3/3/2023 0 Comments Nasa space shuttle discovery![]() ![]() Science began to come more to the forefront in the early to mid-1990s. (Image credit: NASA) Science and stations The mission featured the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, the first of NASA's Great Observatories to reach orbit. The space shuttle Discovery launched on its STS-31 mission on Apat 8:33 a.m. Discovery also flew a few more Department of Defense missions. Then came a slew of satellite launches: another TDRS, Hubble, the Ulysses spacecraft and the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite that infamously plunged to Earth in 2011. During that mission, a malfunction in the cabin raised temperatures to the mid-80s – a bit extreme for the shirtsleeve environment of the shuttle, but not unduly bad. The shuttle lofted a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite into space to provide enhanced communication between the ground and the shuttle. ![]() NASA's return to flight mission after Challenger was STS-26 – a Discovery mission. ![]() However, there still was a backlog of satellites to carry up through the shuttle. The shuttle's mandate changed to being focused on science and station-building activities. Satellite launches gradually shifted to one-use unmanned rockets for safety and cost considerations. Additionally, Discovery flew the first of a series of shuttle missions for the Department of Defense.Īll of this began to change after the Challenger explosion of 1986. Some of those satellites include Anik C-1 (Canada), ARABSAT-A and Australia's AUSSAT-1. The young Discovery flew two times in 1984 and four times in 1985, sending several satellites into space. NASA had an aggressive flight schedule for the shuttle in the early days of its program. Another mission, STS-51F, had an early cutoff in Challenger's center engine about five minutes, 45 seconds into the launch. This was the first abort of the shuttle program all told, five shuttle missions were called off just moments before launch, then sent into space at a later date. NASA took several weeks to fix the engine, and Discovery's STS-41D mission finally lifted off Aug. But the important thing was that they were okay. When it was safe to do so, the crew exited and got soaked by water from the fire suppression system. We could have thrown open the hatch and run into a fire." "The gas flame may have been as high as the cockpit, but since hydrogen burns clean we would not have seen it. "It was a decision that might have saved our lives," Mullane wrote. After some discussions, NASA and the crew decided to stay put. ![]() They weren't sure if it was best to leave, or to escape the shuttle. According to crew member Mike Mullane in his memoirs Riding Rockets, the crew was a little befuddled as they watched water splashing across the windows. Minutes later, a hydrogen fire broke out and the pad's fire suppression system kicked in. It was the shuttle's computers that initiated the abort, which happened when a fuel valve on Engine 3 didn't open as planned. On June 26, 1984, Discovery was in the final moments of launching to space on STS-41D when the engines shut down seconds before launch. In its career, Discovery also underwent two major upgrades in 19 for technological and safety modifications. ![]()
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