TOM JONES

ASTRONAUT SPEAKER

The Titan II and Me

May 13, 2018 By TOM JONES 1 Comment

Whenever I speak here at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, hosting “Astronaut Encounter,” I always pay a visit to the tallest rocket standing in the Rocket Garden, the Martin Marietta company’s Gemini-Titan II.

Gemini Titan II at KSC Visitor Center, May 2018  (photo by author)

I remember it well because it was the first real rocket I ever saw. Growing up in a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland, I lived just a couple of miles from Martin’s Titan II assembly building. There, from 1964 through 1966 the company was stacking and testing these rockets to carry the Gemini astronauts into space. The Titan II was an Air Force intercontinental ballistic missile, designed to carry a 9-megaton nuclear warhead to the other side of the world. NASA chose this powerful booster to propel the Gemini spacecraft into orbit, and my town was, for a little while, one of the key locations in the Space Race of the 1960s. Gemini would be how NASA learned the techniques in orbit it would need to go to the moon by 1970.

Gemini-Titan IIs in final assembly at the Martin Marietta factory in Middle River, Maryland, 1965-66. (Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum)

As a 10-year-old Cub Scout in 1965, my Cub Pack took a field trip to the Martin Marietta factory during an open house. I stood there on the factory floor, awed at the sight of these 100-foot-tall rockets being built to carry our astronauts into space. The rockets I saw were built to carry Gemini 7 and 8 into space, in late 1965 and early 1966.

Gemini 8 launches on its Gemini-Titan II from Complex 19 at Cape Canaveral. Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott would conduct the first docking in space on March 16, 1966. (NASA)

Those Titan IIs made an indelible impression on me, and from that moment on I read everything I could about the job of being an astronaut, what qualifications were required by NASA, and how the astronauts would fly to and land on the moon. It’s safe to say the Titan II launched me on my career path toward becoming an astronaut.

Here at the KSC Visitor Complex, you can see the Titan II, get close to and peer inside the Gemini 9 spacecraft, and learn the stories of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts. Of course, you can see the ship that I flew, the space shuttle Atlantis, and get almost close enough to touch her. I lived on Atlantis for 13 days in 2001, helping build the International Space Station while leading three spacewalks.

On your visit to the Visitor Complex, look up at some awesome history, be inspired, learn how we’ll return to the moon, and tackle the challenges of exploring Mars. We’ve got an amazing story to tell, and we’re looking for explorers who want to play an exciting role in our nation’s future.

Gemini 9A spacecraft  at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, in the “Heroes and Legends” exhibit. (credit KSC Visitor Complex and HrAtsuo)

Tom Jones flew four space shuttle missions, the last on Atlantis to the International Space Station. He speaks frequently at the KSC Visitor Complex. His website is www.AstronautTomJones.com.

 

Filed Under: History, Space

Astronaut Encounter at Kennedy Space Center, FL: Nov. 2017

November 22, 2017 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Sundown at the Rocket Garden on 11-13-17 (T.Jones)

I spent last week speaking at Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex, meeting guests from all over our home planet, from Australia to Lithuania and everywhere in-between. One beautiful evening produced this sunset over the Rocket Garden. The tallest rocket is the Martin Marietta Titan II, which launched the Gemini astronauts; a dozen of these boosters were built for NASA at the factory a mile from my boyhood home in Middle River, MD. The silvery rocket at far left is a replica of the Mercury-Atlas, the type that launched John Glenn and the other Mercury astronaut into orbit in 1962-63. At far right on its side is the NASA Saturn IB, built by Chrysler and McDonnell-Douglas. Saturn IBs (developed by Wernher von Braun’s team at Marshall Spaceflight Center in AL) launched the Apollo 7 mission (first Apollo piloted flight in 1968), the three Skylab crews, and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project flight in 1975. Rockets and temps in the low 70s–a combo hard to beat. Looking forward to my next speaking trip there.

www.AstronautTomJones.com

Filed Under: History, Space

Earth Photos from STS-68, Endeavour, Space Radar Lab 2 (Sept. 30-Oct.11, 1994)

October 11, 2017 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

I’m compiling here a few of my favorite Earth images from my second mission, STS-68, flown on Endeavour, carrying Space Radar Lab 2. This Earth-imaging radar sensor package, combined with a carbon monoxide pollution sensor, was a joint project of NASA and the German and Italian space agencies.

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Added 11/1/19

The Bay of Naples, Italy.  Oct. 10, 1994: We’re on Endeavour (STS-68) over the Tyrrhenian Sea, west of Italy, looking down on the Bay of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius. That’s Isla Ischia on the left, and Capri, the smaller island, on the lower right. Naples and its 3 million people lie on the left of the bay, to the northwest of Vesuvius. Herculaneum is almost directly below Vesuvius on the coast (where the town was buried by a pyroclastic flow in AD 79). Pompeii lies farther along the bay shore to the right. The circular depressions to the far left of the bay, near the sea, are the Phlegrean Fields, part of the caldera that makes up the bay region, near the town of Pozzuoli. All of the Bay of Naples is part of this half-drowned caldera; Vesuvius is just one active region on the rim. On the peninsula to the right, in the circular bay, is Sorrento (full of lemon trees!). Sorrento has superb views of Vesuvius and the Bay.
Naples is built on layers of history, and the towns buried by Vesuvius are a treasure trove of ancient Roman life. Take the Circumvesuviano commuter rail from Naples over to Herculaneum and Pompeii–it’s a memorable visit.

Mt. Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples on Italy’s west coast. (NASA STS068-259-055)

And here is our complementary radar view of Vesuvius and Naples:

Radar image of the Bay of Naples from SRL-1, April 1994. (NASA JPL P-45742)

Mt. Vesuvius, one of the best known volcanoes in the world primarily for the eruption that buried the Roman city of Pompeii, is shown in the lower center of this radar image. North is to the left. The central cone of Vesuvius is the dark purple feature in the center of the volcano. This cone is surrounded on the northern and eastern sides by the old crater rim, called Mt. Somma. Recent lava flows are the pale yellow areas on the southern and western sides of the cone. Vesuvius is part of a large volcanic zone which includes the Phalagrean Fields, the cluster of craters seen along the lower left center of the image. The Bay of Naples, on the bottom of the image, is separated from the Gulf of Salerno, in the lower right, by the Sorrento Peninsula. Dense urban settlement can be seen around the volcano. The city of Naples is below and to the left of Vesuvius; the seaport of the city can be seen in the north half of the bay. Pompeii is located just to the right of the volcano on this image. The rapid eruption in 79 A.D. buried the victims and buildings of Pompeii under several meters of debris and killed more than 2,000 people. Due to the violent eruptive style and proximity to populated areas, Vesuvius has been named by the international scientific community as one of fifteen Decade Volcanoes which are being intensively studied during the 1990s. The image is centered at 40.83 degrees North latitude, 14.53 degrees East longitude. It shows an area 100 kilometers by 55 kilometers (62 miles by 34 miles.) This image was acquired on April 15, 1994 by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR- C/X-SAR) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. SIR-C/X-SAR, a joint mission of the German, Italian and the United States space agencies, is part of NASA’s
P-45742 July 13, 1995

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added 10/30/19

Endeavour and her STS-68 crew were 118 nautical miles above the Sahara, looking north, when we took this image of the Tifernine dune field on Oct. 3, 1994, using a 40mm lens on a Hasselblad film camera. Except for a few too many clouds, you’d think we were over the ruddy sands of Mars. The orange, arrowhead-shaped Tifernine dunes are one of the major Sahara landmarks visible to orbiting astronauts.

Tifernine Dune field of the Sahara, in southern Algeria. (NASA STS068-228-081)

NASA writes: The Tifernine Dune Field is located at the southernmost tip of the Grand Erg Oriental, a “dune sea” that occupies a large portion of the Sahara Desert in eastern Algeria. This astronaut photograph illustrates the interface between the yellow-orange sand dunes of the field and dark brown consolidated rocks of the Tinrhert Plateau to the south and east. The Tifernine at the center of this image is about 800 miles south-southeast of Algiers, the capital of Algeria. The dunes are in excess of 1,000 feet in height.

The oldest landform is represented by the rocks of the Tinrhert Plateau, where numerous channels incise the bedrock; these channels were eroded during a wet and cool climate period, most probably by glacial meltwater streams. As the dry and hot climate that characterizes the Sahara today became established, water ceased to flow in these channels. Winds eroded and moved large amounts of drying sediment (sand, silt, and clay), which piled up in large, linear dunes that roughly parallel the direction of the prevailing winds of the time (image center).

The present climate is still hot and dry, but current wind directions are more variable. The variable winds are modifying the older, linear dunes, creating star dunes, recognizable by a starfish-like pattern when seen from above.

 

See more Earth views from STS-68 as I add to my blog, at www.AstronautTomJones.com.

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added 9/20/19

The Front Range of the Rockies from orbit. Here’s the Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, and Denver, seen from STS-68 Endeavour on Oct. 10, 1994. My crew was over the Colorado plains east of Denver when we looked south (toward upper left) and grabbed this shot. Denver is at lower right, with both the old Stapleton International Airport (near town) and the new Denver International airport runways visible at bottom right. Colorado Springs is just to the east of the white blaze of Pikes Peak at center left. The dark green comma east of the Front Range is the Black Forest, and if you look closely you can see the cadet area at USAFA, as well as Falcon Stadium in this 250mm Hasselblad shot (70mm film). The runways at Peterson Field (AFB) are easily visible east of C. Springs. The Arkansas River runs west to east from Canon City to Pueblo, to the left of Pikes Peak. I learned to fly in 1974 at the Academy airfield, barely visible near Falcon Stadium. This area’s population growth has greatly expanded both Colorado Springs and Denver.

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added 9/5/19

Flying over Hawaii was always a highlight, as the island chain is an oasis in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. Because of their volcanic origins, the Hawaiian landscapes are dramatic, beautiful, and dynamic–the volcanoes on Hawaii Island are still building those mountains ever higher above the sea.

In this radar image from our SIR-C instrument of the Space Radar Lab, between Hickam AFB (the Honolulu Airport) at lower left, and Diamond Head at lower right is Waikiki. The crater above Waikiki at the foot of the mountains is Punchbowl, now the National Cemetery of the Pacific, with superb views of Honolulu and the graves of so many servicemen and women.

Kaneohe Bay is at top, a Marine Corps air station (see the dark blue runways on the left of the Kaneohe peninsula). Runway traces of Bellows Field, one of the WWII airfields attacked in the Pearl Harbor raid, are on the coast at upper right. Pearl Harbor is just out of view on the left, west of Hickam. Having worked on the Big Island for my asteroid telescope observations back in the 1980s, I have a long-standing affinity for our 50th state. Looking forward to our next visit to welcoming Hawaii.

Honolulu on the island of Oahu, Oct. 6, 1994. (JPL NASA: PIA01842)

JPL caption: This spaceborne radar image shows the city of Honolulu, Hawaii and adjacent areas on the island of Oahu. Honolulu lies on the south shore of the island, along the bottom of this image. Diamond Head, an extinct volcanic crater, is seen in the lower right. The bright white strip left of Diamond Head is the Waikiki Beach area. Further west are the downtown area and harbor. Runways of the airport can be seen in the lower left. The Koolau mountain range runs through the center of the image. The steep cliffs on the north side of the range are thought to be remnants of massive landslides that ripped apart the volcanic mountains that built the island thousands of years ago. On the north shore of the island are the Mokapu peninsula and Kaneohe Bay. Densely vegetated areas appear green in this radar image, while urban areas generally appear orange, red or white. Images such as this can be used by land use planners to monitor urban development and its effect on the tropical environment. The image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) onboard the space shuttle Endeavour on October 6, 1994.

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added 9/3/19

Here’s another STS-68 favorite as we approach the 25th anniversary of the Space Radar Lab 2 mission. We’re over Russia somewhere, early morning there, Oct. 2, 1994, looking down from Endeavour. From the aft flight deck we spotted these mountain peaks riding above a low cloud deck. Earth is such a varied and beautiful world. The location is in the Vitim Highlands, in far eastern Russia. Of course, our radar images cut right through these clouds to capture the terrain and biosphere data below, but radar cannot capture the ever-changing beauty of our home planet.

Russian mountain ridges penetrate a low, morning cloud deck on Oct. 2, 1994. (NASA STS068-227-077)

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added 8/27/19

Here we are soaring east on Endeavour just to the west of Detroit, MI. North is at left. Detroit is the big city at center. Selfridge AFB is just north of Detroit along the lake shore, and Willow Run Airport is southwest of the city just above that cloud bank. B-24 Liberators were built by Ford at Willow Run, under license from Consolidated, during WWII, and the field is home today to the Yankee Air Museum. One of my old B-52D’s, which I flew in the late 1970s, is on display there.
My crew enjoyed this view from STS-68 Endeavour on 10/6/94, using a 250mm lens on 70mm Hasselblad film (ASA 50). The Great Lakes contained several of our science super-sites, including one on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula called Raco, in the Hiawatha National Forest.

Detroit and Lake St. Clair from STS-68 (NASA STS068-232-22)

(NASA caption). With Lake Erie in sunglint, the Detroit metropolitan area is discernible in this low-oblique photograph. The Saint Clair River empties into Lake Saint Clair east-northeast of the city. The Detroit River drains Lake Saint Clair, flows past Detroit (west bank) and Windsor, Ontario, Canada (east bank), and empties into Lake Erie.

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added 8/26/19

On STS-68 I could look down and easily see home, the region where I grew up, and I can see my entire youthful experience in this single photo, from the Appalachians to the Atlantic Coast. I grew up in Baltimore, and now live and work near Washington, DC. So much U.S. history is also captured in this shot, from the formative moves toward independence in 1776, to major battlefields of the Civil War, to the great Emancipation in 1862 and at the Civil War’s close. North is at right. I-95 runs from Washington at center, on the Potomac, to Baltimore at right center, with my hometown of Essex, Maryland at the head of the third river over (Middle River) from the Patapsco River heading from the Bay into Baltimore.
On our STS-68 mission, my brother watched me soar overhead before dawn in Endeavour from his home in Fredericksburg, VA, south of the nation’s capital. My home today is near Dulles airport, whose runways are visible at top center.

NASA: From the wetlands in Maryland to the nation’s capital and onto Baltimore, this 70mm photograph from the Space Shuttle Endeavour shows some details of the historic Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River area. With the rather low altitude of Endeavour at 115 nautical miles, features as small as Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium and Andrews Air Force Base are clearly seen.

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added 8/21/19

On the third day of the STS-68 mission, 10/2/94, our crew looked down from Endeavour on Indonesia and captured a rare, nearly clear view of the Tambora volcano, on the island of Sumbawa. North is to the top of our image.

