complete with text, image, or video annotations, all VR-compatible.
Experience an example of a VT created with Tour It during this workshop.
The Infiniscope project is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AD79A and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn
Dr. Lily Pfiefer scraping to reveal the KPg boundary in Edleman Fossil Park. Share
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Last Updated Aug 12, 2024 Editor NASA Science Editorial Team Related Terms
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