STS-1
| Mission emblem | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Mission dates | |||
| Mission: | STS-1 | ||
| COSPAR-ID : | 1981-034A | ||
| Crew: | 2 | ||
| Begin: | April 12, 1981, 12:00:04 UTC | ||
| Starting place: | Kennedy Space Center , LC-39A | ||
| Landing: | April 14, 1981, 18:20:57 UTC | ||
| Landing place: | Edwards Air Force Base , Runway 23 | ||
| Flight duration: | 2d 6h 20min 53s | ||
| Earth orbits: | 37 | ||
| Track height: | 251 km | ||
| Orbit inclination : | 40.3 ° | ||
| Covered track: | 1.7 million km | ||
| Payload: | Development Flight Instrumentation | ||
| Team photo | |||
 John Young (left) and Robert Crippen |
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| ◄ Before / After ► | |||
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STS-1 ( english S pace T ransportation S ystem) is the mission designation for the first flight of the US Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) NASA . The launch took place on April 12, 1981. It was the first space flight of a reusable spacecraft.
team
- John Young (5th space flight), commander
- Robert Crippen (1st space flight), pilot
Substitute team
- Joe Engle , commander
- Richard Truly , pilot
Mission overview
The main objective of the flight was to review the entire flight systems. The Columbia passed this test brilliantly. In contrast to previous manned space projects such as Mercury , Gemini and Apollo , in which at least one unmanned test flight was carried out, the Space Shuttle did not do this. Many systems were checked individually beforehand, but there was no flight in which the interaction of all systems was tested. This first space shuttle flight was a novelty in manned space travel and at the same time meant an increased risk.
It was the fifth space flight for Commander Young to be the first space traveler to reach this mark.
The mission's only payload was a DFI (Development Flight Instrumentation) flight monitoring system , consisting of sensors and measuring instruments to record data on all critical flight segments.
Only with the STS-1 and STS-2 the outer tank was painted white. In order to save weight, NASA did without it from STS-3 . The rust-brown color that can be seen from 1982 onwards comes from the sprayed-on insulating foam.
NASA still describes the STS-1 as “the boldest test flight in history”.
Preparations
Delivery of a half-finished orbiter
On March 24, 1979, the Columbia arrived at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) , coming from the manufacturer . The transport took place on the back of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft , a converted Boeing 747 . Rockwell International had built the Orbiter in its California factory for the past four years . The next day the Columbia was transferred to the OPF production hall ( Orbiter Processing Facility ), where it was prepared for its maiden flight.
Due to problems in the manufacturing process, the ferry was delivered with a half-finished heat shield. This covers the entire underside of the orbiter and protects it from the extreme temperatures during re-entry. Around 8,000 of the 31,000 tiles were missing. In order to prepare the Columbia for the maiden flight in parallel to the work on the shield, it was decided to install the heat protection tiles in Florida. 5,000 dummy tiles were installed for the overpass in order to prevent the real tiles from being torn off by air turbulence. Before the ferry flight ("ferry flight"), the aircraft orbiter team carried out a short test flight. In addition, the loading capacity and adhesion of the dummy tiles was checked on a T-38 machine .
Nevertheless, some plastic dummies fell off during the overland flight. As a result, real heat protection tiles were damaged or even torn off. In addition, the adhesive used made it more difficult to separate the dummies from the orbiter than expected. In total, in addition to removing the dummy tiles, almost 11,000 tiles had to be re-glued in Florida.
Work on the tiles was slow, even though several hundred Rockwell employees had been assigned to the Kennedy Space Center. In addition, important components had to be delivered and integrated into the space shuttle. The Columbia was handed over to NASA without main engines and without OMS engines . These were then subjected to extensive stress and calibration tests. Over a thousand sensors also had to be attached to the ferry, which were supposed to transmit important parameters about its condition during the first flight. In total, more than a hundred major points were open on the work plans when the Columbia reached Florida.
These delays and problems with the suppliers as well as the wrong financial planning at NASA caused the planned start date to slip back further and further: initially, the planning date for STS-1 was March 1979; when the space shuttle left the factory, the start was for the 9th November 1979 planned.
Dress rehearsal with the Enterprise
In April 1979, NASA flew the test ferry Enterprise from Alabama to the Kennedy Space Center. With it, the theoretical concepts should be confronted with reality. The test run, officially called the “Facility Verification Vehicle” - for the NASA engineers it was the Pathfinder test - was supposed to help find out whether the technology, mainly from the Apollo program and converted for the space shuttle, would really work as planned. The space-unsuitable glider was connected to prototypes of external tanks and solid rockets in the VAB ( Vehicle Assembly Building ).