Tambora volcano on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia. (NASA STS068-151-128)

NASA: On April 10, 1815, the Tambora Volcano produced the largest eruption in recorded history. An estimated 150 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of tephra—exploded rock and ash—resulted, with ash from the eruption recognized at least 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) away to the northwest. While the April 10 eruption was catastrophic, historical records and geological analysis of eruption deposits indicate that the volcano had been active between 1812 and 1815. Enough ash was put into the atmosphere from the April 10 eruption to reduce incident sunlight on the Earth’s surface, causing global cooling, which resulted in the 1816 “year without a summer.”

The huge caldera—6 kilometers (3.7 miles) in diameter and 1,100 meters (3,609 feet) deep—formed when Tambora’s estimated 4,000-meter- (13,123-foot) high peak was removed, and the magma chamber below emptied during the April 10 eruption. Today the crater floor is occupied by an ephemeral freshwater lake, recent sedimentary deposits, and minor lava flows and domes from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Active fumaroles, or steam vents, still exist in the caldera.

In 2004, scientists discovered the remains of a village, and two adults buried under approximately 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) of ash in a gully on Tambora’s flank—remnants of the former Kingdom of Tambora preserved by the 1815 eruption that destroyed it. The similarity of the Tambora remains to those associated with the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius has led to the Tambora site’s description as “the Pompeii of the East.”

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added 8/20/19

NASA: Kliuchevskoi Volcano’s major eruption began September 30, 1994 (launch day) for STS-68. It got almost immediate coverage by the astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The eruption cloud reached 60,000 feet above sea level, and the winds carried ash as far as 640 miles southeast from the volcano into the North Pacific air routes. This picture was made with a large format Linhof camera. While astronauts used handheld camera’s to keep up with the Kamchatka event, instruments in the cargo bay of Endeavour recorded data to support the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-2) mission.

Kliuchevskoi volcano erupting on 9/30/94. (NASA STS068-150-045)

Our wide-angle 90mm lens on the Linhof camera captured the view above. The Linhof produced a 4×5-inch film negative, with incredible detail. Each magazine held 100 frames, and we refilled magazines with fresh film inside a light-tight bag, stowing the exposed film in canisters and manually spooling a new roll into the magazine. The film reloading was part of our nightly housekeeping routine. But it was hard to tear ourselves away from the windows!

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Our Space Radar Lab 2 image of Mt. Rainier, Washington (NASA JPL P-44703)

Mt. Rainier, Washington (NASA caption)

This is a radar image of Mount Rainier in Washington state. The volcano last erupted about 150 years ago and numerous large floods and debris flows have originated on its slopes during the last century. Today the volcano is heavily mantled with glaciers and snowfields. More than 100,000 people live on young volcanic mudflows less than 10,000 years old and, consequently, are within the range of future, devastating mudslides. This image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on its 20th orbit on October 1, 1994. The area shown in the image is approximately 59 kilometers by 60 kilometers (36.5 miles by 37 miles). North is toward the top left of the image, which was composed by assigning red and green colors to the L-band, horizontally transmitted and vertically, and the L- band, horizontally transmitted and vertically received. Blue indicates the C-band, horizontally transmitted and vertically received. In addition to highlighting topographic slopes facing the space shuttle, SIR-C records rugged areas as brighter and smooth areas as darker. The scene was illuminated by the shuttle’s radar from the northwest so that northwest-facing slopes are brighter and southeast-facing slopes are dark. Forested regions are pale green in color; clear cuts and bare ground are bluish or purple; ice is dark green and white. The round cone at the center of the image is the 14,435-foot (4,399- meter) active volcano, Mount Rainier. On the lower slopes is a zone of rock ridges and rubble (purple to reddish) above coniferous forests (in yellow/green). The western boundary of Mount Rainier National Park is seen as a transition from protected, old-growth forest to heavily logged private land, a mosaic of recent clear cuts (bright purple/blue) and partially regrown timber plantations (pale blue). The prominent river seen curving away from the mountain at the top of the image (to the northwest) is the White River, and the river leaving the mountain at the bottom right of the image (south) is the Nisqually River, which flows out of the Nisqually glacier on the mountain. The river leaving to the left of the mountain is the Carbon River, leading west and north toward heavily populated regions near Tacoma. The dark patch at the top right of the image is Bumping Lake. Other dark areas seen to the right of ridges throughout the image are radar shadow zones. Radar images can be used to study the volcanic structure and the surrounding regions with linear rock boundaries and faults. In addition, the recovery of forested lands from natural disasters and the success of reforestation programs can also be monitored. Ultimately this data may be used to study the advance and retreat of glaciers and other forces of global change. (P-44703 October 3, 1994)

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added Aug. 20, 2019

Aurora Australis seen from STS-68 Endeavour (NASA sts068-008-029)

My Endeavour crew was awed by our night-time flights through the shifting curtains of the Aurora Australis, off the southern coasts of Australia and New Zealand. We felt like we were riding on the tip of a needle, piercing the vertical curtains of glowing green light. Our low altitude of 120 nm meant the auroral curtains rose high above us as we soared through one after another. NASA: This time exposure of the Southern Lights was photographed with a 35mm camera from 115 nautical miles above Earth by the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour during the Space Radar Laboratory 2 (SRL-2) mission. Due to the long exposure time, stars in the background appear smeared or elongated.

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For more of my mission information, see www.AstronautTomJones.com

 

Filed Under: History, Space

STS-68, Endeavour, Space Radar Lab 2, Sep. 30-Oct. 11, 1994

October 4, 2017 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

This month is the 23rd anniversary of the Space Radar Lab 2 mission, STS-68. I was the payload commander, flying with my crewmates Mike Baker (CDR), Dan Bursch (MS2), Steve Smith (MS1), Terry Wilcutt (PLT), and Jeff Wisoff (MS3). An ambitious follow up to the successful STS-59, Space Radar Lab 1, SRL-2 was aimed at flying the multi-frequency, multi-polarized Shuttle Imaging Radar-C, X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar, and the Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites sensors in the northern hemisphere late summer, to compare SRL-1’s spring mapping results to those from a contrasting season of the year. STS-68 would also test radar interferometry, a technique to create highly accurate, three-dimensional maps of Earth’s topography. (More info at www.AstronautTomJones.com)

The STS-68 crew patch. (NASA STS068-s-001)

My crewmates and I rehearsed our countdown procedures at Kennedy Space Center on August 1, 1994.

Tom Jones in his middeck seat for the STS-68 countdown rehearsal, termed TCDT. (NASA KSC94PC-966)

Seated on the far right of Endeavour’s middeck during our mock countdown on Aug. 1, 1994, my crewmember designation was MS-4. (NASA ksc-94pc-966)

Jeff Wisoff was seated to my left, close to the galley and side hatch. Note my clear helmet visor, indicating a “practice” helmet. We kept the dark visors for the real launch day, to avoid scratching them during our practice sessions like this one.

Our launch was planned on August 18, 1994, but at dawn on that date, when Endeavour’s main engines (SSMEs) ignited, the #3 engine violated a redline constraint, and the GPCs ordered an abort and engine shutdown. They automatically called for a shutdown when the discharge temperature on MPSSSME Main Engine #3 High Pressure Oxidizer Turbopump (HPOT) exceeded its redline value. The HPOT typically operates at 28,120 rpm and boosts the liquid oxygen pressure from 422 psia to 4,300 psia. There are 2 sensor channels measuring temperature on the HPOT. The B channel indicated a redline condition while the other was near redline conditions. The temperature at shutdown was at 1563 degrees R. while a normal HPOT discharge temperature is around 1403 degrees R. The redline limit to initiate a shutdown is at 1560 degrees R. This limit increases to 1760 degrees R. at T-1.3 sec (5.3 sec after Main Engine Start). Main Engine #3 (SN 2032) has been used on 2 previous flights with 2,412 seconds of hot-fire time and a total of 8 starts. This was the first flight for the HPOT on Main Engine (SSME) #3.

Endeavour runs up her three main engines just before her computers declared a pad abort and engine shutdown, Aug. 18, 1994.
(NASA STS-68-KSC-94PC-1026)

What all of this meant to me on the middeck (sitting next to Jeff Wisoff), was that as I felt the SSMEs rumble to life, I began mentally counting down the six seconds til booster ignition at T-minus-zero. Braced against the massive jolt of those SRBs exploding into life, I instead felt the engine vibration die away just as Terry Wilcutt shouted “Right engine down!”, accompanied by the blare of the master alarm. This meant serious trouble.

Out the hatch window to my left, I noted the gantry structure seeming to sway left and right under the vanished shove from Endeavour’s main engines–that was US swaying back and forth. Jeff and I hurriedly threw off our parachute straps and prepared to scoot across the middeck to open the hatch; we might all have to make a beeline to the escape slides on the far side of the gantry’s 190 foot level. We stayed on intercom, waiting for the word to egress.

Tom Jones strapped into Endeavour’s middeck MS-4 seat, during countdown rehearsal in early August, 1994. (NASA ksc-94pc-967)

Within the first minute, Launch Control had our pilots executing the pad abort checklist, entering computer commands that would stop the backup flight software from jettisoning our solid rocket boosters at T+2 minutes (embarrassing and deadly). As Jeff and I cleared our seats in the middeck and stood by to open the hatch, we heard reassuring words from Launch Director Bob Sieck’s team that the computers had executed an orderly shutdown, and no fire or explosion risk was evident.

“Damn! We’re scrubbed!” Jeff opined that we’d be set back at least three weeks by the necessary engine changeout. In fact it would take six weeks for our rollback, engine change, and rollout. STS-64 would slip ahead of us and fly in early September with its LITE laser sensor payload. Our new launch date would be Sept. 30, 1994.

The launch team did a superb job on our abort–the last pad abort in the space shuttle program, and the one that came hair-raisingly close to leaping off the pad with one engine down. That would have meant an immediate scramble to perform a Return To Launch Site (RTLS) abort, flying backward through our Mach 5 exhaust plume to attempt a dicey landing back on Merritt Island. If anyone could pull it off, it would have been Bakes, Terry, Dan, and Steve. Assuredly, no one wanted to be the first to try an RTLS.

The STS-68 crew: (L to R) Jones, Wisoff, Baker, Wilcutt, Smith, Bursch (NASA sts068-s-002)

September 30 was set as our new launch date. STS-64 in the meantime had flown its successful LITE Earth-science mission, with the additional milestone of Mark Lee and Carl Meade test-flying the SAFER EVA jetpack. Our crew had taken a week-long vacation, then got back into simulations and recurring training to polish our space radar abilities. I thought we used the extra time to good effect, and we proceeded to the Cape even better prepared than we were in August. We were certainly more rested than on our first attempt.

One piece of bad luck befell us: on the day we entered quarantine, five of us came down with cold symptoms. We suffered through four days in Houston of runny noses, aches and pains, and sore throats, but with constant flight surgeon attention we slowly improved. Our flight to the Cape was on the Shuttle Training Aircraft, the Gulfstream jet, to spare our sinuses the drastic cabin altitude changes experienced in a T-38.

When we arrived at the Cape, Dan Bursch stepped off the jet in his Groucho Marx disguise, telling reporters that our chances of avoiding a launch abort were better if Endeavour didn’t know he was in the launch area. Our spirits were certainly on the upswing as our three days in Florida at crew quarters drew to a close.

Endeavour rockets off Pad 39A at 7:16:00:068 a.m on Sept. 30, 1994, to begin the STS-68 mission. (NASA STS068-s-037)

Our launch was timed for dawn on September 30, with Endeavour taking us into a 57-degree inclination, circular orbit, about 120 nm up. At that altitude our orbit would drift west at such a rate that we could image each of our science targets three times each day, from slightly different radar incidence angles.

Endeavour and the SRL-2 crew leave Earth on a pillar of fire, Sept. 30, 1994

The liftoff was exhilarating–this time I knew what to expect! I occupied the same seat as on SRL-1, with Jeff Wisoff to my left. No abort this time–the boosters came alive with a punch to the gut and we soared aloft. Much of the cabin dialogue we exchanged during launch is in my book, Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir. I’d asked that the side hatch window cover again be removed, so I had a terrific view of the gantry turning from gray, to red, to white-hot as the boosters lit. The following eight and a half minutes were punctuated by pyros firing to sever the boosters at two minutes, and then the attention-getting 3 g’s during the final minute of the ascent. During those final seconds I truly experienced the power of the space shuttle’s three main engines, just hurling our 100-ton orbiter toward the injection altitude and velocity. A miracle of technology and physics.

Dawn launch of STS-68, Endeavour, Sept. 30, 1994.

Below, another beautiful view of our dawn liftoff, as Endeavour jolts off the pad. During my second ascent to orbit, I was able to enjoy the physical and mental impressions a bit more methodically, recording my comments on a microcassette recorder during the eight-and-a-half minute climb to our 120 nm mapping orbit.

STS-68 lifts off in the dawn twilight. (Karl Ronstrom)

After MECO, it was off to the races, with Steve Smith and I teaming up on video and still photography of the external tank as it drifted away, below us. Then Jeff and I threw ourselves into converting the middeck into its orbit configuration, and getting the rest of the crew out of their suits and on into their orbital jobs. We had only about 5 hours until my bedtime; the Blue Shift of Steve, Dan and I were due for our first sleep period while Jeff, Mike, and Terry activated SRL-2.

Our external tank, built by Lockheed Martin, drifts clear after MECO. The tank burned up over the Indian Ocean while our OMS engines propelled us into our final orbit. (NASA STS068-01-008)

Before launch, our crew had a chance to examine the Space Radar Lab and its SIR-C/X-SAR radars up close, nestled in Endeavour’s payload bay. C-band panels line the left edge, and the larger L-band panels cover most of the 12-m-long antenna. Along the port edge, next to the robot Canadarm, the German/Italian X-SAR antenna is folded downward toward the sill of the payload bay.

In the orbiter processing facility bay 1, the Space Radar Laboratory 2 (SRL-2) is being transferred from the payload canister transporter into the payload bay of Endeavour. (NASA KSC-94PC-877)

Below, SRL-2 is in orbit. Space Radar Lab 2 had some new wrinkles, added since our April flight of SRL-1. The JPL folks had added a gold decal that matched one the Germans and Italians had placed on the X-band antenna. And the Langley Research Center also added a label to their Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS) instrument, positioned right in front of the radar antennae. It all made for a spectacular view out the back windows of the cabin:

Space Radar Lab 2, in Endeavour’s cargo bay, 120 nm above the Mongolian “Valley of the Lakes”, in southwestern Mongolia between the Khangai and Gobi Altai mountains. (NASA STS068-225-013)

We also had about 160 radar imagery recording cassettes aboard, up from the hundred or so we took aloft on SRL-1. The radar imaging schedule was even more ambitious than in April–and I’d thought that was intense!

