Space Shuttle Discovery Mission Highlights | STS-85

the Orbiter was backed out of the processing facility in uh early July just after the 4th of July holiday the boosters and external tank were stacked in parallel in the Vehicle Assembly Building while the work was going on in the Orbiter processing facility the countdown demonstration test with the flight crew was conducted just a few weeks ago and flight crew was uh certified in emergency escape procedures this is the Orbiter access arm as it was attached to the vehicle uh once Discovery rolled to the pad last month and the rotating service structure was then moved into position around the Orbiter to allow the installation of the payloads and also access to various parts of the vehicle for the Kennedy launch Team payloads were installed into the uh payload Bay out at the Launchpad in the vertical position and the pay bay doors were closed for flight early Tuesday morning uh during our countdown countdown began on time at the T-minus mark at about uh 3 pm on Monday count has been going very smoothly which leads us up to this morning it's traditional for the crew to arrive several days before the launch they uh go through uh flight data file reviews and the commander and pilot practice uh approaches and uh Landings to the uh shuttle landing facility to hone their skills uh they practice in the shuttle training aircraft crew also has medical exams while here at KSC prior to launch and they perform fit checks of their flight crew equipment all continuing to go well out at the launch pad the final inspection team is uh making their way up and down the launch Tower uh looking for any uh loose items or any ice or Frost formation they they do wear the bright orange suits so that uh we can keep track of uh of the crew as they wander around the LaunchPad and we have uh live pictures of the flight crew in the crew quarters we've got Commander Kurt Brown who's just uh walked into the suitup room following the weather briefing this is his fourth flight um and he has overall responsibility for commanding the flight this will be his first flight as Commander he served as pilot of three previous missions in STS 92 in in 1992 94 and 96 Kent ringer as pilot he will assist Brown at the flight controls this will be his third flight and uh his uh birthday today he's 41 years old he will also uh be assisting a commander during the Rendevous and retrieval of the Christa Spas payload and will also be involved in several payloads including the solid surface combustion experiment we have Canadian astronaut be trivison making his first flight on the shuttle today cross the room we have the uh Mission Specialists we've got Jan Davis she's making her third flight today she's the payload Commander with overall responsibility of servicing tasks she will operate the robot arm to deploy and retrieve the German Christal Spa payload and we have Mission specialist Robert King making his first flight today on the shuttle he serves as flight engineer and will assist the commander and pilot with asent and re-entry checklist and in monitoring all Vehicle Systems and we have Mission specialist Steven Robinson this will be his first flight he is the Prime mission specialist for the cryistal Spas payload and he will work with Jan Davis on with the robot arm activity and we'll operate several experiments there is uh some fog in the KFC area and that uh is expected to burn away as the sun continues to rise here in Florida and uh looking for favor favorable weather conditions for our launch of Discovery today all countdown events are going well we expect the crew to arrive at the launch pad's White Room at about a. m. got a lot of well wishers standing by ready to uh wish the crew well before their journey into space crew is getting ready for a 10-day mission we have uh views now in in the crew cabin and uh we have guest commentator Marsha Ivans here to help explain what we're what's going on what you see here is uh the commander Kurt Brown getting into the commander seat on the left Joe Tanner who is the astronaut support person the as helping him it's a little difficult to climb up in the vertical position and to get in the seat so Joe is holding on to his parachute while uh Kurt gets into the seat now he's going to ask him to as he holds the parachute pull himself all the way down into the seat to get a good fit in there so they can get the harnesses on him the same time the commander is being strapped in we have ms3 Steve Robinson being strapped in by uh Carlos who is our awesome suit Tech on the on the mid deck um this goes on in parallel so that all the crew can get in in a timely fashion the same as as Joe was helping on the flight deck Carlos holds onto the the parachute Steve's got a strap connected to the locker you can see him holding on to now like a chinning strap that allows him to position himself correctly on the parachute as he gets in now we see the birthday boy getting into his seat the pilot he's only gone to uh to two handrails one in the center of the uh near the windows and one on his right side and then as they hold his parachute he pulls himself down into the seat yne is now in the PS1 seat you can see his chinning strap that he's he's got to get himself positioned in the seat and uh Carlos will be connecting his cooling water last crew member in in Bob King in the MS2 seat I've got you here I'll give you step 57 work for the clock if you want for the perform the fuel sell Purge on channel 153 okay we'll put that in work as well do you need a QC there and we heard that uh poll by NASA test director Doug Lions of the launch Team indicating that they are ready to continue on with launch today standing by now for Jim Harrington the launch director to conduct his poll of the management team dor go after that engineering director engineer go copy that safety ad Mission Assurance safety and Mission Assurance is go J copy there range weather Roger sir we have no constraint to Lo and op manager uh ops manager we're not the mmt is not tracking anything and looks like we're go for launch you're cleared to proceed with a launch count copy that and Discovery