STS-60

Occurred 31 years ago

The first shuttle flight of 1994 marked the first flight of a Russian cosmonaut, Sergei Krikalev, onboard the U.S. space shuttle. Part of an international agreement on human space flight, the mission also was the second flight of the Spacehab pressurized module and marked the 100th "Get Away Special" payload to fly in space. Discovery also carried the Wake Shield Facility to generate new semiconductor films for advanced electronics.

Orbiter

Discovery

Mission duration

8 days, 7 hours, 9 minutes, 22 seconds

Launch

Feb. 3, 1994

Landing

Feb. 11, 1994

The six-member STS-60 crew pose for the traditional in-flight crew portrait, with American and Russian flags forming the backdrop on the space shuttle Discovery’s middeck. Left to right (front row) are N. Jan Davis, Charles F. Bolden Jr. and Franklin R. Chang-Diaz; and (back row) Ronald M. Sega, Sergei K. Krikalev and Kenneth S. Reightler Jr. (February 1994)

Mission Facts

Mission: WSF-1; SPACEHAB-2
Space Shuttle: Discovery
Launch Pad: 39A
Launched: February 3, 1994, 7:10:00 a.m. EST
Landing Site: Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landing: February 11, 1994, 2:19:22 p.m. EST
Runway: 15
Rollout Distance: 7,771 feet
Rollout Time: 50 seconds
Revolution: 130
Mission Duration: 8 days, 7 hours, 9 minutes, 22 seconds
Orbit Altitude: 191 nautical miles
Orbit Inclination: 57 degrees
Miles Traveled: 3.4 million

Crew

Charles F. Bolden Jr., Commander
Kenneth S. Reightler Jr., Pilot
Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, Payload Commander
N. Jan Davis, Mission Specialist
Ronald M. Sega, Mission Specialist
Sergei K. Krikalev, Mission Specialist

Mission Highlights

The first shuttle flight of 1994 marked the first flight of a Russian cosmonaut on a U.S. space shuttle as the first element in implementing the agreement on NASA/Russian Space Agency Cooperation in Human Space Flight. The mission also marked second flight of the SPACEHAB pressurized module and 100th Get Away Special (GAS) payload to fly in space. Also on board was the Wake Shield Facility-1 (WSF-1), making the first in a planned series of flights.

SPACEHAB-2 activated shortly after reaching orbit. Taking up about one quarter of payload bay, the 1,100 cubic foot (31 cu.m.) module carried 12 experiments. Four of these involved materials science topics, seven life sciences investigations, and a space dust collection experiment.

On flight day three, the crew made the first attempt to deploy WSF-1 using the remote manipulator system arm. WSF-1 is a deployable/retrievable experiment platform designed to leave a vacuum wake in low earth orbit that is 10,000 times greater than achievable on Earth. In this ultra-vacuum environment, defect-free thin-film layers of gallium arsenide and other semiconductor materials can be grown. First deploy attempt waved off due to radio interference and difficulty reading status signs on WSF-1. After the second deploy attempt on flight day four was waved off due to problems with WSF-1 attitude control system, five out of seven planned films grown with WSF-1 platform were suspended at the end of the RMS arm. WSF-1 was berthed in cargo bay on flight day six.

STS-60 crew pictured in the tunnel which connects the shirt-sleeve environments of the space shuttle Discovery and the SPACEHAB module. SPACEHAB is located in the spacecraft’s payload bay. Mission Commander Charles F. Bolden Jr. is at upper right. Others, clockwise from the commander, are Mission Specialists Ronald M. Sega and N. Jan Davis; Payload Commander Franklin R. Chang-Diaz; Mission Specialist and Cosmonaut Sergei K. Krikalev; and Pilot Kenneth S. Reightler Jr.

NASA

The crew also conducted first NASA-Russian Space Agency joint in-flight medical and radiological investigations. Krikalev communicated with amateur radio operators in Moscow using Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) equipment. On Feb. 7, the crew talked with President Bill Clinton during his tour of Mission Control in Houston, and on February 9, Bolden and Krikalev talked with Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, calling from Mission Control in Moscow.

The crew also deployed two payloads from Get Away Special canisters mounted on the GAS bridge assembly in the payload bay; six Orbital Debris Radar Calibration Spheres (ODERACS), ranging in size from two to six inches (5-15 centimeters), to aid calibration of radar tracking systems worldwide; and University of Bremen’s BREMSAT, which measured conditions such as acceleration forces affecting satellite.

Other payloads included Capillary Pumped Loop Experiment (CAPL) mounted on top of GAS Bridge Assembly; three additional GAS experiments; and Auroral Photography Experiment-Phase B (APE-B).