I had thought I was over my cold, but upon arrival in orbit and a night’s sleep, I ran into its aftereffects. My sinuses were clogged, and without gravity, NOTHING was coming “down” out of my nose. My head felt like a balloon, and my face was reddened as if by a sunburn. I took to the medical locker to find the decongestants, and over a week or so, I slowly improved. The rest of my crewmates also dealt with the congestion lingering from our colds, and the natural stuffiness from the fluid shift headward, caused by our transition to free fall.

Jeff Wisoff, assisted by the pilots and coordinating with Mission Control (MCC), got SRL-2 up and running on his long first shift in orbit. When I woke from my quick 6 hours of sleep and talked to Jeff, I found he’d been “running” flat out with the activation for his entire shift, barely having time to grab a drink or a quick snack. I got cleaned up in a hurry and took over with Dan and Steve as quickly as we could, to spell the Red Shift from their labors. Having been up more than 18 hours, they were understandably tired. We tucked them into bed and ran with our Science Timeline, our program of observations.

Pilot Terry Wilcutt checks off flight plan tasks from the commander’s seat on Endeavour. Terry and Mike Baker maneuvered Endeavour, oversaw orbiter systems, took on science photography, and assisted Jeff Wisoff with SRL science operations on the Red Shift. (NASA STS068-74-021)

 

The damaged right OMS pod tile, shattered by a tile that broke loose during ascent from the rim of the left overhead window. (NASA STS068-067-013)

We discovered the tile damage on the first day of the flight, after opening the payload bay doors and inspecting the cargo bay. MCC determined that the heat loads on the upper half of the OMS pod were mild enough that the tile damage would not be dangerous. That greatly eased our minds. It was several days later that we discovered the source of the damage, looking up through the window and noticing a missing piece of tile just outside the outer pane. The tile tore loose during ascent and flew back to strike the OMS pod.

Our STS-68 Blue Shift team: Dan (top), Steve (middle) and Tom (bottom). I slept on the ceiling of the lower bunk. (NASA STS068-033-027)

The radar imagery returned resulted in wonderful images, like the one below, all across the disciplines of the Earth sciences. As we woke for our first work shift, Jeff, Terry, and Bakes called us upstairs to see a spectacular volcanic eruption in Kamchatka. Everyone grabbed a camera to capture images out the windows, while the radar lab obtained thousands of detailed images, revealing details obscured by the eruption plume.

The Kliuchevskoi volcano erupted on our launch day, Sep. 30, 1994. We tracked its eruption over the next week with photography and radar images like this one. The green streaks down the side of the 15,000-foot volcano (center) are mud and lava flows. (NASA JPL p44823)

The eruption was a true serendipitous gift from nature. If we had launched in August as planned, we would have missed this rare geological event. Now we had a ringside seat.

Kliuchevskoi’s eruption as seen from STS-68, Endeavour. This shot was taken with a Hasselblad and 100mm lens. (NASA STS068_214_045)

Dan Bursch points out to me where we REALLY are, above planet Earth. Our atlas showed our orbit tracks and our 400+ science targets. JPL’s science team prepared these custom-made maps with advice from our crew. (NASA STS068-083-023

Our wide-angle 90mm lens on the Linhof camera captured the view below. The Linhof produced a 4×5-inch film negative, with incredible detail. Each magazine held 100 frames, and we refilled magazines with fresh film inside a light-tight bag, stowing the exposed film in canisters and manually spooling a new roll into the magazine. The film reloading was part of our nightly housekeeping routine. But it was hard to tear ourselves away from the windows!

Kliuchevskoi Volcano’s major eruption began September 30, 1994 (launch day) for STS-68. It got almost immediate coverage by the astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The eruption cloud reached 60,000 feet above sea level, and the winds carried ash as far as 640 miles southeast from the volcano into the North Pacific air routes. This picture was made with a large format Linhof camera. While astronauts used handheld camera’s to keep up with the Kamchatka event, instruments in the cargo bay of Endeavour recorded data to support the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-2) mission. (NASA STS068-150-045)

We were able to monitor Kliuchevskoi’s eruption for a solid week, using the SRL to track eruptive phases as weather fronts came and went across Kamchatka. During a TV downlink to MCC, I described how the radar beams interacted with lavas of varying roughness, using three samples from Hawaii to illustrate the viewing geometry. I had chunks of aa, pahoehoe, and andesite lava aboard–in free fall, I had to take care to not release rock dust or slivers of lava into the cabin from their ziploc bags.  The andesite sample was a more viscous, stiff lava, erupted from some of the more recent cinder cones on Mauna Kea.

Kliuchevskoi eruption viewed from Endeavour’s aft flight deck windows. (NASA sts068-153-007)

Our shift work was 12 hours on, an 8-hour sleep shift, plus 4 hours for “post-sleep” and “pre-sleep”. In those periods, we talked things over with the Red Shift guys, had breakfast, dinner, and exercise, and took care of necessary housekeeping. One of the challenges was giving Jeff, Terry, and Bakes a good night’s sleep by keeping quiet in the middeck. Even opening a locker could wake up that crew in their sleeping bags, inside their bunks, so we tried to get our lunch like church mice, then eat on the flight deck. Once I dumped a chunk of scrambled eggs that I’d insecurely anchored to a tortilla–it went flying all over the flight deck, and Dan had to help me gobble up the floating egg debris. Dan’s homemade chocolate chip cookies crumbled in their ziploc–getting them out without crumbs floating everywhere required true astronaut skill. From home, with the help of the JSC Space Food Lab, I’d brought TastyKake chocolate cupcakes and Butterscotch Krimpets, enough snacks to carry me through the 11-day mission.

Flying high — about 115 nm up on Endeavour, STS-68. I’m with Dan Bursch and Mike Baker on the flight deck, with Earth in view out the windows. I have the Linhof with 250mm lens, Dan the video camcorder (look how huge it is), and Mike has a Hasselblad 70mm body with a 250mm telephoto lens. (NASA)

Connected to biomedical sensors, astronaut Steven L. Smith, mission specialist, serves as test subject for one of the flight’s 15 Detailed Supplementary Objectives (DSO). Astronaut Michael A. Baker, mission commander, monitors the test on the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s middeck. This test deals with the visual-vestibular integration as a function of adaptation to Spaceflight. Baker and Smith were joined by four other NASA astronauts for eleven days aboard the Endeavour in Earth-orbit, in support of the Space Radar Laboratory-2 (SRL-2) mission. (NASA caption, STS068-021-023).

In the test above, Steve had a laser on his headstrap, and his job was to rotate his head to put the laser dot on a series of targets about 6 feet away on the middeck lockers, forward. The sequence of pointing was random, and the package Steve was wearing recorded his eye motions as well as his response and pointing time. Looks a little like The Terminator if you ask me. Mike Baker helps with the checklist. Note the tortillas in the ziploc bag on the Middeck Equipment Rack (MER) behind Baker, with the galley to the right.

When I enlarge the photo, I see my crew notebook also velcroed to the lockers above Mike’s left shoulder. And I’m actually visible behind Mike, taking a look out the side hatch window (or scrubbing the bathroom!).

Armed with a 250mm telephoto lens on a Linhof camera aboard Endeavour, I’m ready for the next stunning Earth view on STS-68, 10-94.

Astronauts Peter J. K. “Jeff” Wisoff and Steven L. Smith, mission specialists, perform in-flight maintenance procedures on the flight deck. They are replacing a malfunctioning Payload High Rate Recorder (PHRR) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Astronauts Wisoff and Smith were joined by four other NASA astronauts aboard the Endeavour in operating the Space Radar Laboratory-2 (SRL-2) mission. (NASA caption, STS068-074-008)

The recorders were adapted from digital tape machines that flew in recon aircraft to record digital imagery data. One of the three on our flight deck failed about 8 days into the mission, so Jeff and Steve removed it and replaced it with a spare recorder that’d been flown up underneath our middeck floor. Pretty handy mechanics. Within 4 hours they had the new machine up and running again.

Endeavour glides in for its landing on Oct. 11, 1994, at Edwards AFB, CA. (NASA EC94-42789-1)

All too soon, our 11 days in orbit were coming to a close. We remained an extra day in orbit hoping for added science, and to await improving weather at Kennedy Space Center, but Mission Control directed us home to a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California on Oct. 11, 1994. Commander Mike Baker, assisted by pilot Terry Wilcutt, brought Endeavour to a gentle landing on Runway 22 at Edwards. Our orbiter performed superbly from start to finish of this successful mission to Planet Earth.

Just after wheels stop on Endeavour, I was to unstrap from my middeck seat and stand up. The blood pressure measurement gear would record my response to standing erect in 1-g, once again. I knew when the equipment was working when my left arm’s pressure cuff inflated, but it never recovered after touchdown. The taped data from entry, however, were good, and so was the audio tape I made as we rode back through the atmosphere. I have to give credit to the designers for creating a rig that would work inside our pressure suits, and yet still be easy enough to don and operate. After return to Houston, I sent the investigators an apology for the verbal tirade I recorded, grousing about the troubles I had getting the batteries replaced and activating the system. My only excuse was being up for a very long day…around 18 hours by the time we landed, and we still had postflight medical tests to endure.

Drag chute DTO complete, Endeavour rolls out on Rwy. 22 at Edwards, with Baker and Wilcutt at the controls. (NASA EC94-42789-2)

STS-68 is a highlight of my speech, “Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Journey” — contact me here at my speaking information page.

Filed Under: History, Space

Mission Highlights, STS-68: Space Shuttle Endeavour, Sept. 30 – Oct. 11, 1994

September 28, 2017 By TOM JONES 1 Comment

Space Shuttle Endeavour Mission Highlights, STS-68

 

September 30 – October 11, 1994

(published by National Aeronautics and Space Administration as MH – 030/11-94; reformatted by author)

 

Commander:                         Michael A. Baker (CPT, USN)

Pilot:                                        Terrence Wilcutt (Lt.Col., USMC)

Payload Commander:        Thomas D. Jones (Ph.D.)

Mission Specialist:              Daniel W. Bursch (Cdr., USN)

Mission Specialist:              Steven L. Smith

Mission Specialist:              Peter “Jeff” J. K. Wisoff (Ph.D.)

Front row:, l to r: Bursch, Baker, Jones. Back row, l to r: Wilcutt, Smith, Wisoff. (NASA STS068-002-016)

MAJOR MISSION ACCOMPLISHMENTS

  • Second successful flight of the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL) payload studying the Earth’s land surface, oceans, and atmosphere as a key element in NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth.

  • Successful testing of a new radar technique called “interferometry.” Endeavour obtained topographic information of unprecedented clarity by using slightly different shuttle positions to provide 3 dimensional images of the terrain.

  • Gathered global air pollution data with the Measure­ment of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS) instru­ment. MAPS measures atmospheric carbon monoxide, monitoring its production and transport around the globe.

  • Compared radar imaging results with those from SRL-1 (STS-59, in April ’94), determining the impact of natural and human change on Earth’s ecology, hydrology, oceanography, and geology. Operating around-the-clock and unaffected by weather, SRL-2’s radar instruments mapped 9% of Earth’s surface.

  • Demonstrated the ability of an advanced, multi-fre­quency, multi-polarized radar to assess the state of Earth’s surface over a full seasonal cycle, laying the groundwork for a permanent environmental monitor­ing platform.

  • Scanned large areas of the Southern Ocean with an on-board radar processor to reveal important information on wave and storm dynamics in this antarctic sea.

  • Conducted investigations into plant reproduction under microgravity conditions, and produced large, high-quality protein crystals for analysis of the molecular structure of alpha-interferon, a cancer­ fighting drug.

  • Forged international scientific links with the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and the X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) experiments.­ The SIR-C/X-SAR science team included 49 science investigators and 3 associates repre­senting a total of thirteen nations.

  • Flew the first in a new series of life sciences experi­ments, “Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC), which subjects small organisms to microgravity in search of subtle effects on reproduction and growth.

Space Radar Laboratory-2

The goal of the 65th space shuttle mission was to demonstrate again the potential of new technolo­gy in observing the home planet from space. Endeavour’s vantage point, offering near-global access and a broad view of Earth below, provided a superb test of the Space Radar Laboratory’s capabilities for surface and atmospheric monitoring. As they did on the first Radar Lab flight on STS-59 in April, SRL’s imaging radars (SIR-C/X-SAR) again made surface measure­ments without regard to darkness or the weather below, providing the kind of access necessary for permanent monitoring of the global environment. Complementing the radar experiments, Endeavour’s atmospheric pollu­tion sensor (MAPS) tracked global production and distribution of carbon monoxide, an important combustion-produced trace gas that plays a role in the chemical pathways leading to air pollution and possible global warming.

The Space Radar Laboratory-2 (SRL-2) in the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s cargo bay is backdropped against the blackness of space over Earth. (NASA STS068-070-23)

Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR)

SIR-C/X-SAR is the most advanced civil radar flown in space. The system was designed and built by NASA, the German Space Agency (DARA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Jet Propulsion Lab devel­oped the SIR-C (C and L-band radars) for NASA, and DARA and ASI developed the X-band system; all three helped integrate the system into a single, flexible Earth-sensing tool. Radar waves can penetrate clouds, and under certain conditions, can also see through vegeta­tion, dry snow and extremely dry sand. In many cases, radar is the only way scientists can explore inaccessible regions of Earth’s surface.

SIR-C/X-SAR transmits pulses of radio energy at three different frequencies, creating detailed images of the surface that are tailored to detect soil and rocks (geology) , ocean waves and currents (oceanography), vegetation density and type (ecology), and water in the form of soil moisture, snow, ice, and rivers and lakes (hydrology). SIR-C/X-SAR first flew on STS-59 (SRL-1) in April of 1994. Repeating the environmental  measure­ments in a different season would prove radar’s ability to serve eventually as a permanent monitor of Earth’s environment, tracking both natural and man-made changes on the planet.

Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS)

The Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS) experiment flew for the fourth time aboard STS-68. MAPS operated around the clock, measuring concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) around the globe. CO plays a key role in the chemical reaction pathways of the troposphere (the lowest, weather-filled layer of the atmosphere). It combines with hydroxyl radical (OH) and forms carbon dioxide (CO2). OH has a prime role in the breakdown and removal of greenhouse gases such as methane (CH4). If increasing CO, released from combustion processes, reduces the amount of hydroxyl radical in the air, then the breakdown of greenhouse gases will also slow down.Thus measuring CO’s global abundance is important in understanding how human-caused and natural combustion sources are affecting the global warming process.

On SRL-2, MAPS again worked flawlessly, and recorded a markedly different pattern of CO abun­dance than seen on SRL-1 in April ’94.The SRL-2 results showed heavy concentrations of CO from bio­mass (vegetation) burning in the tropics, with the greatest amounts over southeast Asia and the tropics of Africa and South America. Industrial sources of CO in the northern hemisphere were still present, but at lower levels than seen in April. As on SRL-1, the crew’s reports of fires, smoke, and the storms that loft CO to high altitude were used to confirm MAPS readings, and correlate MAPS and ground measurements.