uh looks like everything's ready to go you guys have a great Mission and we'll see you back here uh at the conion of the mission and ND you are clear to launch cover that sir thank you attention all stations the countdown clock will pick up at tus and and tus 5 minut AP start OTC perform Apu start AP start in work and CDR reconfigure heers the vent hood is situated at the top of the external tank that will be retracted away in the next few seconds and the external tank is being pressurized for flight PLT OTC clear the caution warning memory verify no unexpected errors memory cleared no unexpected errors copy and flight close and lock your advisors initiate 02 FL on behalf of the laun scene good luck with your mission and RL happy birthday we're about to light your candles now thanks for that birthday wish will be the two best candles I ever had and discover copy Vis Ando 2s is go for et2 pration water will be dumped onto the launch platform in a few seconds to help suppress the sound and shock of the thrust produced by the shuttle at launch T minus 13 12 11 10 9 eight we have a go for Main in start 5 4 3 2 1 booster ignition and liftoff of Discovery on a mission to study planet Earth roll Houston roll Discovery Houston is now controlling the roll maneuver is complete and Discovery is now in a heads down Wings level position all three main engines now throttling down to 67% of rated thrust as the Orbiter passes through the area of Maximum aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle in the lower regions of the Earth's atmosphere Telemetry indicates all three auxiliary power units and fuel cells continuing to perform well we continue up we're looking at the engines now as a throttle back to about uh 67% on all three of the main engines and looking for uh mock one right now making sure the tapes match on both sides and they did did and we continued on up and right about now is when the engines start throttling again throttling up to 104% the main engines that is Discovery go at throttle up copy go into the flight discovery's three liquid fueled engines are now back at Full Throttle 104% of rated thrust Discovery now traveling at a speed of 1,00 mph I just called the tail off of the srbs and we should see set right about now and there was the big flash of light and now we've uh Ro to the next and now we're just on the main engines and uh got about uh five five and a half more minutes to orbit again Telemetry currently indicating all three main engines auxiliary power units and fuel cells continuing to perform well Discovery now at a speed of 2,800 mph downrange from the Kennedy Space Center 27 miles Discovery now at an altitude of 367 downrange from the Kennedy Space Center 370 miles Discovery single engine zero Goa 104 copy single 104 now into the flight the booster officer here in Mission Control has confirmed an ontime main engine cutoff Discovery Houston we show a nominal moo OHS 1 is not required you have a go for the etoto dto Cy nominal moo OHS one not required e e e e e even mes got excited when the promis land e e e e e e e e e e Houston Discovery we're in the low hover position and would like to maneuver to the Spa's release position you have a go to maneuver to release Discovery Houston we're about a minute to the Zoe we'll be back with you at copy Allen e number three 3 ner colon 25 number four 40 colon 0 0 turn number five 40 col 30 e e all the ice cap runs in good chunk of the way through the brown and motion stuff but one I was uh running config M at one point I got the SCP C lost error and when I tried to do cold reboot on the system I get as far as starting on track and then I get a better hieroglyphics and that's where I've been ending for the last little while I'm not able to get back by that point we copy and we'll look into a bney discovery with BDF data when you're ready to copy we're ready e e e e e e e e e houon Discovery for TP Flex go ahead on the flight plan Ellen uh DP Flex troubleshooting Part B would you like like to get into that this is the workstation where we operated the robotic arm which is a Japanese robotic arm which will be uh part of the Japanese arm on the space station uh these are the two Hand controllers we have a computer here which also controls the arm as well as some uh switches hey Houston discovery on the waste water go ahead R yeah before we exceeded the mid temperature we got to 6% you all happy with that you want me to dump that last percent out now you're uh just fine where you are they copy e e e e e e e e e 5 4 3 2 1 Swiss hillbo e e and Houston you should be getting video now and we have a good picture e e e e and Houston Discovery good handheld laser mark and it agrees with rare radar copy Houston Discovery with erical status check e e Discovery Houston for from the Zoe we'll be back with you at cop us didn't talk to you at and before you go just you probably see this but we're about 125 ft closing at 025 e e and houst to Discovery dto complete we're backing out now copy for Houston Discovery show we show a good good grapple great job Discovery congratulations on a very smooth R and grapple okay and Jen you can go ahead and put deact in work e Discovery Houston we've up link orbit and Target Stak vectors and aoop variance Matrix okay we copy that e me 9 days 5 we got e e e Discovery energy ground track and nav or go latest touchdown prediction is 2600 ft at 195 copy energy ground track navigo and 2600 at 95 long range cameras uh capturing Discovery uh at 103,000 FT altitude traveling 2,500 milph and Commander Kurt Brown now flying Discovery as the twin Sonic booms announc the arrival of the Orbiter in the landing Site Area time to touchdown discovery on energy to 180 cop on at 180 Discovery altitude is 2,400 ft traveling 375 miles hour and the landing gear is down and locked main gear touchdown and nose gear touchdown discoveries rolling out on Runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center completing 189 orbits of the earth while traveling 4.7 million miles STS 85 is the 23rd mission of Discovery and the 86th in the shuttle program history us doors are coming open copy R looking at the doors