...continued from alternate STS-51-L up to the original timeframe of STS-26
STS-61-E. 6 march 1986. Columbia. Happens exactly as planned with observation of Halley's comet. Second flight of the LFBB. Complete success of the LFBB which both land autonomously at KSC.
STS-61-F. 15 April 1986. Challenger. Skylab crew and Perseus capsules rotation. Challenger has 8 crew members, marking the first flight in shuttle history which will bring a whole new 6-person crew to Skylab up and 6 astronauts back down in a single launch, leaving only Commander Frederick Hauck and Pilot Roy D. Bridges on both the ascent and reentry phases of flights.
STS-61-G. 20 May 1986. Atlantis. During launch, Atlantis suffers an engine-out before passing the ATO boundary, thus having to execute a first-ever TAL abort to Zaragoza, Spain. The Jupiter probe Galileo thus misses it's launch window and will have to be rescheduled to a later date. Anti-nuclear protesters take advantage of the recent Chernobyl accident to manifest their opposition to the landing of a foreign nuclear-powered probe on European soil.
STS-61-H. 24 June 1986. Enterprise. Enterprise takes off with Michael Coats and John Blaha as CDR and Pilot respectively, with a total crew of 4, bringing the total complement of the Shutte-Skylab complex to 10 person for the remainder of docked operations.
STS-62-A. 4th July 1986. Discovery. President Reagan witnesses on-site the first ever launch of a DOD mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base, rumored to be taking a payload of the SDI (aka Star Wars Program) up into polar orbit. The launch proceeds successfully, to the dismay of the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
STS-61-M. 22 July 1986. Challenger. Commanding the mission, Loren Shriver guides the shuttle to a first docking with Skylab while another shuttle is already present. For this complex mission, which aims at expanding Skylab beyond it's original configuration, Challenger brings a new module, a node, to which further modules will be able to dock for expansion of the orbiting complex. First, Enterprise will undock with Coats, Blaha and most of the departing crew of Skylab. Combined together, eighteen astronauts are in space at the same time at the same place for a first time ever.
Meanwhile, two teams of two crew members who had remained on-board Skylab will undock aboard the Perseus capsules and be captured one after another by Enterprise's SRMS. Enterprise will then berth to one capsule, transfer the occupants on-board, then stow the capsule in it's payload bay and proceed identically with the second capsule. Challenger then used it's docking adapter to dock perpendicularly with the module it carried. Under the watch of Enterprise and four astronauts conducting an EVA and tethered to Skylab, Challenger docked with Skylab using it's RCS to align the expansion module with Skylab's docking port, moving into position with the Skylab Core Node, which enabled the attachment of structural elements, pressurized modules. Challenger remained with Skylab for a week leaving six new crew members on the outpost. After vacating Skylab, Enterprise completes it's mission and returns to Earth with the previous crew of Skylab one week ahead of Challenger.
STS-61-J. 18 August 1986. Atlantis. Hubble Space Telescope Deployment as originally planned.
STS-61-N. 4 September 1986. Discovery. DOD mission as originally planned.
STS-61-I. 27 September 1986. Enterprise. Skylab crew and Perseus capsules rotation. Installation of docking adapters to enable multiple docking of shuttles alongside Perseus capsules.
STS-61-K. 1 October 1986. Columbia. Following successful attachment of the docking adapters by Enterprise's crew, Columbia gets a GO at launching towards Skylab for Dual Orbiter Docked Operations (DODO). First flight of a very long duration orbiter flight. Tailored for very long duration, the shuttle is equipped with the necessary consumables to stay in space up to 60 days while docked, or 28 days in free flight, limited only by issues regarding landing gear tire pressures, extended from their original limit of 28 days. Columbia has been under refurbishment for most of 1986. Mission calls for Columbia to remained docked for 45 days, which will actually be extended to 55.
This is the first milestone at retiring the Apollo-derived Perseus capsules to enable visiting shuttle more freedom in transporting cargo, limited by the weight and size of the embarked capsules. The Skylab complex reaches a new record for combined mass, with the Skylab core itself, SkyHab, the Skylab Core Node, two Perseus capsules and two shuttle Orbiters (Columbia and Enterprise) docked at the same time. This flight proves that two shuttles can be docked together at the Skylab safely, which enables permanent staffing during orbiter dedicated return vehicle duty swaps.