Earth Science from Space

Once the STS-68 crew was in orbit, they powered up the SRL-2 payloads and checked out the radar and MAPS systems. The ground science team began uplinking commands to begin radar observa­tions for the 11-day flight. The crew worked in two shifts around the clock to operate Endeavour as a science platform. They maneuvered Endeavour some 470 times to precisely track the radar targets, reducing uncer­tainties in the imagery caused by Earth’s rotation. They recorded the digital radar images on tape, and conducted Earth photography and ”field observations”
at the hundreds of science sites around the globe. The crew provided needed “ground truth” to prove the accuracy of the radar data by taking over 13,000 images of the Earth with 14 different cameras.

SRL-2 examined Earth at over 400 specific sites, chosen for their environmental significance. Nineteen were “supersites;’ high priority focal points for data collection, where each science discipline­ ecology, hydrology, oceanography, geology, and radar calibration-concentrated their experiments. Intensive field work occurred at these sites before, during, and after the mission.

SRL-2 joined SRL-1 in acquiring 100% of the mission’s planned science observations. In addition, the science team redirected the radars during the flight to take advantage of rapidly changing conditions on the ground. The best example of this retargeting was the reaction to the spectacular eruption of Kliuchevskoi volcano, which exploded into life just hours after STS-68’s launch on 30 September. The SIR-C/X-SAR team was able to replan upcoming passes over the Kam­chatka Peninsula to study the entire course of the week-long eruption. Not only was the crew among the first witnesses to the eruption, but they tracked its progress daily, providing the most detailed documenta­tion of a large eruption ever obtained from space.

This SRL-2 radar image of the Kliuchevskoi volcano on the Kamchatka peninsula was taken on October 5, 1994, during Endeavour’s 88th orbit. Kliuchevskoi is the left-most of the two peaks, just above the white, flat-topped mountain at right center. The volcano erupted on launch day, and the SIR-C/X-SAR radar penetrated the 18 km-high smoke and ash plume to capture the bright lava flows streaking the left side of Kliuchevskoi’s twin peaks. (NASA/JPL p44823)

The radar and MAPS data provide information about how many of Earth’s complex “systems” work together to make the planet livable. Some early results include:

  • Tree classification and vegetation biomass (amount of plant material) maps of the Raco, MI, supersite.
  • A map of river flooding near Manaus, Brazil–the first step toward improving models of both flooding and wetlands under dense rain forest canopies.
  • Snow wetness maps (showing free liquid water content of the snow pack) of Oetztal, Austria, and accurate estimates of the amount of water stored in the snowpack there.
  • Extensive wave-energy measurements over the Southern Ocean that show the dominant sea states in the stormiest ocean region on the planet.
  • Detection of oil spills in the North Sea. SIR-C/X-SAR detected industrial and natural oils in spill amounts as small as 10 liters, demonstrating another advantage of environmental monitoring from space.
  • Monitoring of changes in the shape and extent of glaciers in the Patagonian Andes, at the far south­ern tip of South America. These remote glaciers are among the most rapidly advancing in the world, and may serve as sensitive indicators of global climate change.

Astronaut Daniel W. Bursch (right), mission specialist, points out one of the STS-68 mission’s major observation points on a map as astronaut Thomas D. Jones, payload commander, looks on. Jones and Bursch were joined by four other NASA astronauts for eleven days aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in Earth orbit in support of the Space Radar Laboratory-2 (SRL-2) mission. (NASA STS068-083-023)

SRL-2 demonstrated a powerful new use of radar, called interferometry, that produces three-dimen­sional maps of Earth’s surface. Mission Control and the crew combined to perform the most precise orbital maneuvers of the shuttle program, putting Endeavour in an orbit for the first 6 days that nearly matched SRL-1’s flight path in April. At times the two orbits differed by only 10 meters. For days 7-10, the crew lowered the orbit to a height of 200 km, an altitude that put Endeavour on a path matching its previous day’s ground track. This exacting navigation (where the crew trimmed orbital velocity to an accuracy of 1 part in 2 million) produced long swaths of interferometric data. The resulting digital elevation maps can show not only the ground’s elevation, but changes in height of just a few centimeters–actual shifts in Earth’s crust. The tech­nique should prove to be a powerful tool for detecting stress building up on or under Earth’s surface, warning, for example, of imminent volcanic activity.

SRL-2’s space radar also examined several areas of cultural interest, including the mountain gorilla habitat in central Africa, the ancient trade route called the Silk Road in China’s northwestern desert, the lost city of Ubar on the Arabian Peninsula, and buried river channels under the Sahara.

Middeck Payloads

Experiments to benefit Earth took place inside the crew module as well. Commercial Protein Growth (CPCG), flown “downstairs” on Endeavour’s middeck, grew and preserved high quality protein crystals of sufficient size and purity to permit analysis of their structure back on Earth. This structural information will be put to use in the manufacture of alpha-interferon, a cancer-fighting drug. Early in the mission, the crew solved an overheating problem in the experiment by rigging a temporary cooling duct to its fan inlets, assuring the proper conditions for crystal growth.

The crew also operated the Chromosome and Plant Cell Division in Space (CMIX) experiment, inves­tigating the effects of microgravity on plant reproduc­tion. Small, rapidly growing plants called mouse-eared cress grew to maturity in their 11 days in free-fall, giv­ing insight not only into cell reproduction in space, but also into practical methods for growing plants for food and waste recycling on long-duration space missions.

In another middeck locker experiment-Biologi­cal Research in Canisters (BRIC)-hundreds of dor­mant gypsy moth larvae underwent exposure to free­ fall to see if microgravity would affect their metamor­phosis into adults. Identifying gravity’s effect on the process may lead to efficient production of sterile moths to combat this forest pest. The crew also sys­tematically measured cabin radiation levels to assess long-term hazards of living in space, and photo­graphed ships’ wakes from orbit to assess how cloud formation is affected by exhaust emissions.

The crew took on another job, serving as labo­ratory subjects in a series of space medical experi­ments. They examined how coordination of head and eye movements degrades as the brain adapts to microgravity; recorded how free-fall affects the body’s sleep-wake cycle and hormone levels; and measured the heart’s response as Endeavour returned to the full force of gravity during re-entry and landing. These investigations will help prepare for the long stays in microgravity planned aboard the Space Station.

Endeavour’s landing at Edwards AFB capped a superb mission to Planet Earth. SIR-C/X-SAR imaged 83 million square kilometers of the Earth’s surface, about 9% of the globe. The radar experiments filled 199 magnetic tape cassettes, which held over 60 ter­abits (60 trillion bits) of imagery data–the equivalent of 25,000 encyclopedia volumes. MAPS created a series of global carbon monoxide maps, tracing the path of pollutants through Earth’s dynamic atmos­phere. Endeavour’s crew brought back the largest complement of Earth photography of the Shuttle pro­gram to date, a record of Earth’s environmental changes that will aid greatly the interpretation of the radar and MAPS results. STS-68 completed the proof­ test of spaceborne radar as a tool for permanent, long-term monitoring of our planet’s health.

Connected to biomedical sensors, Mission Specialist Steven L. Smith serves as a subject for visual-vestibular integration tests. Mission Commander Michael A Baker monitors the test. (NASA STS068-21-823)

 

Pilot Terrence W. Wilcutt takes advantage of the weightless environment of space to juggle five cameras which are used to record the changing ecology and oceanography of Earth. (NASA STS068-055-009)

Mission Facts

Orbiter: Endeavour

Mission Dates: September 30-0ctober 11, 1994

Commander: Michael A. Baker (CPT, USN)

Pilot: Terrence Wilcutt (Lt. Col., USMC)

Payload Commander: Thomas D. Jones (Ph.D.)

Mission Specialist: Steven L. Smith

Mission Specialist: Daniel W. Bursch (Cdr., USN)

Mission Specialist: Peter “Jeff” J. K. Wisoff (Ph..D.)

Mission Duration: 11 days, 5 hours, 47 minutes

Kilometers Traveled: 8,710,360 km

Orbit Inclination: 57 degrees

Orbits of Earth: 183

Orbital Altitude: 222 km

Payload Weight Up: 12,511 kg

Orbiter Landing Weight: 101,169 kg

Landed: Edwards Air Force Base, California

Payloads and Experiments:

Cargo Bay Payloads:

SRL-2 – Space Radar Laboratory-2

GAS – Get Away Special canisters

Middeck Payloads:

CPCG – Commercial Protein Crystal Growth

BRIC – Biological Research in Canisters

CREAM – Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activation Monitor

CHROMEX – Chromosomes and Plant Cell Division in Space Experiment

MAST – Military Applications of Ship Tracks

Commander: Michael A. Baker (Capt., USN)
Michael Baker was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but considers Lemoore, California, to be his hometown. He received a bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas. After completing flight training, he flew the A-7E aircraft aboard the USS Midway. He conducted A-7 aircraft-related tests on the various aircraft carriers in the Navy’s fleet. Baker served as an instructor at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School before assignment as the U.S. Navy Exchange Instructor at the Empire Test Pilots’ School in Boscombe Down, England. He has logged over 4,200 hours flying time in some 50 different types of aircraft, and has completed over 300 carrier landings. He was named an astronaut in 1985, and was pilot of the STS-43 and STS-52 missions.

Pilot: Terrence W. Wilcutt (Lt. Col., USMC)
Terrence Wilcutt was born in Russellville, Kentucky. He graduated with a bach­elor of arts degree in mathematics from Western Kentucky University. Upon graduation, Wilcutt taught high school math for two years and then entered the U.S. Marine Corps. He earned his wings in 1978 and served on various assignments in Hawaii and overseas in aircraft such as the F-4 Phantom, FA- 18 Hornet, and the A-7 Corsair II. Wilcutt attended the Naval Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) and the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. He has over 3,000 flight hours in more than 30 different kinds of aircraft. Wilcutt was selected as an astronaut in 1990 and has served in a variety of responsibilities including Space Shuttle main engine and external tank issues and launch support. This was his first space flight.

Payload Commander: Thomas D. Jones (Ph.D.)
Thomas David Jones was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He earned a bachelor of science degree in basic sciences from the U. S. Air Force Academy and a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the University of Arizona. As an Air Force offi­cer, he served as a B-52 strategic bomber pilot and aircraft commander, accu­mulating over 2,000 hours of flight experience.After leaving the Air Force, Jones worked toward his doctorate, using remote sensing to investigate the composition of asteroids and meteorites, and researching the utility of asteroid resources in space exploration. He was a program management engineer for the CIA’s Office of Development and Engineering and later a senior scientist at Science Applications International Corporation, analyzing future missions to Mars, asteroids, and the outer solar system. He was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1990. Jones flew in space on the STS-59 mission; this was his second flight on Endeavour.

Mission Specialist: Steven L. Smith
Steven Smith was born in Phoenix, Arizona, but considers San Jose, California, to be his hometown. Smith received a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering, master of science degree in electrical engineering, and a master’s degree in business administration, all from Stanford University.He worked for IBM in the Large Scale Integration (semiconductor) Technology Group as a technical group lead. Smith joined NASA in 1989 in the Payload Operation Branch, Mission Operations Directorate. As a payload officer, his duties included payload integration and mission support. He was selected as an astronaut in 1992 and has provided Space Shuttle support in the areas of main engines, solid rocket boosters, and the external tank. This was his first space flight.

Mission Specialist: Peter J. K. “Jeff”Wisoff (Ph.D.)
Peter J. K. Wisoff was born in Norfolk,Virginia. He received a bachelor of science degree in physics from the University of Virginia and a master of science degree and doctorate in applied physics from Stanford University. Upon gradu­ation, he joined the faculty of .Rice University in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research focused on the development of new vacuum ultraviolet and high intensity laser sources. He also worked with researchers from regional Texas medical centers on the use of lasers in rebuilding damaged nerves. Wisoff has contributed numerous papers at tech­nical conferences and in journals in the areas of lasers and laser applications. He was named an astronaut in 1990 and was a mission specialist aboard STS-57 as well as STS-68.

Mission Specialist: Daniel W. Bursch (Cdr., USN)
Daniel Bursch was born in Bristol, Pennsylvania, but considers Vestal, New York, his hometown. He earned a bachelor of science degree in physics from the U.S. Naval Academy, and a master of science degree in engineering science from the Naval Postgraduate School. After training as an A-6E Intruder bombardier/navigator, he served aboard the USS John F. Kennedy and USS America. After working as a project test flight officer for the A-6 Intruder, he served as a flight instructor at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. Bursch worked as Strike Operations Officer for Commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Group 1, making deployments to the Indian Ocean aboard the USS Long Beach and USS Midway. He has over 2,100 flight hours in more than 35 different aircraft. Bursch was selected as an astronaut in 1990 and flew as a mission specialist aboard STS-51 and STS-68.

Exploration of Earth from space is the focus of the design of the insignia, the second flight of the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-2). SRL-2 is part of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) project. The world’s land masses and oceans dominate the center field, with the Space Shuttle Endeavour circling the globe. The SRL-2 letters span the width and breadth of planet Earth, symbolizing worldwide coverage of the two prime experiments of STS-68–The Shuttle Imaging Radar-C and X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) instruments, and the Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS) sensor. The red, blue and black colors of the insignia represent the three operating wavelengths of SIR-C/X-SAR, and the gold band surrounding the globe symbolizes the atmospheric envelope examined by MAPS. The flags of international partners Germany and Italy are shown opposite Endeavour. The relationship of the Orbiter to Earth highlights the usefulness of human space flight in understanding Earth’s environment, and monitoring its changing surface and atmosphere. In the words of the crewmembers, “the soaring Orbiter also typifies the excellence of the NASA team in exploring our own world, using the tools which the Space Program developed to explore the other planets in the solar system.” The STS-68 patch was designed by artist Sean Collins. (NASA STS068-s-001)

**End**

Read about the STS-68 mission and its highlights in my memoir, “Sky Walking,” available at this website, www.AstronautTomJones.com.  To book a speech about these and my other spaceflight experiences, please contact the WorldWide Speakers Group, here.

Filed Under: History, Space

Experiencing the Total Solar Eclipse: Aug. 21, 2017

September 5, 2017 By TOM JONES 2 Comments

The Sun’s Corona seen from Lake Simtustus, OR. (credit T. Jones; 1/60 s f6.8 ISO 400)

The Great American Total Solar Eclipse turned out to be well worth the journey, and my family enjoyed this spectacular demonstration of the solar system in operation from Oregon’s central desert near the small town of Madras, just east of the Deschutes River gorge. Understanding the space requires training from a young age, here are 4 Ways To Introduce Toddlers To Tech And Science. We were blessed with clear skies (a bare trace of forest fire smoke) for this awe-inspiring event. I’ll post a series of photos of our eclipse experience here.

