| STS-81 | Crew | Payload | Mission | Spacehab |
STS-81
Space Shuttle Atlantis
Launched:
January 12, 1997, 4:27 a.m. EST
Kennedy Space Center, Pad 39-B
Orbit:
184 nautical milesInclination:
51.6 degreesLanded:
January 22, 1997, 9:23 a.m. EST Kennedy Space CenterMission:
10 days, 4 hours, 56 minutes
STS-81
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| STS-81 | Crew | Payload | Mission | Spacehab |
STS-81 Crew
Commander Michael A. Baker
Fourth Shuttle flightPilot Brent W. Jett
Second Shuttle flightMission Specialist John M. Grunsfeld, Ph.D.
Second Shuttle flightMission Specialist Marsha S. Ivins
Second Shuttle flightMission Specialist Peter J.K. Wisoff, Ph.D.
Third Shuttle flightMission Specialist Jerry M. Linenger, Ph.D., M.D.
Second Shuttle flight; remaining on MirMission Specialist John E. Blaha
Sixth Shuttle flight; returning from Mir
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| STS-81 | Crew | Payload | Mission | Spacehab |
Payload
Space Habitation (Double) Module
Shuttle Shortwave Amateur Radio Experiment
KidSat Educational Cameras
Treadmill Vibration Isolation and Stabilization System
Biorack Multipurpose Facility
Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activation Monitor
Orbiter Space Vision System
Midcourse Space Experiment
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| STS-81 | Crew | Payload | Mission | Spacehab |
Mission: January 12 - 22, 1997
Onboard STS-81 was Jerry Linenger, who would replace U.S. astronaut John Blaha after his four-month stay aboard the Russian space station Mir. This mission, the fifth of nine dockings, transferred the most materials to date. Atlantis also brought back to Earth the first plants to complete a life cycle in spacea crop of wheat planted by Shannon Lucid and grown from seed to seed.
Liftoff occurred at the opening of the available launch window at 4:27 a.m. EST. At that moment, Mir was high above the Galápagos Islands, about 2,400 miles southwest of Kennedy Space Center. About 25 minutes after launch, the Mir-22 crew was notified of the Shuttle launch, which they viewed via video uplink. By the next morning, Atlantis trailed Mir by 6,000 miles and was catching up to it about 600 miles with each orbit. In the SPACEHAB double module, the STS-81 crew tested the Shuttle Treadmill Vibration Isolation and Stabilization System, designed for use in the Russian service module of the International Space Station.
Rendezvous and docking occurred on Flight Day 3. At the time of docking, the two spacecraft were about 210 miles above and southeast of Moscow. The Atlantis crew had sighted Mir when they were about 40 miles out. Onboard Mir and nearing the end of his 118-day flight, John Blaha did not see Atlantis until about eight minutes before docking.
Soon after the Shuttles docking, an informal greeting ceremony occurred in Mirs core module (Base Block), where the STS-81 crew presented the cosmonauts with new flashlights. Sections of Mirincluding the Kristall modulewere being kept dark to conserve power. Linenger demonstrated how to hold a flashlight in ones teeth, while using one hand to anchor oneself in microgravity and the other hand to do work.
During five days of mated-spacecraft operations, Commander Michael Baker and Pilot Brent Jett fired the Shuttles small vernier jet thrusters to gather engineering data for the International Space Station. All nine members of the two crews floated back and forth, hauling materials between the two spacecraft. They transferred nearly 6,000 pounds of logistics to Mir, including 1,600 pounds of water; 1,100 pounds of U.S. science equipment; and 2,200 pounds of Russian logistical equipment. About 2,400 pounds of materials were moved to Atlantis from Mir.
Astronaut John Grunsfeld compared Mir to "exploring a cave." At first, a newcomer found it difficult to find the Priroda module, where the crews stowed much of the equipment for transfer onto Mir. Pilot Jett later described going from the docking module to the Kristall module. He said that Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri "kind of grabbed me and said, Okay. Just kind of follow this. There was a line that went through the Kristall module, and you could kind of use it as a translation aid; but it was also very helpful because there was so much equipment, and at times the passageway got very narrow. The Kristall is kind of like their attic . They put a lot of extra equipment there but then, once you get into the node and then into the Base Block, its a lot more like what you would expect for a station."
Every evening, Blaha shared with Linenger what he had learned about living and working onboard Mir. Linenger would work with the Mir-22 crew of Commander Valeri Korzun and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri until the arrival in February of the Mir-23 crew of Commander Vasily Tsibliev, Flight Engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin, and German researcher Reinhold Ewald. (After a brief stay on the station, Ewald returned to Earth with the Mir-22 cosmonauts.)
Atlantis undocked on January 19, 1997, and performed a fly-around of Mir, 1,000 feet out from the station. Upon deorbiting, Atlantis reentered the atmosphere over British Columbia, Canada to fly across the central United States and then land on a clear Florida morning at Kennedy Space Center.
Later in Houston, Brent Jett said that Jerry Linenger "seemed real comfortable over in the Mir. I knew he was going to do a really, really great job. Hes a very disciplined person, and I knew he would have a great mission. I was kind of sad to be leaving him I knew I would see him again and I knew Id see the cosmonauts again, but, you know seeing Jerry on the other side of the hatch when we closed it, I was thinking that he is now part of a Russian crew, and he wont beexcept for video links and audio linkshe wont be really able to talk to his friends . And, of course, I had no idea that he would go through a very critical situation like he had with the fire."
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| STS-81 | Crew | Payload | Mission | Spacehab |
Spacehab
The SPACEHAB Space Research Laboratory provides a Space Shuttle with extra "shirtsleeve" space for crew-tended experiments. The single module weighs 10,584 pounds and is 9.2 feet long, 11.2 feet high, and 13.5 feet in diameter. This research facility increases pressurized experiment space in the Orbiter by 1,100 cubic feet, quadrupling the working and storage volume available. A single-module laboratory has a total payload capacity of 3,000 pounds.
SPACEHAB also provides experiments with standard services, such as power, temperature control, and systems functions. Environmental control of the laboratorys interior maintains temperatures between 65°F and 80°F.
During Shuttle-Mir, SPACEHAB single and double modules were used to carry supplies and equipment to Mir. SPACEHAB was located a little past halfway down the Orbiters payload bay, past the docking system, and was accessed from the Orbiters mid-deck through a tunnel adapter connected to the airlock.
SPACEHAB was used on seven Shuttle-Mir missions. Its first-ever flight was on STS-57, June 21-27, 1993. NASA leases the modules from SPACEHAB, Inc., of Arlington, Virginia.