It is during that mission that President Reagan and Soviet Secretary-General Mikhail Gorbachev meet together at Reykjavik, Iceland on October 11-12. While the talks stall on matters of human rights, nuclear armament reductions and international policy, the two note similarities in the evolution of their national space programs, with the launch of Mir earlier that year. Further talks are planned for the next year of the issues raised at the Reykjavik Summit.
STS-61-L. 14 November 1986. Atlantis. Mission to relieve Columbia from it's Skylab duty and replace it while Challenger still undergoes modifications for very long duration docking at Skylab. For the first time ever, a photojournalist from Times is brought along. Mission is extended to December 21 due to the events of the following flights and would be the last docking of Skylab for quite some time...
STS-72-A. 10 December 1986. Discovery. Near tragedy for the space program, as the Vandenberg-launched shuttle has to perform a Transoceanic Abort at Hao Airbase, at night, in French Polynesia, following two-engines out late in the ascent due to faulty wiring. A review indicates that the double engine shutdown could have happened at any time during the ascent, but that the crew was lucky enough that it did not occur earlier, as it would have resulted in certain death of the crew in a futile attempt at ditching in the Pacific, at night.
STS-71-A. 18 December 1986. Challenger. After undergoing some software patching, Challenger takes an “improved” version of PASS along in it's GPCs which go around the limiting “feature” of it's software regarding being active in space at New Year's Eve, a serious limitation for long duration docked operations at Skylab. However, Challenger's won't even make it to orbit and just like it's sister-ship Discovery the week before, instead has to perform the second RTLS of the Space shuttle program, and for the first time using the Backup Flight System. The issue is traced to a programing error in the PASS software, crashing all 4 GPCs running it, which was absent from the unmodified BFS. Following this near-miss, which echoes eerily the troubles encountered by Challenger itself on STS-51-F, Columbia on STS-1A, Atlantis on STS-61-G and Discovery on STS-72A, the shuttles are grounded indefinitely for a full review of their flight hardware and software.
A commission is created by President Reagan and headed by William Rogers, former secretary of state. The commission would find troublesome issues at NASA, under intense pressure to keep the busy flight schedule on time. Some engineers and technicians of the STS program come forward with revelations that some missions were performed with some falsified engineering reports under pressure from some managers. The managers merely state that they misunderstood the technical issues presented to them. Also of note was the scathing comments and observations by noted scientist Richard Feynman, who pushed through a much more abrasive observation of NASA's safety culture, published as an appendix to the full commission report. Mr. Feynman was very vocal of the need to suspend shuttle launches until flaws both in hardware processing and human reasoning were addressed around the Space Shuttle Program.
Also, under pressure from the astronauts themselves, a program was implemented to review egress options of flight crews and provide the option to at least attempt to parachute out while the orbiter is gliding under computer control. As jumping in the North Atlantic in plain clothing would be suicidal, new suits are then designed based on those worn by SR-71 and U-2 pilots, providing some additional safeties in scenarios of cabin decompression.
The decision to rely only on the STS to go back and forth to Skylab is reviewed, and NASA is forced to reverse it's planned phase out of the Perseus capsules at the orbiting complex. Also, as a consequence of the findings of the Rogers Commission, commercial satellite launches are no longer accepted on Space Shuttles, effective immediately at that time. Clients were refunded their deposits and mission planners got busy sorting out a new flight manifest based on the new administration guidelines.
Skylab-Shuttle Mission 12's crew comes back to Earth in two batches, with the first three crew members returning in early January, leaving enough provisions on Skylab for the three remaining crew members to stretch their stay up to 6 months before being forced to come back to Earth, in the event no shuttle flight occurs before supplies run out. Soviet leader Gorbachev publicly offers a Soyuz flight to the American complex, if required, for supplies. The State Department kindly rejects the offer, but thanks the Soviet Union for the good gesture. Media notes that this is the first time since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program that cooperation in space is brought up, while critics ridicule the idea offered by Gorbachev as practically infeasible, given the location of the Baikonur launch center and the capabilities of Soyuz and the incompatible orbit of Skylab from this launch site. Cynics also note that Gorbachev probably knew exactly what he was doing, knowing his offer, even if accepted, would be technically impractical.