The scene of the eclipse at Lake Simtustus, a dammed portion of the Deschutes River. (T. Jones)

We were guests of our friend, Rhonda Coleman, an “umbraphile,” or seeker of total eclipses. Her RV group graciously invited us to share with us their eclipse observing location. Sunrise occurred at 0731, with the Sun peeking over the basalt lava rim of the surrounding plateau.

Sunrise at Lake Simtustus at 0731 am, shot through a solar filter. (T. Jones)

Using a solar filter, I watched the sun rise above, as the solar disc cleared the canyon rim. Eclipse start was just 90 minutes or so away.

The Moon takes its first bite and the eclipse begins. This shot was taken at 0912 am PDT. (T. Jones)

High cirrus clouds and some wisps of forest fire smoke moved off to the east during the morning, and we had clear skies throughout the eclipse. Our setting was in a scattered pine grove in desert terrain carved out of hundreds of feet of ancient basalt lava flows, incised by the Deschutes River. Cool morning air, low humidity, and the solar spectacle warming us comfortably.

Projected image of the moon’s passage across the sun, using one of the amateur astronomers’ reflecting telescope and a motor oil funnel clamped to the eyepiece. (T. Jones)

Many of the observers were experts with their personal telescopes, and I believe Brian Bellis used his scope and the funnel to cleverly project the Sun’s image, above.

Projected image from our makeshift pinhole projector, a fitting message for our hiking group. (T. Jones)

Our hiking group from Virginia was the core of our group headed to Oregon for the eclipse, so this message was a natural when I drilled out our thin section of wood for our pinhole projector. Note the mini-eclipses projected from each 1/8″ hole.

The moon has covered more of the Sun, heading for totality. This shot came at 10:01 am. (T. Jones)

Excitement built among the 300-or-so observers at Lake Simtustus as the moon drove steadily across the Sun’s face. Still, at this point we could see no noticeable drop in brightness outdoors, above.

Totality approaches at 10:08 am. (T. Jones).

For the above shot, I was still shooting zoomed in through a solar filter over the optics of the Canon digital (SX280 HS), using its “auto” setting to meter for proper exposure. (T. Jones).

Sun just before totality, at 1017 am. Through solar filter on “auto” setting. (T. Jones)

When I took the above shot, two minutes before totality, the ambient light was dropping rapidly, bathing the desert landscape in a weak, watery, orange-yellow illumination. Everyone noticed this, murmuring about the unfamiliar, weird light levels of the scene. By this point I was getting my settings ready for totality, but there was almost too much going on with the waning Sun to focus on camera set-up.

A juniper tree acted as a pinhole projector, throwing crescent solar discs across the ground and onto our whiteboard. (T. Jones)

The waning light is obvious in the above photo, both on the ground and in those hundreds of thin solar crescents. Our daughter Annie noticed the ground crescents and grabbed our white poster board to best see these mini-eclipses.

Just after totality, prominences appear on the Sun’s limb with its inner corona. (T. Jones, 1/1250 s f6.8 ISO 400)

Wow! Didn’t see the prominences until looking at the photos, but some in our group with binoculars spotted these immense arcs of incandescent gas above the Sun’s limb. The fine structure of the inner corona also impressed.

Visible are brilliant prominences and the inner corona. (T. Jones, 1/640 s f6.8 ISO 400)

As my exposure time increased, we started to capture more of the corona stretching above those amazing prominences (above). Temperature along the lake front dropped noticeably. One friend, Dan Adamo in Salem, OR, recorded a drop of over 6 degrees F during totality.

More of the corona appears. (T. Jones, f6.8 1/320 s ISO 400)

Longer exposure time gets more of the structure of the corona. I was whirling through the shutter speed dial, and using a 2-second delay on the shutter timer to damp vibration on the tripod. And the clock was ticking on me observing the eclipse with my own eyeballs. (I did take long glimpses between these shots).

The middle corona emerges, captured at 1/125 s f6.8 ISO 400 (T. Jones).

The photo above appears much like the scene we saw of the moon and Sun during the last minute of totality. How incredibly lovely.

Nearing totality’s end, the corona is edged by the chromosphere at upper right. (T. Jones, 1/50 s f6.8 ISO 400)

Totality was almost over. The crowd’s murmur rose noticeably as we all anticipated the Sun’s reappearance; emotions ran from exultant to sadness that this vision was about to end. But we were all eager to see what the Sun would show us at eclipse conclusion.

My final glimpse of the corona at 1/40 s, f6.8, ISO 400. (T. Jones)

The Sun is just about to emerge from behind the Moon, outshining the chromosphere here (above). Good-bye to the corona, perhaps until 2024.

The diamond ring emerges, ending totality at 1021 am. (T. Jones, 1/30 s f6.8 ISO 400)

http://astronauttomjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/nearing-end-of-total-eclipse-Oregon-8-21-17.mp4

Whoops and cheers swelled as the Sun emerged from eclipse, exhibiting this blazing diamond ring above the Oregon desert. On go the solar glasses again!

The exuberant Blackout Rally crowd just after totality–emotionally drained, but exuberant! (T. Jones)

The Sun drenches the viewing area, and out come the eclipse glasses and the cold drinks.

Miniatures of the waning eclipse cast by our pinhole projector. (T. Jones)

With the totality tension gone, all of us could catch up on the eclipse experiences we missed on the way in to blackout. Above are the miniatures of the waning eclipse cast by our pinhole projector onto the poster board.

 

View of the waning eclipse at 1054 am. (T. Jones)

Most of us enjoyed a cold swallow of our iced Coronas at this point, talking excitedly with friends and family about what we’d witnessed.

Gathering of the Sun Chasers, post-totality. (T. Jones)

What a success this was for all involved. Note all the telescopes brought by the Blackout Ralliers in background.

The Moon moves off-stage at about 1122 am. (T. Jones)

Sunspots make their reappearance as the Moon exits the Sun’s neighborhood. We followed the eclipse’s finish with a picnic lunch, and plotted plans to avoid the traffic heading south out of Madras. I enjoyed giving a talk under the big tent, and met with eclipse-goers at a book signing under the shade of our big juniper at the viewing area, autographing Ask the Astronaut and Sky Walking.

Tom Jones speaks at Blackout Rally, post-eclipse. (Rhonda Coleman)

 

Tom signs copies of his books, under the blessed shade of the big juniper. (Sean Wilson)

We’ll close this eclipse album out with a view of the Moon’s shadow, seen from the International Space Station. For the U.S., so long to totality until 2024. See you in the umbra!

Lunar shadow as seen from ISS. 8-21-17 (NASA)

www.AstronautTomJones.com

 

Filed Under: History, Space

STS-59 Mission Highlights (April 1994)

May 21, 2017 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

(Author’s note: I retrieved this STS-59 highlights summary, and scanned and reformatted it for this blog.)

A Publication of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration–MH-027/5-94

Space Shuttle Endeavour

April 9 – 20, 1994

Commander: Sidney M. Gutierrez (Col., USAF)

Pilot:  Kevin P. Chilton (Col., USAF)

Payload Commander: Linda M. Godwin (Ph.D.)

Mission Specialists:

Jerome Apt (Ph.D.)

Michael R. Clifford (Lt. Col., USA)

Thomas D. Jones (Ph.D.)

The payload bay of Endeavour features the large antenna of the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C / X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar instrument. (NASA STS059-215-022)

Major Mission Accomplishments

  • Completed the first flight of the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL) payload, mapping 12% of the total Earth’s surface as part of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth.
  • Conducted investigations in ecology, hydrology, oceanography, geology, and radar calibration, providing researchers with data to distinguish human- induced environmental changes from other natural forms of change.
  • Demonstrated the use of advanced multi-frequency, multi-polarized radar as a tool for all-weather, around­ the-clock monitoring of Earth’s environment and surface.
  • Conducted special processing of radar data to extract information on the dynamics of the Southern Ocean.
  • Successfully conducted global atmospheric measurements of carbon monoxide concentrations, important to global warming studies.
  • Conducted the first joint experiment between NASA and the National Institutes of Health, examining muscle and bone cell biology in space.
  • Completed nine direct school contacts with students around the world using the Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment (SAREX).
  • Conducted the growth of twelve Non-Linear Optical (NLO) organic crystals in the Consortium for materials Development in Space Complex Autonomous Payload (CONCAP) experiment.

Out in the woods, lost hikers may try to find some high ground in order to regain their bearings. The high perspective gives hikers a larger field of view to scan the surrounding terrain for points of interest. This is an effective method, unless the hiker’s vision is reduced by clouds, fog, or darkness.

Likewise, scientific researchers, policy makers, and military operations require information about specific regions of Earth that may be difficult to obtain due to blocked views or remote locations. The ability to “see” and gather information about objects hidden from optical observation is the driving motivation behind radar imaging from space. One of the most useful feature of imaging radar is its ability to make measurements over virtually any region at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight conditions. At some frequencies, radar waves can also penetrate through vegetation, some types of snow, and extremely dry sand.

The STS-59 mission lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on the 62nd Space Shuttle flight carrying to space the Space Radar Laboratory-1 (SRL-1) payload as part of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth program. SRL consists of the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) and a sensor to measure carbon monoxide distribution in the lower atmosphere. SIR-C / X-SAR (actually five separate radars) also contained the Data Processing Assembly to provide direct readout of ocean surface data. SIR-C / X-SAR was jointly developed by NASA, the German Space Agency (DARA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). NASA developed the SIR-C (L- and C-band radars). DARA and ASI developed the X-band system and all three participated in the integration of these radars into a single instrument, the SIR-C/X-SAR. Also carried in the cargo bay of Endeavour with SIR-C / X-SAR was the Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS) developed by the NASA Langley Research Center. NASA will distribute the data and findings of these experiments to assist the international scientific community in essential research for protecting the environment.

STS-59 Crewmembers : (Front L to R) Jerome Apt, Sidney M. Gutierrez, Thomas D. Jones, (Back L to R) Kevin P. Chilton, Linda M. Godwin, and Michael R. Clifford (NASA STS059-44-004)

Once the crew was on orbit, they powered up the SRL-1 payloads and conducted a checkout of the experiment systems. Ground controllers began uplinking commands to begin radar observations during the eleven day flight. The crew worked in two shifts around the clock to conduct Earth photography and personal observation of weather and environmental conditions to compare to the SRL data after the flight. To aid in postflight data interpretation, the crew documented site conditions by maintaining a written log and taking nearly 14,000 photographs with several cameras and lenses. The crew also performed 412 attitude maneuvers, the most of any Shuttle mission, to reduce radar ambiguities, particularly in the X-band frequency radar. The mission returned approximately 47 terabits (47 trillion bits) of data–the equivalent of 20,000 encyclopedia volumes.

The SRL examined over 400 sites on Earth — 19 of which were designated as “supersites.” These sites were high priority focal points for data collection. Each supersite represented different environments within the scientific disciplines of ecology, hydrology, oceanography, geology, and radar calibration. As such, these are areas where intensive field work has occurred before, during, and after the mission. The supersite locations for ecology included: Manaus, Brazil; Raco, MI.; Duke Forest, NC.; and Central Europe. The supersite locations for hydrology included: Chickasha, OK.; Otztal, Austria; Bebedouro, Brazil; and Montespertoli, Italy. Sites for oceanography included: the Gulf Stream, mid-Atlantic; Northeast Atlantic Ocean; and Southern Ocean. The Galapagos Islands, Sahara Desert, Death Valley, CA, Andes Mountains, and Hawaii were the sites for geology.  Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany; Kerang, Australia; and Flevoland, The Netherlands were the calibration sites.

Ecologists will use the radar images of the tropical rain and temperate forests to study land use, the volume, types, and extent of vegetation, and the effects of fires, floods , and clear cutting. Hydrologists will use the data to study wetlands and snow cover to estimate the soil moisture. “Hidden” water plays a major role in determining whether a region is wet or dry and influences the global distribution of energy. Oceanographers will use the data to study how the Earth’s climate is moderated by the ocean, particularly heat-transporting currents like the Gulf Stream. Geologists will use the data to map geological structures and rock formations over large areas.  They can also use the data to continue studies of features that record past climate changes. On a previous shuttle flight, SIR-A demonstrated the ability to penetrate extremely dry sand, and discovered ancient river channels in portions of the Sahara Desert. The calibration team will use their results to both test calibration methods and provide calibrated data to the rest of the team.

Payload Commander Linda Godwin talks with amateur radio operators using the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX). SAREX is used by the crew to talk with students around the world. (NASA STS059-16-028)

From the vantage point of space, the SIR-C / X­ SAR experiments could record a 15- to 60-km wide strip of Earth.  Several of the observations by SIR-C  /X-SAR were processed into images in real time at the  NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and shown during the mission. Even with high-speed computer technology, it will still take five months to produce a complete set of survey images from the large volume of data returned.

The MAPS experiment also conducted operations throughout the mission. MAPS measured concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) around the world.  Carbon monoxide plays a key role in the chemical reactions in the atmosphere.  Carbon monoxide combines with the hydroxyl (OH) radical and forms carbon dioxide. OH is a key participant in the breakdown and removal of greenhouse gases such as methane, which in turn is important in the chemistry of stratospheric ozone. If the availability of hydroxyl is reduced, the breakdown and removal of greenhouse gases will also be reduced. MAPS’ primary goal was to measure CO distribution between the altitudes of 4 and 15 kilometers. Two previous shuttle flights of MAPS confirmed that forest and grassland burning in the tropics were a major source of carbon monoxide, greater than previously thought. Preliminary results from STS-59 showed unexpected high concentrations  in the Northern Hemisphere and correlation with crew observations of fire.

The crew not only examined Earth, but inside the crew compartment, they operated two experiments studying the growth of bone and muscle tissues in microgravity. The Space Tissue Loss/National Institutes of Health (STLNIH) experiments were the first joint venture between NASA and the NIH.  The two separate experiments  in middeck lockers both provided nutrients to the cells for growth, while one of the experiments allowed the crew to use a video camera to view the cell growth and downlink the video to investigators from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.  The research will help scientists understand, on a cellular level, the mechanisms involved in bone loss and muscle atrophy of astronauts during spaceflight and contribute to our understanding of similar problems on Earth.

The crew also continued research on how the human body adapts to microgravity by conducting the Visual Function Tester-4 (VFT-4) experiment. Much like an electronic eye chart,  the VFT measures an astronaut’s eyes for near and far points of clear vision as well as the ability to change focus within the range of clear vision.

The crew conducted nine educational contacts with students around the world using the Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment (SAREX). The SAREX program provides students with the opportunity to talk directly with astronauts in space via amateur radio. The technical aspect of SAREX provides the incentive for students to study math, science, and technology.

