STS-92

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem STS-92
Mission dates
Mission: STS-92
COSPAR-ID : 2000-062A
Crew: 7th
Begin: October 11, 2000, 11:17 p.m.  UTC
Starting place: Kennedy Space Center , LC-39A
Space station: ISS
Coupling: October 13, 2000, 17:45:10 UTC
Decoupling: October 20, 2000, 15:08:39 UTC
Duration on the ISS: 6d 21h 23min 29s
Landing: October 24, 2000, 20:59:41 UTC
Landing place: Edwards Air Force Base , Runway 22
Flight duration: 12d 21h 42min 41s
Earth orbits: 202
Track height: 328 km
Covered track: 8.5 million km
Team photo
v. l. No. front: Pamela Melroy, Brian Duffy; back: Leroy Chiao, Michael López-Alegría, William S. McArthur, Peter Wisoff, Kōichi Wakata
v. l. No. front: Pamela Melroy, Brian Duffy;
back: Leroy Chiao, Michael López-Alegría, William S. McArthur, Peter Wisoff, Kōichi Wakata
◄ Before / After ►
STS-106 STS-97

STS-92 ( English S pace T ransportation S ystem ) is the mission name for a flight of the US Space Shuttle Discovery ( OV -103) of NASA . The launch took place on October 11, 2000. It was the 100th space shuttle mission and the 28th flight of the space shuttle Discovery and the fifth flight of a shuttle to the International Space Station (ISS).

team

Mission description

The Discovery docked with the International Space Station two days after launch . Due to a defect in the Ku-band antenna, no television broadcasts were possible during the entire mission. A few other problems, including a short circuit, were resolved relatively quickly by the crew. On October 14th, the 9-ton lattice structure element Z1 (Z stands for zenith) was lifted out of the Discovery's loading bay using the space shuttle manipulator and maneuvered to the designated docking point on the Unity module . Astronaut Wakata also used various cameras installed in the shuttle's loading bay and in Unity to orient himself. When the corresponding sensors indicated the correct position of the component, the locking mechanism was triggered.

Astronauts McArthur and Chiao disembarked from the shuttle for 6 hours and 28 minutes on October 15 and connected 10 electrical cables to the appropriate connectors. They also moved the S-band antenna from its starting position. It was not installed in its final location until the next shuttle mission. In the S-band, data is transmitted via the TDRS system with a maximum of 192 kbit per second. The space-to-ground antenna, on the other hand, allows a data rate of up to 50 Mbit per second and is intended for the simultaneous transmission of 4 video channels. It was brought into its final position during the exit. Finally, McArthur and Chiao assembled a tool box for future use.

On October 16, Wisoff and López-Alegría worked outboard for 7 hours and 7 minutes. First they loosened the brackets for the third coupling adapter PMA-3 ( Pressurized Mating Adapter ) in the loading bay of the Discovery. Then they acted as additional pairs of eyes for Wakata, who again operated the manipulator arm. The 1.5 tonne adapter was slowly directed to its intended position. When this was achieved, several connecting bolts were activated remotely. The other connections were only realized after a temperature adjustment.

During the third deployment in free space, McArthur and Chiao installed two power converters on Z1 and laid additional cables. They also prepared the holding devices for the arrival of the solar cell module. Eventually they installed a second tool box. The exit on October 17th took 6 hours and 48 minutes.

The mission's last spacecraft operation (6:56 hours) took place on October 18. The astronauts Wisoff and López-Alegría first tested a locking mechanism on Z1 and put a cable duct into position through which connecting cables to the US laboratory Destiny , which arrived in 2001, run. Then both carried out a controlled flight inside the Discovery's cargo bay, using the new SAFER rescue system. SAFER is a rescue aid mounted on the back of the spaceman with drive nozzles that are operated with nitrogen gas. The system is intended for the case that a spaceman loses contact with the shuttle or the station during an outboard operation despite the safety line provided.

With the engines of the Discovery, the orbit of the complex was raised by about 8 kilometers during three half-hour propulsion phases. Structural tests were carried out at the same time. After the successful assembly work in space, the gyroscopes in Z1 were warmed up and briefly run up to 100 revolutions per minute. In addition, cables to the new coupling adapter were laid within the Unity module, computer equipment and film accessories ( IMAX ) were transported to the station, and an experiment for growing protein crystals in weightlessness was brought into the shuttle. The experiment arrived at the station with the Atlantis in September. Routine experiments concerned the acquisition of GPS data for navigation and the test of a semiconductor star sensor for tracking large and bright targets. This is intended to facilitate navigation in the vicinity of the station.

The Discovery landed due to bad weather at both possible landing locations two days later than originally planned on the premises of Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Trivia

The period between the landing of STS-92 on October 24, 2000 at 20:59:41 UTC and the launch of Soyuz TM-31 for the International Space Station on October 31, 2000 at 07:52:47 UTC was the last phase so far in which not a single person was in space. This phase lasted exactly 6 days 10 hours 53 minutes 6 seconds.

See also

Web links

Commons : STS-92  - album with pictures, videos and audio files