STS-71-B. 26 June 1987. Columbia. The first orbiter of the fleet makes the only docking with Skylab of the year 1987, as a relief flight granted a waiver by vice-president Bush, amid intense political scrutiny and logistical pressure. Filled up with a maximum payload destined to the Skylab complex, including spare parts for the aging Core module in space for more than 14 years, Columbia docks uneventfully and stays for a mere 10 days, with a crew of 4 going up and 5 coming back down, leaving only 2 astronauts going up as a caretaker crew for Skylab. This flight marks the first time U.S. Astronauts have spent more than 6 months on orbit, and the first time it is planned for US astronauts to remain in space for the same duration. Columbia lands without any issues at Edwards AFB, restoring faith in the Space Shuttle Program.
President Reagan greets personally the astronauts and announces that the shuttle fleet will actually be expanded by the additional construction of 3 more orbiters, bringing the fleet total to 8, in a bid to reduce turnaround pressure on the maintenance crews which have been found to be in a constant battle against the clock for most of the previous years. President Reagan also announces a project to build a new space station, replacing the aging Skylab which is suffering more and more from the passage of time.
STS-81-A. 18 January 1988. Discovery. Official return to operational status of the Space Shuttle, bringing back a Perseus capsule and 3 crew members along with supplies. This marks the first time the shuttle crew has the capability to bail-out in the event the shuttle is unable to make it back to a runway, under certain circumstances. Mission duration of 14 days.
STS-82-A. 12 February 1988. Atlantis. DOD mission. Flight is covered in secrecy. Flight duration is less than a day. Rumors spread that this was a satellite capture flight, but all details are classified, others speculate that it was a nuclear powered radar satellite being deployed.
STS-81-B. 22 April 1988. Challenger. Skylab expansion mission with crew rotation, Skylab being limited to 3 crew members due to failing hardware aboard the station. A new set of solar panels are brought to replace the decayed arrays of the 1970s, which are producing a fraction of the nominal power at launch. Problems are also cropping up in the life support systems. Some already speculate Skylab won't make it into the 1990s, given that it has already spent 15 years in space.
STS-81-C. 28 May 1988. Enterprise. Mission carrying various sensor platforms in free-flight for development of new observation satellite instrumentation. As a first and at the invitation of Secretary-General Gorbachev while on a visit to Moscow, Reagan spoke with the shuttle astronauts via the communication facilities of the Soviet Union's space program. During that visit, both leaders announced that discussions were underway for some time about cooperating on some projects in space, but without any clear definitive objective so far. Rumors of the time go from a Shuttle-Mir or Soyuz-Skylab remake of the ASTP, all the way to a manned mission to Mars.
STS-81-D. 8 August 1988. Columbia. Combined Skylab/Spacelab mission. Crew rotation, fresh supplies and experiment rotations performed.
STS-81-E. 29 September 1988. Discovery. TDRS deployment.
...to be continued...
STS-61-E. 6 march 1986. Columbia. Happens exactly as planned with observation of Halley's comet. Second flight of the LFBB. Complete success of the LFBB which both land autonomously at KSC.
STS-61-F. 15 April 1986. Challenger. Skylab crew and Perseus capsules rotation. Challenger has 8 crew members, marking the first flight in shuttle history which will bring a whole new 6-person crew to Skylab up and 6 astronauts back down in a single launch, leaving only Commander Frederick Hauck and Pilot Roy D. Bridges on both the ascent and reentry phases of flights.
STS-61-G. 20 May 1986. Atlantis. During launch, Atlantis suffers an engine-out before passing the ATO boundary, thus having to execute a first-ever TAL abort to Zaragoza, Spain. The Jupiter probe Galileo thus misses it's launch window and will have to be rescheduled to a later date. Anti-nuclear protesters take advantage of the recent Chernobyl accident to manifest their opposition to the landing of a foreign nuclear-powered probe on European soil.
STS-61-H. 24 June 1986. Enterprise. Enterprise takes off with Michael Coats and John Blaha as CDR and Pilot respectively, with a total crew of 4, bringing the total complement of the Shutte-Skylab complex to 10 person for the remainder of docked operations.