In the payload bay, the Consortium for Materials Development  in Space Complex Autonomous Payload-IV (CONCAP-IV), developed by the University of Alabama-Huntsville,  conducted research into the growth of Non-Linear Optical thin films and crystals through physical vapor transportation. Optical crystals are of primary importance in the Optoelectronics and Photonics industry, especially for optical computing. Also in the payload bay were three Get-Away Special  (GAS) experiments by students and private researchers examining everything from thermal conductivity measurements of liquids to cellular slime mold growth in microgravity.

Taken by the SIR-C/X-SAR radar on the 40th orbit, this image shows part of Isla lsabela in the western Galapagos Islands. The image shows the rougher lava flows as bright features, while ash deposits and smooth pahoehoe lava flows appear dark. (NASA JPL P-43899)

Mission Facts

Orbiter: Endeavour

Mission Dates:  April 9 – 20, 1994

Commander: Sidney M. Gutierrez (Col., USAF)

Pilot: Kevin P. Chilton (Col., USAF)

Payload Commander: Linda M. Godwin (Ph.D.)

Mission Specialist:   Jerome Apt  (Ph.D)

Mission Specialist: Michael R. Clifford (Lt.Col., USA)

Mission Specialist: Thomas D. Jones (Ph.D.)

Mission Duration:   11 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes

Kilometers Traveled: 7,574,784

Orbit Inclination:  57 degrees

Orbits of Earth: 183

Orbital Altitude:  222 km

Payload Mass Up: 9,717 kg

Orbiter Landing Mass:  100,776 kg

Landed: Shuttle Landing Facility (KSC)

Payloads and Experiments:

Space Radar Lab I (SRL- 1)

STLNIH – Space Tissue Loss/National Institute of Health–Cells

VFT-4 – Visual Function Tester

SAREX – Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment

CONCAP-IV – Consortium for Materials Development in Space Complex Autonomous Payload

GAS-Get-Away Special

STS-59 Crew Patch

Crew Biographies

Commander:  Sidney  M. Gutierrez (Col.,USAF). Sid Gutierrez was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  He received a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1973 and a master’s degree in management ·from Webster College in 1977. He served as a T-38 instructor pilot and flew the F-15 Eagle with the 49th Tactical Fighter Wing.  After graduating from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, Gutierrez served as primary test pilot for airframe and propulsion testing on the F-16 Falcon. He has over 500 parachute jumps and more than 4,000 flying hours in approximately 30 different types of vehicles. Gutierrez was named an astronaut in 1984 and flew as pilot on STS-40 in 1991.

Pilot: Kevin P. Chilton (Col., USAF), Kevin Chilton was born in Los Angeles, California. He earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering sciences from the U.S. Air  Force Academy and a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University.  He served as a combat-ready pilot and instructor in the RF-4 Phantom II and the F-15 Eagle. Following graduation from the USAF Test Pilot school, he conducted weapons and systems tests in all .models of the F-15 and F-4. He has logged over 4,000 hours of flight time in more than 20 different types of aircraft. Chilton became an astronaut in 1988 and flew as the pilot of Mission STS-49.

Mission Specialist: Linda M. Godwin (Ph.D.), Linda Godwin was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, but considers Jackson, Missouri, to be her hometown. She earned a bachelor of science degree from Southeast Missouri State University in physics and mathematics and an MA and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Missouri, Columbia. While at the University of Missouri, she conducted research in low-temperature condensed matter physics, where she authored and coauthored several scientific papers.  She is an instrument-rated private pilot. She joined NASA in 1980 and served as a flight controller and payloads officer in Mission Control for several Shuttle flights. Godwin was selected as an astronaut in 1985 and is currently Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office. She previously flew as a mission specialist on STS-37.

Mission Specialist: Thomas  D. Jones (Ph.D.).  Thomas  David Jones was born in 1955 in Baltimore, Maryland. He earned a bachelor of science degree in basic sciences from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the University of Arizona. He served as a B-52 strategic bomber pilot and aircraft commander, accumulating over 2,000 hours of flight experience. After leaving the Air Force, Jones worked toward his doctorate, using remote sensing to investigate the composition of asteroids and meteorites, and researching the utility of asteroid resources in space exploration. He was a program management engineer for the CIA’s Office of Development and Engineering and later a senior scientist at Science Applications International Corporation, analyzing future missions to Mars, asteroids, and the outer solar system. He was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1990. This was his first shuttle flight.

Mission Specialist: Jay Apt (Ph.D.).  Jay Apt was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, but considers Pittsburgh, Pennsylva­nia, to be his hometown. He received a bachelor of arts degree, magna cum laude, in physics from Harvard College, and a doctorate in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a staff member of Harvard’s Center for Earth and Planetary Physics, he supported NASA’s Pioneer Venus Mission. While at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Apt studied Venus, Mars, and the outer solar system and was Science Manager of the Table Mountain Observatory. From 1982 until his selection as an astronaut in 1985, he was a flight controller responsible for Shuttle payload operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. He has logged over 3,000 hours flying time in some 30 different types of vehicles. Apt served as a mission specialist on the STS- 37 and 47 missions.

Mission Specialist: Michael  Richard Clifford (Lt Col,  USA).  Rich Clifford was born in San Bernardino, California, but considers Ogden, Utah, to be his hometown. He earned a bachelor of science degree from the United States Military Academy and a master of science degree in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.  Clifford served with the 10th Cavalry and then completed pilot training as the top graduate of his class. He served in a variety of positions with the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Germany and was an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at West Point. Clifford became an experimental test pilot following graduation from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in 1986. He has flown over 3,000 hours in more than 50 types of aircraft. Clifford became an astronaut in 1990. He flew as a mission specialist on STS-53 aboard Discovery in December 1992.

— Flight Crew Operations Directorate, NASA Johnson Space Center, May, 1994

***

To read the inside story of STS-59, pick up a copy of “Sky Walking” via my website. To bring my vivid retelling of an astronaut’s journey to your audience, visit:

www.AstronautTomJones.com

 

Filed Under: History, Space

Earth Day: One Memorable Earth Shot Over Western Mongolia

April 28, 2017 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

Altai Mountains on the China/Mongolia border,, one of our science targets on Space Radar Lab 1(NASA STS059-L17-31)

23 years ago on STS-59, Endeavour, we were 114 nautical miles up on April 14 when we snapped this 90mm Linhoff image of the Valley of the Lakes in western Mongolia. One of our Space Radar Lab 1 science targets was that snowcapped range of the Altai Mountains at lower left (for geological faulting and glacier studies). North is toward the upper right. These lakes always appeared to us as a string of aquamarine gems strung delicately together, and weather permitting, we saw them as often as three orbits each day on my “Blue Shift” (nighttime in Houston). A good photo for Earth Day.

Here’s the NASA caption: STS059-L17-031 Valley of The Lakes, Western Mongolia April 1994
The snow-covered Altai Mountain system, trending northwest-southeast, straddles the border between western Mongolia and extreme northwest China. The Altai Mountains separate two very large, desert, sparsely inhabited regions—the Valley of the Lakes in western Mongolia and the Dzungarian Basin in northwestern China. The brownish intermontane basin of the Valley of the Lakes region shows an assortment of desert landforms—alluvial fans, inland river deltas, intermittently flowing streams, and dry lakebeds. The four larger lakes captured in this photograph are Uvs (the northernmost lake partially obscured by cirrus clouds); Hyargas (immediately south of Uvs); Hara and Doroo (south of Hyagas); and Har Us (west of Hara). Each of these lakes is fed by the runoff from glaciers and snowmelt from mountains. When this photograph was taken, most of these lakes were partially covered with ice. The intermittently flowing Dzavhan River, which runs generally east to west toward three of these lakes, is a very narrow watercourse that dramatically stands out against an otherwise barren landscape. Two sizable Chinese lakes are visible southwest of the Altai Mountains.

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Filed Under: History, Space

STS-68 Countdown Rehearsal for Space Radar Lab 2 (Aug. 1994)

March 17, 2017 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

The STS-68 crew in the JSC photo studio: Jones, Wisoff, Baker, Wilcutt, Smith, and Bursch. (NASA sts-6814-1994)

The STS-68 crew in the JSC photo studio:
Jones, Wisoff, Baker, Wilcutt, Smith, and Bursch. (NASA sts-6814-1994)

Tom Jones arrives at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility for the STS-68 countdown rehearsal. Aug. 1994. (NASA ksc-94pc-936)

Tom Jones arrives at KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility for the STS-68 countdown rehearsal. Aug. 1994. (NASA ksc-94pc-936)

After arrival, one of our first activities was to get a fire-fighting refresher on the various types of flames we might encounter on or around the launch pad. The fire chief and his team then directed us in use of fire extinguishers and smoke protection gear available on the launch pad.

Tom dons a smoke protection mask during firefighting training.

Next day, we received a thorough orientation and briefing on the launch pad’s safety equipment, and practiced the emergency escape procedures which could get us away from the shuttle quickly and safely. Here we practice how to climb down from the slide wire baskets at the end of their run, then make our way to the blast bunker at the pad’s perimeter.

Smith, Bursch, and Jones inspect the release for the slide wire basket at the blast bunker. (STS-68-3)

Smith, Bursch, and Jones inspect the release for the slide wire basket at the blast bunker. (STS-68-3)

We all had a chance to drive the M113 APC, below, just in case we had to evacuate an injured crewmember from the blast bunker and get him to a nearby helipad.

The crew inspects the rear ramp into the M113 armored personnel carrier. (NASA STS-68-1)

The crew inspects the rear ramp into the M113 armored personnel carrier. (NASA STS-68-1)

Our crew posed on the launch pad next to Endeavour during the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test activities. This swingarm carries flammable, gaseous hydrogen away from the external tank during launch preparations. It’s amazing to get so close to this massive machinery, even more startling to realize you’re going to ride it off the planet.

The STS-68 crew on the ET umbilical swing arm during TCDT, Aug. 1994.

The STS-68 crew on the ET umbilical swing arm during TCDT, Aug. 1994.

 

STS-68 crew in White Room during TCDT, July-Aug 94. From L, Wilcutt, Jones, Baker, Bursch, Wisoff, and Smith, in front of the Endeavour hatch.

 

Jeff Wisoff and Tom Jones at the 195-foot level of Pad 39A. Jeff Wisoff and Tom Jones at the 195-foot level at Pad 39A. The crawlerway to the pad from the Vehicle Assembly Building is in the background. July 31, 1994.

Following lunch back at crew quarters, we headed back to the pad for an afternoon press conference near the blast bunker on the pad perimeter road.

Dan Bursch, Jeff Wisoff, Mike Baker, and Tom Jones at the post-TCDT press conference. (NASA)

Dan Bursch, Jeff Wisoff, Mike Baker, and Tom Jones at the TCDT press conference. (NASA)

On the shot below, the slide wires for the escape baskets are visible, reaching back to the 195-foot level at Pad 39A. It was a hot August day on the Florida Space Coast.

The STS-68 crew l to r, Baker, Jones, Wilcutt, Bursch, Wisoff, Smith, at Pad 39A with Endeavour. (NASA sts-68-2_3)

The STS-68 crew l to r, Baker, Jones, Wilcutt, Bursch, Wisoff, Smith, at Pad 39A with Endeavour. (NASA sts-68-2_3)

Tom Jones and Terry Wilcutt listen to questions from the press after TCDT. (NASA STS-68-2)

Tom Jones and Terry Wilcutt listen to questions from the press after TCDT. (NASA STS-68-2)

Tom answers a TCDT press conference question with the STS-68 crew. Jul-Aug 94

Back at crew quarters, we all worked with our suit technicians to complete the testing of our Launch and Entry Suits (LES) for the mock countdown the next morning. Here I am wearing the inner pressure garment of the LES; the orange outer covering is attached after these pressure checks are completed.

Tom completes suit fit checks in the suit room in crew quarters.

 

The AstroVan (below) is now on display near Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Will it roll again? Here we’re loose and joking, but the atmosphere’s a little more tense on the day of the real ride to the launch pad.

Inside the AstroVan on the way to the launch pad during TCDT, August 1994. L to R: Wisoff, Bursch, Wilcutt, Baker, Jones, and Smith. (NASA)

Inside the AstroVan on the way to the launch pad during TCDT, August 1994. L to R: Wisoff, Bursch, Wilcutt, Baker, Jones, and Smith. (NASA)

As we waited for our strap-in and countdown rehearsal aboard Endeavour, we took some photos atop the launch pad.

Tom Jones, Steve Smith, Jeff Wisoff, and Dan Bursch wait atop Pad 39A's 195-foot-level, at the entrance to the swing arm and White Room. 8-1-1994. (NASA)

Tom Jones, Steve Smith, Jeff Wisoff, and Dan Bursch wait atop Pad 39A’s 195-foot-level, at the entrance to the swing arm and White Room. 8-1-1994. (NASA)

 

Smith and Jones wait their turns to strap in aboard Endeavour, Aug. 1, 1994. (NASA)

Smith and Jones wait their turns to strap in aboard Endeavour, Aug. 1, 1994. (NASA)

Steve and I would work on the Blue Shift together with Dan Bursch while in orbit. Steve rode uphill in the MS-1 position on the flight deck, next to flight engineer and MS-2 Dan Bursch. Our countdown rehearsal ended with a mock pad abort and an emergency egress from the crew module to the escape slide baskets on the western, or far side of the 195-foot level.

Tom at the 195-foot level of Pad 39A after our countdown demonstration test and emergency egress drill concluded. That’s the Vehicle Assembly Building in the background.

Two days before STS-68 launch in 1994, the crew arrives at the Cape beach house for BBQ with family members. Left to right: Steve Smith, Mike Baker, Tom Jones, Terry Wilcutt, Jeff Wisoff, and Dan Bursch. NASA had rented us some nifty Chrysler LeBaron convertibles. (below, NASA 9-28-94)

48 hours before launch, the STS-68 crew visits family members at the beach house on Kennedy Space Center. (NASA, 9-28-94)

48 hours before launch, the STS-68 crew visits family members at the beach house on Kennedy Space Center. (NASA, 9-28-94)

The day before launch, our food technicians start loading the contents of the fresh food locker: Wheat Thins in ziplocs, tortillas into dark green packages, squeezable cheese spread, picante sauce packets, peanut butter, empty water pouches, my TastyKake chocolate cupcakes and butterscotch krimpets, and (ahem) white packets of high-fiber cookies.

Loading Endeavour's fresh food locker for flight, STS-68, ~Sep. 29, 1994. (NASA)

Loading Endeavour’s fresh food locker for flight, STS-68, ~Sep. 29, 1994. Andrea Hurd (l), and Michael D. (r) with Tom Jones (standing). (NASA)

After our pad abort on August 18, we were all eager to go. Here are the four “Hairballs” from the 1990 astronaut group flying on STS-68: Jones, Wilcutt, Wisoff, and Bursch. In the background of the suit room, we see Hoot Gibson (chief astronaut) in the blue flight suit, with tan-suited Dave Leestma (chief of Flight Crew Operations) on the right. We would shortly walk to the Astrovan for our ride to Pad 39A.