On May 1, 1979, a shuttle was driven to the launch pad for the first time. Important tests were carried out there with the Enterprise to prove the suitability of the modifications: Did the access levels of the launch tower fit exactly? Did the white room through which the astronauts enter the space shuttle reach the access hatch? Could the RSS work platform (Rotating Service Structure) be swiveled up to the orbiter without any problems? The fuel supply was also tested by pumping liquid hydrogen and oxygen from the storage tanks through the pipes to the launch platform. After the final rehearsal of the ramp systems, which lasted almost three months, the shuttle configuration in the VAB was dismantled and the Enterprise flown to the Edwards Air Force Base in California.
In early June 1979, NASA boss Robert Frosch announced to the US Congress that the maiden flight had been postponed until next year - but did not give a date. At a hearing three weeks later, it became more specific to a Senate committee: the end of March 1980 is the earliest possible date, but a start at the end of June is more likely.
Doubts about the heat protection tiles
John Yardley, director of the shuttle program, stated in September 1979 that NASA had doubts about the adhesion of the heat shield tiles attached to the Columbia. Extensive stress tests were then ordered. This problem became aware of during the gluing work in the OPF in June. Verification of a third of the Columbia tiles began in early October. In order not to damage the sensitive fiberglass panels, the test essentially consisted of an acoustic analysis. Microphones recorded the sound produced when an attempt was made to detach the tiles from the orbiter. In addition, jet planes were fitted with tiles and extreme maneuvers were flown. The stresses that occurred were well above those calculated for a shuttle flight.
Another setback in preparation for the first shuttle flight occurred on November 4, 1979: During a test run of three test units of the SSME main engines (Space Shuttle Main Engine), the fuel line in one of the engines broke. As a result, all engines already installed from Columbia were removed as a precaution and the date of the maiden flight was moved to the summer of 1980. The SSME test series could only be resumed after a month and a half.
The first simulation
In mid-December 1979, the first large-scale simulation took place at KSC. In addition to the flight and replacement crews, countless technicians, engineers and controllers at the launch site and at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, took part in the so-called Orbiter Integration Test . The two teams, sitting in the cockpit, played alternately through several start, mission and country scenarios. The interaction of different subsystems of the orbiter, program parts of the on-board computer as well as of the orbiter and control center was successfully demonstrated during five simulation runs within four weeks. The Columbia was in the OPF at the time.
Before the science committee of the US House of Representatives , NASA Director Frosch had to admit at the end of January 1980 that the tile problem was further delaying the shuttle's maiden flight. He named November 30, 1980 to March 31, 1981 as the new period.
More work
At the beginning of 1980, those responsible assumed that the heat shield would have been completed by August, but NASA surprisingly announced further work in May. In addition to the newly glued tiles, it was decided to remove and reinstall all the others that had passed the stress tests. Therefore, the first flight of Columbia is possible in March 1981 at the earliest.
Just two weeks earlier, NASA had announced that it would send the three main engines to Mississippi because of the modifications made to the KSC, to subject them to new test runs. The engines were then sent back to KSC and installed again in Columbia in July. The certification test runs were continued on the NASA test stands in Mississippi and were completed in early December 1980.
Assembly and rollout
At the end of November 1980, the preparations were completed and the Columbia was moved from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the huge VAB. There it was connected to the white external tank - it was delivered in July 1980 - and the two solid fuel boosters and placed on a launch platform.
The entire team was rolled from the VAB to launch pad 39A 5.6 kilometers away on December 29, 1980. After the New Year holidays, NASA technicians began preparatory work for the upcoming test run of the three main engines (SSMEs). This 20-second ignition of the SSMEs was planned for February 13, 1981, initially had to be postponed by three days and finally took place on February 20. The astronauts were not on board during the so-called flight readiness firing.
A countdown exercise on March 19 was also successful, but it was followed by a fatal accident. Upon completion, six engineers did some work in the aft section of the orbiter. To avoid fire, it was filled with pure nitrogen , which all men breathed in. Although they were rushed to the hospital, one technician died the same day and another one and a half weeks later.
Mission history
First attempt to start, April 10, 1981
At the beginning of 1981, March 17th was the starting date of the first of four planned OFT test flights (Orbital Flight Tests). A test refueling of the external tank at the end of January had large parts of its foam insulation flake off. The re-application to the ramp took two weeks. Therefore, at the beginning of February, April 5th at 11:53 UTC was named as the new start date. In late March, one week after the trial countdown, NASA set April 10th for STS-1.
The 73-hour countdown, the first in shuttle history, began on April 6 at 04:30 UTC.