STS-62-A. 4th July 1986. Discovery. President Reagan witnesses on-site the first ever launch of a DOD mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base, rumored to be taking a payload of the SDI (aka Star Wars Program) up into polar orbit. The launch proceeds successfully, to the dismay of the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
STS-61-M. 22 July 1986. Challenger. Commanding the mission, Loren Shriver guides the shuttle to a first docking with Skylab while another shuttle is already present. For this complex mission, which aims at expanding Skylab beyond it's original configuration, Challenger brings a new module, a node, to which further modules will be able to dock for expansion of the orbiting complex. First, Enterprise will undock with Coats, Blaha and most of the departing crew of Skylab. Combined together, eighteen astronauts are in space at the same time at the same place for a first time ever.
Meanwhile, two teams of two crew members who had remained on-board Skylab will undock aboard the Perseus capsules and be captured one after another by Enterprise's SRMS. Enterprise will then berth to one capsule, transfer the occupants on-board, then stow the capsule in it's payload bay and proceed identically with the second capsule. Challenger then used it's docking adapter to dock perpendicularly with the module it carried. Under the watch of Enterprise and four astronauts conducting an EVA and tethered to Skylab, Challenger docked with Skylab using it's RCS to align the expansion module with Skylab's docking port, moving into position with the Skylab Core Node, which enabled the attachment of structural elements, pressurized modules. Challenger remained with Skylab for a week leaving six new crew members on the outpost. After vacating Skylab, Enterprise completes it's mission and returns to Earth with the previous crew of Skylab one week ahead of Challenger.
STS-61-J. 18 August 1986. Atlantis. Hubble Space Telescope Deployment as originally planned.
STS-61-N. 4 September 1986. Discovery. DOD mission as originally planned.
STS-61-I. 27 September 1986. Enterprise. Skylab crew and Perseus capsules rotation. Installation of docking adapters to enable multiple docking of shuttles alongside Perseus capsules.
STS-61-K. 1 October 1986. Columbia. Following successful attachment of the docking adapters by Enterprise's crew, Columbia gets a GO at launching towards Skylab for Dual Orbiter Docked Operations (DODO). First flight of a very long duration orbiter flight. Tailored for very long duration, the shuttle is equipped with the necessary consumables to stay in space up to 60 days while docked, or 28 days in free flight, limited only by issues regarding landing gear tire pressures, extended from their original limit of 28 days. Columbia has been under refurbishment for most of 1986. Mission calls for Columbia to remained docked for 45 days, which will actually be extended to 55.
This is the first milestone at retiring the Apollo-derived Perseus capsules to enable visiting shuttle more freedom in transporting cargo, limited by the weight and size of the embarked capsules. The Skylab complex reaches a new record for combined mass, with the Skylab core itself, SkyHab, the Skylab Core Node, two Perseus capsules and two shuttle Orbiters (Columbia and Enterprise) docked at the same time. This flight proves that two shuttles can be docked together at the Skylab safely, which enables permanent staffing during orbiter dedicated return vehicle duty swaps.
It is during that mission that President Reagan and Soviet Secretary-General Mikhail Gorbachev meet together at Reykjavik, Iceland on October 11-12. While the talks stall on matters of human rights, nuclear armament reductions and international policy, the two note similarities in the evolution of their national space programs, with the launch of Mir earlier that year. Further talks are planned for the next year of the issues raised at the Reykjavik Summit.
STS-61-L. 14 November 1986. Atlantis. Mission to relieve Columbia from it's Skylab duty and replace it while Challenger still undergoes modifications for very long duration docking at Skylab. For the first time ever, a photojournalist from Times is brought along. Mission is extended to December 21 due to the events of the following flights and would be the last docking of Skylab for quite some time...
STS-72-A. 10 December 1986. Discovery. Near tragedy for the space program, as the Vandenberg-launched shuttle has to perform a Transoceanic Abort at Hao Airbase, at night, in French Polynesia, following two-engines out late in the ascent due to faulty wiring. A review indicates that the double engine shutdown could have happened at any time during the ascent, but that the crew was lucky enough that it did not occur earlier, as it would have resulted in certain death of the crew in a futile attempt at ditching in the Pacific, at night.
STS-71-A. 18 December 1986. Challenger. After undergoing some software patching, Challenger takes an “improved” version of PASS along in it's GPCs which go around the limiting “feature” of it's software regarding being active in space at New Year's Eve, a serious limitation for long duration docked operations at Skylab. However, Challenger's won't even make it to orbit and just like it's sister-ship Discovery the week before, instead has to perform the second RTLS of the Space shuttle program, and for the first time using the Backup Flight System. The issue is traced to a programing error in the PASS software, crashing all 4 GPCs running it, which was absent from the unmodified BFS. Following this near-miss, which echoes eerily the troubles encountered by Challenger itself on STS-51-F, Columbia on STS-1A, Atlantis on STS-61-G and Discovery on STS-72A, the shuttles are grounded indefinitely for a full review of their flight hardware and software.