Tom Jones, Terry Wilcutt, Jeff Wisoff, and Dan Bursch suit up for STS-68. (NASA)

Tom Jones, Terry Wilcutt, Jeff Wisoff, and Dan Bursch suit up for STS-68. (NASA)

Tom and LIz Jones tour Endeavour at Launch Pad 39A a couple of days before launch of STS-68. (photo by Rich Clifford, NASA)

Tom and LIz Jones tour Endeavour at Launch Pad 39A a couple of days before launch of STS-68. (photo by Rich Clifford, NASA)

In the photo above, LIz and I posed in front of Endeavour as part of our spouse’s tour before heading to night viewing with our friends and family. We were able to see the ship from top to bottom, from the White Room down to the flame trench beneath the mobile launch platform on Pad 39A. Likely taken Aug. 17, 1994. For more info on STS-68, see: http://www.AstronautTomJones.com

Related

STS-68, Endeavour, Space Radar Lab 2, Sep. 30-Oct. 11, 1994 In “History”

Four Hairballs Head for Space–STS-68 In “History”

STS-68 launch pad abort at T-1 second – Video In “History”

Filed Under: History, Space

STS-59 Endeavour: Space Radar Lab 1, April 9-20, 1994

March 16, 2017 By TOM JONES Leave a Comment

 The Earth dominates the STS-59 crew insignia, reflecting the focus of the first Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-1) mission on our planet’s surface and atmosphere. The golden symbol of the Astronaut Corps emblem sweeps over the Earth’s surface from the orbiter Endeavour, representing the operation of the SIR-C/X-SAR (synthetic aperture radar) and the MAPS (Measurement of Air Pollution from Space) sensors. The astronaut emblem also signals the importance of the human element in space exploration and the study of our planet. Using the unique vantage point of space, Endeavour and its crew–along with scientists from around the world–will study the Earth and its atmosphere to better understand our environment. The star field visible below the Earth represents the many talents and skills of this international SRL-1 team in working to make this “Mission to Planet Earth” a scientific and operational success. (This patch was designed by the crew of STS-59).

 

Twenty years ago, our STS-59 crew completed the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test in preparation for our April 9 launch. At pad 39A, with Endeavour, are Rich Clifford, Kevin Chilton, Sid Gutierrez, Linda Godwin, Tom Jones (the sole rookie), and Jay Apt. Boy, was I excited: just over two weeks til launch!

Twenty years ago, our STS-59 crew completed the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test in preparation for our April 9 launch. At pad 39A, with Endeavour, are Rich Clifford, Kevin Chilton, Sid Gutierrez, Linda Godwin, Tom Jones (the sole rookie), and Jay Apt. Boy, was I excited: just over two weeks til launch! (NASA KSC-94PC-468)

Tom Jones with Endeavou'rs SRB and ET stack on Launch Pad 39A. The orbiter is enclosed by the gray protective structure. (NASA ksc-394c-1160.22)

Tom Jones with Endeavour’s SRB and ET stack on Launch Pad 39A. The orbiter is enclosed by the gray protective structure. (NASA ksc-394c-1160.22)

Our STS-59 crew during our countdown rehearsal on 3/23/94. Here we gather outside Endeavour's hatch in the Pad 39A White Room. Left to right are Rich Clifford, Jay Apt, Linda Godwin, Tom Jones, Kevin Chilton, and Sid Gutierrez. (NASA KSC-394C-1160.09)

Our STS-59 crew during our countdown rehearsal on 3/23/94. Here we gather outside Endeavour’s hatch in the Pad 39A White Room. Left to right are Rich Clifford, Jay Apt, Linda Godwin, Tom Jones, Kevin Chilton, and Sid Gutierrez. (NASA KSC-394C-1160.09)

On Endeavour's middeck, Linda Godwin (right) and I wait out the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT). I caught a brief nap during the 3-hour mock countdown. (NASA photo by Andy Thomas).

On Endeavour’s middeck, Linda Godwin (right) and I wait out the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) on 3/24/94. I caught a brief nap during the 3-hour mock countdown. (NASA photo by Andy Thomas).

Endeavour rises toward its 57-deg inclination orbit at sunrise on April 9, 1994. (NASA)

Endeavour rises toward its 57-deg inclination orbit at sunrise on April 9, 1994. (NASA)

I’ve written about the Space Radar Lab 1 mission, STS-59, in my book, “Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir.” But here I’ll add some details not included in the book, and some of the many hundreds of photos our crew returned to preserve our memories of these superb 11 days in space. I’ll add thoughts and photos during the coming eleven days, with the idea that the post can become an archive for the STS-59 crew and team.

As soon as we entered quarantine in late March in Houston, shuttle managers postponed the April 7 launch a day for engine turbopump inspections. Then our first launch attempt on April 8 was postponed because of high winds at Kennedy Space Center, violating the runway crosswind limits for the orbiter in case of an emergency return to the Cape. Our crew sat strapped in on the pad for about five hours as we waited for the winds to abate, but they never did. The parachute pack and its emergency oxygen bottles become extremely annoying after five hours strapped in the seat. The scrub under clear blue skies was a disappointment, but we were coming back the next day.

This was my first space shuttle launch, and it lived up to my expectations in every day. Jolts, rumbles, screaming slipstream penetrating the cabin walls, 2.5 g’s during first stage–I could barely register all the physical and emotional sensations during the 8.5 minutes of ascent. I was gratified to have Linda Godwin seated to my left on the middeck — a veteran and friend I could turn to for reassurance during this vibration-filled ride to orbit. We were smiling the whole time, but behind the smile is a lot of prayer. After a full minute at 3 g’s, with the Mach meter at 25, I thanked God when we arrived in orbit–Main Engine Cut-Off–and weightlessness.

SRB sep STS-59 STS059-16ET-1577

The 16mm movie camera in Endeavour’s left ET umbilical well caught the left-side SRB separating at about 2 minutes into our ascent, ~ Mach 4. You can see the forward booster separation motors still firing. (NASA STS059-16ET-1577)

Sid, Jay, Rich, Kevin, Linda, and I were about to experience an incredibly rewarding Mission to Planet Earth.

Just out of my suit on the middeck of Endeavour, helping other crewmembers get unsuited and into "orbit" clothes. 4/9/94 (NASA)

Just out of my suit on the middeck of Endeavour, helping other crewmembers get unsuited and into “orbit” clothes. 4/9/94 (NASA)

The Space Radar Lab 1 payload in Endeavour's cargo bay. Three cutting-edge radar instruments, a CO pollution monitor, and a terrific view of the Aurora Australis. (NASA)

The Space Radar Lab 1 payload in Endeavour’s cargo bay. Three cutting-edge radar instruments, a CO pollution monitor, and a terrific view of the Aurora Australis. (NASA)

Our job on SRL-1, STS-59, was to act as the space component of the Space Radar Lab science team, deployed all over the world. We commanded the orbiter to point at our 400+ science targets, monitored the maneuver execution “flown” by Endeavour’s computers after our data entries, changed high rate recorder data tapes, and took voluminous science photography to provide “ground truth” about environmental conditions that might affect the radar return from the science targets. Our crew split into two shifts, Red and Blue, to run SRL around the clock. Linda Godwin led the activation on flight day 1. The Blue Shift woke up about 10 hours into the flight and took over for our first full science shift — Jay, Rich, and me. Linda, Sid, and Kevin went promptly to bed after a very long day. We soon settled into our 12-hour shift routines and explored the world for another ten days.

Rich Clifford inserts a data storage cassette into one of our 3 high rate recorders. Each tape cassette held 50 Gb of data. We carried more than 100 onboard, with a tape change about every 30 mins for 11 days. (NASA STS059-09-12)

Rich Clifford inserts a data storage cassette into one of our 3 high rate recorders. Each tape cassette held 50 Gb of data. We carried more than 100 onboard, with a tape change about every 30 mins for 11 days. (NASA STS059-09-12)

STS-59 crew: (L to R) Linda Godwin, Kevin Chilton, Tom Jones, Jay Apt, Sid Gutierrez, Rich Clifford. (NASA)

STS-59 crew: (L to R) Linda Godwin, Kevin Chilton, Tom Jones, Jay Apt, Sid Gutierrez, Rich Clifford. (NASA)

Our crew had 14 different cameras aboard to document our science targets. A big Linhof shot a 4×5-inch negative, using box magazines which we reloaded in a light-tight bag every night. We had four Hasselblads with 70mm film, each armed with a different lens for science photography (40mm, 100mm, 250mm, and an infrared filter atop a 250mm lens). We used Nikons for in-cabin photography using 35mm film. And we used payload bay video cameras to record the swath being seen by the radar with each data take. Here’s a shot of one of our “Decade Volcano” targets, the Philippines’ Mt. Pinatubo.

Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, which erupted in 1991, sends ash flows surging downslope under seasonal rains. Note the emerald green crater lake at the summit. (NASA STS059-L14-170)

Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, which erupted in 1991, sends ash flows surging downslope under seasonal rains. Note the emerald green crater lake at the summit. (NASA STS059-L14-170)

Kevin Chilton and Linda Godwin shoot science targets on the Red Shift aboard Endeavour. (NASA sts059-13-030)

Kevin Chilton and Linda Godwin shoot science targets on the Red Shift aboard Endeavour. (NASA sts059-13-030)

 

Frozen, volcanic Onekotan Island, Russia, in the Kuriles south of Kamchatka. April 14, 1994. (NASA STS059-219-065)

Frozen, volcanic Onekotan Island, Russia, in the Kuriles south of Kamchatka. April 14, 1994. (NASA STS059-219-065)

Tom Jones reloads Linhoff magazines, a daily challenge, on Endeavour's middeck. (NASA sts059-8-23)

Tom Jones reloads Linhoff magazines, a daily challenge, on Endeavour’s middeck. (NASA sts059-8-23)

Each work shift on the aft flight deck was run on the clock: a constant stream of orbiter maneuvers, recorder tape changes, and intense video and still photo sessions focused on the science targets below (or above, from our point of view on the flight deck). We took turns entering the maneuvers on the flight plan into Endeavour’s computers, changing and managing the 50 Gb tape cassettes, and spotting and documenting science targets with our cameras. After each target we typed entries into a laptop documenting the weather, dust, and precipitation conditions over the science site. Night passes were a bit calmer, because the photography requirements went away for the most part. We also called down fires and other environmental phenomena of interest to the Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites team. In between, we grabbed snacks and established comm with HAM radio operators around the globe. One generous HAM arranged to patch me through on a phone call to Liz, back in Houston. We spoke clearly across the miles; me over Hawaii, Liz with the kids back in Houston, until Endeavour carried me over the horizon. Priceless.

Linda Godwin, Kevin Chilton (left) and Sid Gutierrez have breakfast and read flight plan changes on Endeavour's middeck. Work shifts were 12 hours, with 8 hours for sleep. The balance was spent on exercise, meals, and housekeeping. (NASA STS059-05-07)

Linda Godwin, Kevin Chilton (left) and Sid Gutierrez have breakfast and read flight plan changes on Endeavour’s middeck. Work shifts were 12 hours, with 8 hours for sleep. The balance was spent on exercise, meals, and housekeeping. (NASA STS059-05-07)

One of Jay Apt’s best photos of the Aurora Australis from STS-59. The radar antennae are to the left, the Canadarm I robot arm on the right. (NASA)

One of my favorite lunch items -- irradiated grilled chicken breast, mustard, 2 warm tortillas = chicken flying saucer sandwich (TM). (NASA STS059-19-020)

One of my favorite lunch items — irradiated grilled chicken breast, mustard, 2 warm tortillas = chicken flying saucer sandwich (TM). (NASA STS059-19-020)

From Endeavour’s commander, USAF Col. (ret.) Sid Gutierrez:
Great! My best memories are of the crew and the Southern Aurora. It was a great group of folks to work with both on the ground and in Space. I remember the comment Linda made during an interview that generated that strange response from the ground. I would like to forget about the air in the water and everything that went with that. Chili falling asleep on the middeck while sending Emails late at night. Jay maneuvering the vehicle under Chili’s watchful eye. Rich and I waiting for anyone to get sick so we could actually give a real shot. I remember your enthusiasm at seeing all of it the first time and your incessant comments into the tape recorder so you could piece all this together later. And I remember the incredible feeling as we blacked out the lights and floated through the Sothern Aurora – like passing thorough something that was alive. But most of all I remember being able to eat a juicy hamburger with tomato and lettuce after we landed and then heading home to wives, husband and all the kids. Great memories! (April 12, 2013)

Endeavour commander Sid Gutierrez on the flight deck during with one of our Hasselblads. Earth is the unbeatable backdrop. (NASA sts059-19-004)

Endeavour commander Sid Gutierrez on the flight deck during with one of our Hasselblads. Earth is the unbeatable backdrop. (NASA sts059-19-004)

The varied science targets across the globe required all of us to learn many aspects of Earth system science: geology, volcanology, forestry, ecology, hydrology, oceanography, agriculture, pollution monitoring, desertification, and radar remote sensing theory, among others. One of my favorite “others” was archaeology, where our team used the SIR-C and X-SAR radars to probe dry sands and soils and reveal traces of ancient cultures beneath. The experiment mapped extensive “radar river” drainages beneath the Saharan sands, traced the Silk Road along the margin of the Takla Makhan desert, and zeroed in on caravan routes to the lost trading city of Ubar on the Arabian peninsula. Aboard Endeavour we carried a 200,000-year-old hand axe, recovered by USGS colleague Jerry Schaber in the 1980s from the banks of one of the Egyptian radar rivers. There aboard the most sophisticated technological tool of the late 20th century, we contemplated a floating example of the “high tech” used by Homo Erectus back when the Sahara was a grassy savannah, teeming with game. What technology will we possess in another 200 millennia? Will the space shuttle even be remembered? I, for one, can never forget it!

South coast of the Alaska Peninsula, where the C-shaped island's arms enclose Sosbee Bay, in sunglint. (NASA STS059-214-001)

South coast of the Alaska Peninsula, with the C-shaped island enclosing Sosbee Bay, in sunglint. (NASA STS059-214-001)

Just out of frame on the left of this Alaska coastline is Veniaminoff volcano, one of the many active peaks on the peninsula. Here we see ocean currents and eddies made visible by the reflected sunlight, corroboration of ocean surface features observed by the radar lab. What a visual treat as well.

