STS-103

Mission emblem

Mission dates

Mission:

STS-103

COSPAR-ID :

1999-069A

Crew:

7th

Begin:

December 20, 1999, 0:50:00 UTC

Starting place:

Kennedy Space Center , LC-39B

Number of EVA :

3

Landing:

December 28, 1999, 0:00:47 UTC

Landing place:

Kennedy Space Center, Lane 33

Flight duration:

7d 23h 10min 47s

Earth orbits:

119

Rotation time :

96.4 min

Orbit inclination :

28.5 °

Apogee :

609 km

Perigee :

563 km

Covered track:

5.1 million km

Team photo

v. l. No. Michael Foale, Claude Nicollier, Scott Kelly, Curtis Brown, Jean-Francois Clervoy, John Grunsfeld, Steven Smith

◄ Before / After ►

STS-93

STS-99

STS-103 ( english S pace T ransportation S ystem) is the mission designation for a flight of the US Space Shuttle Discovery ( OV -103) of NASA . The launch took place on December 20, 1999. It was the 96th space shuttle mission and the 27th flight of the space shuttle Discovery.

team

Curtis Brown (6th spaceflight), commander
Scott Kelly (1st spaceflight), pilot
Steven Smith (3rd space flight), mission specialist
Michael Foale (5th spaceflight), mission specialist
John Grunsfeld (3rd space flight), mission specialist
Claude Nicollier (4th Spaceflight), Mission Specialist ( ESA / Switzerland )European space agency Switzerland

Jean-François Clervoy (3rd space flight), Mission Specialist ( ESA / France )European space agency France

Mission description

The main task of the Discovery crew was the repair of important on-board systems of the Hubble space telescope . Some of them had failed in the past, others were renewed prophylactically.

On the second day of the flight, the satellite was captured on the first attempt. During the approach phase, the outboard engineers had already prepared for their first mission, which was completed on December 22nd (Smith and Grunsfeld for 8 hours and 15 minutes). All six gyroscopes that are necessary for the precise alignment of the 11.5 ton telescope were replaced. After the fourth gyroscope failed in mid-November, the telescope was put into sleep mode. The second important task of the first exit was to replace six charge control devices on the ten-year-old batteries . These control devices monitor the charging process and ensure that the batteries are not overcharged or overheated.

At the second exit on December 23 (8 hours and 10 minutes), Foale and Nicollier exchanged the telescope's on-board computer. The old 386 (with 387 coprocessor ) has been replaced by a 486 that is twenty times faster. A guide sensor weighing 280 kg was also replaced. It measures the orientation of the satellite in space with high accuracy. The satellite has a total of three such sensors .

The focus of the third exit maneuver was the exchange of an S-band transmitter, with which the collected data is transmitted to a relay satellite. Since these transmitters were not intended to be exchanged in weightlessness, the work was a little more complicated. Thanks to the special tools I brought with me, the replacement went according to plan. One of three data stores, a tape recorder, has been replaced with electronic storage. With twelve GB, this has ten times the capacity. Finally, the thermal insulation on the access doors was changed. This is to avoid temperature problems inside the satellite.

Since all the planned work had been completed, the Hubble telescope could be released from the Discovery's cargo bay on Christmas Day. The ground control reported the full functionality of the satellite, which resumed normal operation after two weeks.

The Discovery landed on the shuttle runway of the Kennedy Space Center after almost eight days of flight .