The preparations went without any major problems over the next few days. That changed when the countdown entered its crucial phase on April 10th. The two astronauts (John Young, the most experienced astronaut NASA had in their ranks, and newcomer Bob Crippen) were seated in the orbiter's cockpit and had been seen off by their colleague Ellison Onizuka , who had helped them board. NASA set 11:50 UTC as the start time. A computer problem unexpectedly occurred at T-20 minutes when the pre-start program was activated on the five main computers.
The shuttle's computer system consists of five identical computers, called General Purpose Computers (GPC), four of which are loaded as the main computers with the PASS flight software (Primary Avionics Software System, programmed by IBM ) and the fifth unit with the BFS replacement program ( Backup Flight Software, programmed by Rockwell). All five constantly exchange data with each other during the flight. In the event of a failure, the replacement computer can immediately take over the place of the main computer.
The problem expressed itself in the fact that the "reservist" did not get along with the main computers. At first it was believed that the BFS was faulty (PASS and BFS had never been tested together before). At T-9 minutes, when the countdown was stopped as scheduled for the last time at 11:31 UTC, it became apparent that the GPCs were not exchanging their data synchronously : There was a difference of 40 milliseconds between No. 5 and the others. Two teams in the Mission Control Center in Houston ( Texas ) were working on the problem, but could present a solution only after the expiry of the six and a half hour start window. Therefore the start had to be postponed to the day after next. The cause of the GPC malfunction was a somewhat too high tolerance threshold of the clock in the PASS computers.
Take-off and first day of flight, April 12, 1981
On April 12th, the 20th anniversary of manned spaceflight ( Vostok 1 ), NASA wanted to start at 12:00 UTC. Fortunately, the meteorological conditions were as good as two days before: 21 degrees Celsius with 55 percent humidity. The existing clouds and wind could also be ruled out as possible risk factors. Two and a half hours before take-off, Commander Young and Pilot Crippen had boarded the orbiter.
This time there were no delays in the countdown, and the Columbia lifted off punctually at 12:00 UTC from launch pad 39A of KSC, where it had been for three and a half months. As planned, the two solid-fuel rockets - STS-1 was the first use of solid-propelled rockets in the manned space program - were dropped two minutes after take-off (altitude: 53.0 kilometers). The three main engines were switched off at 12:08 UTC at an altitude of 118.3 kilometers. After two ignitions of the OMS maneuvering systems ( Orbital Maneuvering System ), a circular orbit was reached at an altitude of around 245 kilometers.
The first major test was the functionality of the two 15-meter-long gates that lock the cargo bay. On the inside there are radiators that radiate the heat produced in the shuttle into space. If they hadn't opened, the mission should have been stopped immediately. Crippen was able to easily open the payload bay doors an hour and a half after launch.
After a flight time of seven hours, the orbit was raised to almost 280 kilometers. Then the use of the position control thrusters ( Reaction Control System , RCS for short) was on the agenda. The orbiter is equipped with 38 of these RCS nozzles. The astronauts reported that the Columbia could be precisely steered. They compared the sound of the ignition to a howitzer fired in the distance.
13 hours after take-off, on April 13 at 01:00 UTC, the flight plan provided for an almost eight-hour sleep period. However, Young and Crippen were still so excited that they looked out the windows for a long time before they could sleep.
Second day of flight, April 13, 1981
The astronauts were woken up to a song written by engineer Jerry Rucker of the Martin Marietta manufacturer of the outer tank . The country song "Blast Off Columbia" was the Shuttle program's first wake-up call . It was interpreted by Roy McCall & Southern Gold, chosen by astronaut colleague Richard Truly .
After getting up, the RCS tests continued, followed by a quick breakfast. The two doors of the hold should then be temporarily closed. The technicians wanted to know if the long doors had warped. Young and Crippen gave the all-clear.
Because of the historical importance of this flight, a conversation with US Vice President George HW Bush was on the program. He congratulated the two astronauts and said that this flight would move the country forward.
Young and Crippen spent the next few hours trying to repair it. The flight controllers had previously determined that one of the data recorders was defective. It was part of the DFI flight monitoring system, which recorded important data about the technical condition of the space shuttle and the course of the flight. Each of the three DFI recorders had a tape capacity of six hours. One device was in continuous operation and could no longer be switched off. This meant that essential information from the approach was not available for an evaluation because the magnetic tape would have reached its end before re-entry.