Our view from 120 miles up as we soar over Gibraltar, Spain, and Morocco. Snow caps the Atlas and Sierra Nevada ranges in Africa and Europe. (NASA sts059-238-074)

Our view from 120 miles up as we soar over Gibraltar, Spain, and Morocco. Snow caps the Atlas and Sierra Nevada ranges in Africa and Europe. (NASA sts059-238-074)

An early human hurled this axe at his prey along the banks of a stream in southern Egypt, perhaps 200,000 years ago. The USGS lent us this tool as we used our Radar Lab to map possible habitats of these ancient people, now hidden by the sands of the arid Sahara. (NASA sts-059-42-18)

An early human hurled this axe at his prey along the banks of a stream in southern Egypt, perhaps 200,000 years ago. The USGS lent us this tool as we used our Radar Lab to map possible habitats of these ancient people, now hidden by the sands of the arid Sahara. (NASA sts-059-42-18)

The Blue Shift -- Jay, Rich, and Tom -- enjoy a meal after a shift on the flight deck. We generally had about 2.5 hours after finishing work to eat, clean up, and take care of middeck chores before hitting the sleep stations. (NASA sts059-14-06)

The Blue Shift — Jay, Rich, and Tom — enjoys a meal after a shift on the flight deck. We generally had about 2.5 hours after finishing work to eat, clean up, and take care of middeck chores before hitting the sleep stations. (NASA sts059-14-06)

Our early spring view of the Alaskan coastal ranges, fronting the Inside Passage, was glorious. Our radar imaged glaciers around the world, like these near Mt. St. Elias, to help estimate their velocity downhill. STS059-228-94

Our early spring view of the Alaskan coastal ranges, fronting the Inside Passage, was glorious. Our radar imaged glaciers around the world, like these near Mt. St. Elias, to help estimate their velocity downhill. STS059-228-94

Jay Apt shoots one of our science targets through Endeavour's overhead windows. Mounted in the adjacent window was a large-format Linhof camera, taking a strip of overlapping photos to map each target. (NASA sts059-46-025)

Jay Apt shoots one of our science targets through Endeavour’s overhead windows. Mounted in the adjacent window was a large-format Linhof camera, taking a strip of overlapping photos to map each target. (NASA sts059-46-025)

An example of our crew science photography is shown below. This frame came from our 250mm lens on the large-format Linhof camera, mounted in the starboard overhead window of Endeavour’s flight deck. Sometimes we used the other Linhof body and shot handheld frames, just sighting over the lens barrel at the ground below. The Linhof magazines contained about 100 shots, and we had to reload them from film canisters while “off shift” on the middeck.

Vertical view of Strait of Gibraltar. Spain to lower left. Morocco to upper right. Note current flow in strait and along coast. The advantages of Gibraltar's harbor are plain to see. (sts059-l19-837)

Vertical view of Strait of Gibraltar. Spain to lower left. Morocco to upper right. Note current flow in strait and along coast. The advantages of Gibraltar’s harbor are plain to see. (STS059-L19-837)

These bunks were on the starboard side of Endeavour’s middeck, stacked 4-high. Since each shift, Red and Blue, was off duty for 12 hours, we hot-bunked in the top three and used the bottom bunk for storage. Each station contained a reading light, fresh air vent, sliding privacy door, and a fleece sleeping bag. As this was my first flight, I didn’t realize that there were two bags in each bunk, clipped one atop the other, so I think I just hot-bunked in the same bag as Chili, probably. I slept in long pants, a T-shirt, and sweater, as it was a bit cool in the bunk. I even stuffed a sock in the vent to cut down on the cold breeze at “night.” I drifted off to sleep most nights with a Walkman playing a cassette for a few minutes; more than once I woke up to find the player drifting above my face, still delivering some soft music. In the morning, it would be tough to find the door in the pitch-dark compartment: turning over in the bag in free-fall meant that I had no way to determine which way was down, up, or the side that held the door. Groping around to find the reading light would usually set me straight. I had these bunks on three of my missions–they were quite comfortable, quiet, and private for sleep.

The SRL-1 Red Shift of Sid Gutierrez, Linda Godwin, and Kevin Chilton (bottom) prepares for their cozy night in Endeavour's sleep stations. (NASA STS059-22-004)

The SRL-1 Red Shift of Sid Gutierrez, Linda Godwin, and Kevin Chilton (bottom) prepares for their cozy night in Endeavour’s sleep stations. (NASA STS059-22-004)

May 2013: I just returned from a trip to the Mediterranean, and viewed Mt. Vesuvius from the Bay of Naples and the lovely town of Sorrento, Italy. Here is the incredible view of this active volcano from our SRL-1 imager. Vesuvius last erupted in 1944, nearly 70 years ago. It is long overdue for another outburst. Three million people live in the Naples area. Evacuation will be a huge challenge. May the mountain sleep for a long time.

Mt. Vesuvius, one of the best known volcanoes in the world primarily for the eruption that buried the Roman city of Pompeii, is shown in the center of this radar image. The central cone of Vesuvius is the dark purple feature in the center of the volcano. This cone is surrounded on the northern and eastern sides by the old crater rim, called Mt. Somma. Recent lava flows are the pale yellow areas on the southern and western sides of the cone. Vesuvius is part of a large volcanic zone which includes the Phalagrean Fields, the cluster of craters seen along the left side of the image. The Bay of Naples, on the left side of the image, is separated from the Gulf of Salerno, in the lower left, by the Sorrento Peninsula. Dense urban settlement can be seen around the volcano. The city of Naples is above and to the left of Vesuvius; the seaport of the city can be seen in the top of the bay. Pompeii is located just below the volcano on this image. The rapid eruption in 79 A.D. buried the victims and buildings of Pompeii under several meters of debris and killed more than 2,000 people. Due to the violent eruptive style and proximity to populated areas, Vesuvius has been named by the international scientific community as one of fifteen Decade Volcanoes which are being intensively studied during the 1990s. The image is centered at 40.83 degrees North latitude, 14.53 degrees East longitude. It shows an area 100 kilometers by 55 kilometers (62 miles by 34 miles.) This image was acquired on April 15, 1994 by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR- C/X-SAR) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. SIR-C/X-SAR, a joint mission of the German, Italian and the United States space agencies, is part of NASA's P-45742 July 13, 1995

Mt. Vesuvius, one of the best known volcanoes in the world primarily for the eruption that buried the Roman city of Pompeii, is shown in the center of this radar image. The central cone of Vesuvius is the dark purple feature in the center of the volcano. This cone is surrounded on the northern and eastern sides by the old crater rim, called Mt. Somma. Recent lava flows are the pale yellow areas on the southern and western sides of the cone. Vesuvius is part of a large volcanic zone which includes the Phalagrean Fields, the cluster of craters seen along the left side of the image. The Bay of Naples, on the left side of the image, is separated from the Gulf of Salerno, in the lower left, by the Sorrento Peninsula. Dense urban settlement can be seen around the volcano. The city of Naples is above and to the left of Vesuvius; the seaport of the city can be seen in the top of the bay. Pompeii is located just below the volcano on this image. The rapid eruption in 79 A.D. buried the victims and buildings of Pompeii under several meters of debris and killed more than 2,000 people. Due to the violent eruptive style and proximity to populated areas, Vesuvius has been named by the international scientific community as one of fifteen Decade Volcanoes which are being intensively studied during the 1990s. The image is centered at 40.83 degrees North latitude, 14.53 degrees East longitude. It shows an area 100 kilometers by 55 kilometers (62 miles by 34 miles.) This image was acquired on April 15, 1994 by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR- C/X-SAR) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. SIR-C/X-SAR, a joint mission of the German, Italian and the United States space agencies, is part of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth.
P-45742 July 13, 1995

SRL-1 added to our knowledge of the Earth’s impact history, by examining scars left by collisions with asteroids and comets. Here is the Aorounga impact cratter in northern Chad. Although the main crater (shown here) is visible to astronauts from orbit, our radar scans revealed (beneath the sands) two additional candidate craters. Aorounga may be a crater chain, caused by the impact of a string of comet fragments, or an asteroid accompanied by a couple of moonlets. I spent hours searching the landscape below for the circular forms  of impact craters; it’s a pattern the human eye easily locks onto from orbit.

The impact of an asteroid or comet several hundred million years ago left scars in the landscape that are still visible in this spaceborne radar image of an area in the Sahara Desert of northern Chad. The concentric ring structure is the Aorounga impact crater, with a diameter of about 17 kilometers (10.5 miles). The original crater was buried by sediments, which were then partially eroded to reveal the current ring-like appearance. The dark streaks are deposits of windblown sand that migrate along valleys cut by thousands of years of wind erosion. The dark band in the upper right of the image is a portion of a proposed second crater. Scientists are using radar images to investigate the possibility that Aorounga is one of a string of impact craters formed by multiple impacts. Radar imaging is a valuable tool for the study of desert regions because the radar waves can penetrate thin layers of dry sand to reveal details of geologic structure that are invisible to other sensors. The image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) on April 18 and 19, 1994, onboard the space shuttle Endeavour. The area shown is 22 kilometers by 28 kilometers (14 miles by 17 miles) and is centered at 19.1 degrees north latitude, 19.3 degrees east longitude. North is toward the upper right. The colors are assigned to different radar frequencies and polarizations as follows: red is L-band, horizontally transmitted and received; green is C-band, horizontally transmitted and received; and blue is C-band, horizontally transmitted, vertically received. SIR-C/X-SAR, a joint mission of the German, Italian and United States space agencies, is part of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth program. P-46712 March 20, 1996

Flight Day 9 called for a thorough pre-landing check of our reentry systems. The pilots, with Rich, our flight engineer and MS-2, stepped through hydraulic systems, flight computers, auxiliary power units (APSs), and thrusters to verify proper operation. We observed systematic thruster firings from the flight deck, and watched our elevons on the wing trailing edges rise and fall, driven by the now-awakened APU’s and hydraulic systems. Endeavour was coming fully alive; all was in readiness for entry the next day.

On Flight Day 9, Sid, Chili, and Rich ran through our flight control system checkout on Endeavour's flight deck. NASA STS059-12-035.

On Flight Day 9, Sid, Chili, and Rich ran through our flight control system checkout on Endeavour’s flight deck.
NASA STS059-12-035.

Landing for our STS-59 crew came too soon, after 11 days in orbit. We had planned a 9-day mission, but our flight control team anticipated that power conservation aboard Endeavour would extend our mission to ten full days. Good power management by our payload team and Mission Control (and our keeping the lights and electricity consumption to a minimum in the cabin) secured that extra day. Our reentry was planned for April 19, but Kennedy Space Center weather prevented a return to the Florida landing site. We waved off the landing and returned to limited Earth observations for a final day; my Blue Shift went to bed immediately for 6-8 hours, then took over from our Red Shift for final cabin stowage and payload deactivation.

On April 20, weather at Kennedy was still NO-GO, so we targeted Edwards AFB in California for landing. Our crew was disappointed to not be heading for our families in Florida, but satisfied to be heading back to Earth with our successful science mission completed. Reentry over the nighttime Pacific was a spectacular experience–the plasma pulsing around our cockpit windows provided a mesmerizing light show that I’ll never see equaled. I was perched upstairs in the MS-1 seat next to Rich Clifford, MS-2. We aided the pilots, Sid and Kevin, as they guided Endeavour into southern California and our line-up for landing at Edwards.

Entry plasma seen through the overhead windows of the shuttle flight deck. NASA S08-102-2835

Entry plasma seen through the overhead windows of the shuttle flight deck. NASA S08-102-2835

Ripping over the California coast at more than Mach 5, it seemed to me that we’d never slow down enough to make the Edwards runway–I agreed with Sid’s assessment that “we’re headed for a landing in Arkansas!” But our flight computers were right on the money. Sid took control and put us gently on the concrete of Runway 22, an exhilarating touchdown for all of us aboard. Read about the entire return to Earth in “Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir.” Great landing, Sid and Kevin! Thanks a million for bringing us all home.

The main landing gear of the Space Shuttle Endeavour touches down at Edwards Air Force Base to complete the 11 day STS-59/SRL-1 mission. Landing occurred at 9:54 a.m., April 20, 1994. Mission duration was 11 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes. NASA image. NASA STS059(S)07

The main landing gear of the Space Shuttle Endeavour touches down at Edwards Air Force Base to complete the 11 day STS-59/SRL-1 mission. Landing occurred at 9:54 a.m., April 20, 1994. Mission duration was 11 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes. NASA image. NASA STS059(S)07

From the MS-1 seat, I shot video of our reentry aboard Endeavour. Jay took this shot after landing from the middeck ladder on the port side. STS059-47-11

From the MS-1 seat, I shot video of our reentry aboard Endeavour. Jay took this shot after landing from the middeck ladder on the port side. STS059-47-11

 

Post-landing, I felt laden with extra weight, as if my launch and entry suit were made of lead. That video camera feels like fifty pounds. Getting out of the seat took every bit of strength I could muster; I had to force my muscles to slide over and lower my “two-ton” body down the ladder.

Jay Apt on the middeck took this shot of the ground crew at Edwards opening Endeavour's hatch after our April 20 landing. NASA STS059-47-22

Jay Apt on the middeck took this shot of the ground crew at Edwards opening Endeavour’s hatch after our April 20 landing. NASA STS059-47-22

The ground crew is the first to sample the interior atmosphere of our sealed spacecraft, after six people have lived in that volume for 11 days. Our noses were used to any aromas, but they no doubt smelled the combined odors of our wet trash bin, the shuttle waste control system compartment, our dirty laundry, and six bodies who hadn’t showered in more than 10 days. They may have wanted to just close that hatch up again!

NASA KSC photo : KSC-94PC-643

The Space Shuttle Orbiter Endeavour is towed into Orbiter Processing Facility high bay 1 after its return to KSC on May 2, 1994. Endeavour was flown to Florida by 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft from Edwards Air Force Base in California after completion of the STS-59/SRL-1 mission. Endeavour began its processing for its next spaceflight, the STS-68/SRL-2 mission, then scheduled for August 1994.

Related

STS-68 Preflight: Getting Ready for Space Radar Lab 2 in “History”

Endeavour Rollout to Launch Pad 39A, Aug. 8, 1995 in “History”

The View from Endeavour, April 10, 1994 in “History”

Comments»

1. Sid Gutierrez – April 13, 2013

Tom,
Great! My best memories are of the crew and the Southern Aurora. It was a great group of folks to work with both on the ground and in Space. I remember the comment Linda made during an interview that generated that strange response from the ground. I would like to forget about the air in the water and everything that went with that. Chili falling asleep on the middeck while sending Emails late at night. Jay maneuvering the vehicle under Chili’s watchful eye. Rich and I waiting for anyone to get sick so we could actually give a real shot. I remember your enthusiasm at seeing all of it the first time and your incessant comments into the tape recorder so you could piece all this together later. And I remember the incredible feeling as we blacked out the lights and floated through the Sothern Aurora – like passing thorough something that was alive. But most of all I remember being able to eat a juicy hamburger with tomato and lettuce after we landed and then heading home to wives, husband and all the kids. Great memories!
Sid

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