STS-9

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem STS-9
Mission dates
Mission: STS-9
COSPAR-ID : 1983-116A
Crew: 6th
Begin: November 28, 1983, 16:00:00  UTC
Starting place: Kennedy Space Center , LC-39A
Landing: December 8, 1983, 23:47:24 UTC
Landing place: Edwards Air Force Base , Runway 17
Flight duration: 10d 7h 47min 24s
Earth orbits: 167
Track height: 254 km
Orbit inclination : 57.0 °
Covered track: 6.8 million km
Payload: Spacelab
Team photo
v. l. No. Owen Garriott, Byron Lichtenberg, Brewster Shaw, John Young, Ulf Merbold, Robert Parker
v. l. No. Owen Garriott, Byron Lichtenberg, Brewster Shaw, John Young, Ulf Merbold, Robert Parker
◄ Before / After ►
STS-8 STS-41-B

STS-9 ( English : S pace T ransportation S ystem ) is a mission designation for the US Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) NASA . The launch took place on November 28, 1983. It was the ninth space shuttle mission and the sixth flight of the Columbia space shuttle.

team

John Young was the first spaceman to make the sixth flight.

Substitute team

Payload specialists were on board for the first time on this flight . This new type of astronaut was not part of the NASA astronaut corps and was not assigned to this flight by NASA. In December 1977 ESA nominated two European scientists as candidates, in May 1978 the SL-1 Investigators Working Group (IWG) named two US scientists. The four payload specialist candidates received a shorter training than the NASA astronauts, but from January 1982 they were busy preparing the flight full-time. On October 1, 1982, the IMF appointed Lichtenberg for the main crew and Lampton as a substitute. ESA had previously nominated Merbold for the main crew and Ockels as reserve.

Mission overview

The Spacelab module, which was able to support a large number of experiments, was taken into space for the first time on this flight . The German Ulf Merbold was the first ESA astronaut to take part in the mission, making him the first non-American on board a US spaceship. On this flight, six astronauts were also transported into space for the first time .

The start was originally planned for September 30th, but had to be postponed to November 28th due to technical problems.

Problems with the computer and the APUs

A few hours before reentry, while aligning the shuttle , one of the navigation computers crashed while the RCS control jets were firing . A few minutes later another computer crashed, but could be restarted successfully. Young delayed the landing and allowed the shuttle to drift free for the time being. He later explained: "If we had activated the backup flight software at this point, the result would have been a total loss of the orbiter and the crew." A post-flight investigation revealed that the General Purpose Computers (GPCs) failed when the RCS control nozzle pulse loosened a solder joint and thus triggered a short circuit on the CPU board. Columbia landed on Runway 17 at Edwards Air Force Base at 3:47 p.m. PST on December 8, 1983, after 166 orbits and 6.8 million kilometers traveled . Shortly before landing, two of the three auxiliary power units caught fire when fuel released by a hydrazine leak ignited on a hot surface. The landing was nevertheless successful. Columbia was transported back to the Kennedy Space Center on December 15th. The leak was only discovered after the fire, which had caused considerable damage to this part of the orbiter, extinguished on its own.

See also

Web links

Commons : STS-9  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ^ Walter Froehlich: Meet the Crew. In: Spacelab. An International Short-Stay Orbiting Laboratory. NASA, 1983, accessed May 8, 2018 .
  2. ↑ The Risks Digest Volume 8: Issue 13, " Space shuttle computer problems, 1981–1985 "