The engineers therefore asked the flight control to order an unforeseen repair in order to replace the defective recorder with a replacement device on board. The flight director agreed. The procedure was explained to Young and Crippen. They got to work around 22:45 UTC. The device in question could be reached via the middle deck. To do this, two cladding panels had to be removed, which were fastened with two dozen screws. The estimated hour and a half were long over when Crippen informed the control center that the screws were so tight that they had only about half been loosened. Resigned, he added that he doubted he could loosen the screws himself on earth. Houston then canceled the repair.
Third day of flight and landing, April 14, 1981
The second and last night in orbit was a bit more turbulent than the first. On April 14th around 04:00 UTC an alarm woke the astronauts. One of the three auxiliary power units (APUs for short), which generate the hydraulic pressure for the rudder surfaces required for landing, showed an operating temperature that was too low. The problem was solved by switching on the heating. After that, Young and Crippen were able to sleep a few more hours. They were officially awakened at 08:41 UTC. By then, however, they were already awake.
The APU, which had caused a stir that night, was still worrying. It cooled too much. It was to be feared that it would not be switched on later. A space shuttle needs two operational APUs to land.
After breakfast, Young adjusted the orbiter's three IMUs (Inertial Measurement Units) for landing. They are part of the navigation system and provide it with data on the position and the acceleration vector of the ferry. A few RCS tests were then completed before landing preparations began.
Everything that was not necessary was stowed away, the cockpit systems were checked and unnecessary devices were switched off. The cargo bay doors were closed at around 14:30 UTC, four hours before landing.
The crew received the green light for re-entry from Houston. Commander Young then turned the stern of the Columbia in the direction of flight and at 17:21 UTC ignited the two OMS engines for two and a half minutes. The resulting decrease in speed of 326 kilometers per hour was sufficient for the space shuttle to leave its orbit.
All three APUs worked as expected. The conspicuous unit had been started before everyone else in order to observe their behavior. To be on the safe side, most of the work during the entire mission was done by two APUs so that if one unit failed, the third could be used.
The runway at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is four and a half kilometers. The four OFT flights should therefore be landed on the wide area of Edwards Air Force Base (a dried salt lake in the north of Los Angeles ). The lanes there are more generously dimensioned and more forgiving of pilot errors.
Four planes rose from Edwards to intercept the Columbia to provide Young and Crippen with information for the descent and to film the space shuttle. Another machine also monitored the weather.
Coming from the Pacific , the Columbia headed for the west coast of the USA . She flew into California at an altitude of 58 kilometers. To reduce speed, the ferry made half a dozen S-curves. Finally, the orbiter sailed east over Edwards, took a left turn, and went down on runway 23 without any propulsion as intended. One and a half minutes before the runway, at a height of about four kilometers, Columbia was exactly in the extension of the runway after the last S-curve. At 18:21 UTC, the ferry touched down on the runway with the main landing gear at 352 kilometers per hour. 944 meters and ten seconds later the nose wheel touched down. After 2,741 meters, Columbia came to a stop a minute later.
After the landing
Two dozen vehicles approached the space shuttle. The poisonous gases from the engines had to be extracted and the ferry cooled. Young and Crippen performed the final checks, switched off the systems and left the orbiter an hour after the "touchdown".
A detailed inspection revealed that 247 of the approximately 31,000 heat protection tiles had been damaged during flight. Most of the defects on the underside were caused by stones being thrown up on the runway. 16 pieces had even fallen off.
In preparation for its next flight, the Columbia was flown back to Florida two weeks later with the help of a converted Boeing 747 , the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft . On April 21, the Columbia arrived back at the launch site in Florida after an overnight stay in Oklahoma .
One month after the flight, John Young became the seventh astronaut to be honored with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor of the US Congress by President Ronald Reagan . Pilot Robert Crippen also received this award - albeit a quarter of a century later. He was presented with the Medal of Honor of Congress on the occasion of the 25th anniversary in April 2006 by George W. Bush .
The Mission was released in IMAX theaters worldwide in an IMAX documentary film called Hail Columbia in 1982 and later also released on DVD.
Analysis and consequences after the mission
- The sound pressure during take-off was greater than expected, and the Columbia's hydraulic system was being used beyond its limits. John Young later stated that he and his pilot would have ejected the shuttle after reentry before landing, if they had been informed of these problems. The Sound Suppression System , i.e. the suppression of sound, was then expanded.
- Several missing heat shield tiles were discovered on the top of the orbiter while in orbit. (An examination of the underside during the flight was not intended.)
- On the underside of the shuttle, some areas melted down to the aluminum structure on re-entry.
These were just a few problems, the NASA report STS-1 shows a few more.
See also
Web links
- Official mission page of NASA (English)
- Video summary with comments of the crew (English)
- Mission overview on AstroLink.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ STS-1 (PDF; 109 kB) ( Memento from October 7, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
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