A commission is created by President Reagan and headed by William Rogers, former secretary of state. The commission would find troublesome issues at NASA, under intense pressure to keep the busy flight schedule on time. Some engineers and technicians of the STS program come forward with revelations that some missions were performed with some falsified engineering reports under pressure from some managers. The managers merely state that they misunderstood the technical issues presented to them. Also of note was the scathing comments and observations by noted scientist Richard Feynman, who pushed through a much more abrasive observation of NASA's safety culture, published as an appendix to the full commission report. Mr. Feynman was very vocal of the need to suspend shuttle launches until flaws both in hardware processing and human reasoning were addressed around the Space Shuttle Program.
Also, under pressure from the astronauts themselves, a program was implemented to review egress options of flight crews and provide the option to at least attempt to parachute out while the orbiter is gliding under computer control. As jumping in the North Atlantic in plain clothing would be suicidal, new suits are then designed based on those worn by SR-71 and U-2 pilots, providing some additional safeties in scenarios of cabin decompression.
The decision to rely only on the STS to go back and forth to Skylab is reviewed, and NASA is forced to reverse it's planned phase out of the Perseus capsules at the orbiting complex. Also, as a consequence of the findings of the Rogers Commission, commercial satellite launches are no longer accepted on Space Shuttles, effective immediately at that time. Clients were refunded their deposits and mission planners got busy sorting out a new flight manifest based on the new administration guidelines.
Skylab-Shuttle Mission 12's crew comes back to Earth in two batches, with the first three crew members returning in early January, leaving enough provisions on Skylab for the three remaining crew members to stretch their stay up to 6 months before being forced to come back to Earth, in the event no shuttle flight occurs before supplies run out. Soviet leader Gorbachev publicly offers a Soyuz flight to the American complex, if required, for supplies. The State Department kindly rejects the offer, but thanks the Soviet Union for the good gesture. Media notes that this is the first time since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program that cooperation in space is brought up, while critics ridicule the idea offered by Gorbachev as practically infeasible, given the location of the Baikonur launch center and the capabilities of Soyuz and the incompatible orbit of Skylab from this launch site. Cynics also note that Gorbachev probably knew exactly what he was doing, knowing his offer, even if accepted, would be technically impractical.
STS-71-B. 26 June 1987. Columbia. The first orbiter of the fleet makes the only docking with Skylab of the year 1987, as a relief flight granted a waiver by vice-president Bush, amid intense political scrutiny and logistical pressure. Filled up with a maximum payload destined to the Skylab complex, including spare parts for the aging Core module in space for more than 14 years, Columbia docks uneventfully and stays for a mere 10 days, with a crew of 4 going up and 5 coming back down, leaving only 2 astronauts going up as a caretaker crew for Skylab. This flight marks the first time U.S. Astronauts have spent more than 6 months on orbit, and the first time it is planned for US astronauts to remain in space for the same duration. Columbia lands without any issues at Edwards AFB, restoring faith in the Space Shuttle Program.
President Reagan greets personally the astronauts and announces that the shuttle fleet will actually be expanded by the additional construction of 3 more orbiters, bringing the fleet total to 8, in a bid to reduce turnaround pressure on the maintenance crews which have been found to be in a constant battle against the clock for most of the previous years. President Reagan also announces a project to build a new space station, replacing the aging Skylab which is suffering more and more from the passage of time.
STS-81-A. 18 January 1988. Discovery. Official return to operational status of the Space Shuttle, bringing back a Perseus capsule and 3 crew members along with supplies. This marks the first time the shuttle crew has the capability to bail-out in the event the shuttle is unable to make it back to a runway, under certain circumstances. Mission duration of 14 days.
STS-82-A. 12 February 1988. Atlantis. DOD mission. Flight is covered in secrecy. Flight duration is less than a day. Rumors spread that this was a satellite capture flight, but all details are classified, others speculate that it was a nuclear powered radar satellite being deployed.
STS-81-B. 22 April 1988. Challenger. Skylab expansion mission with crew rotation, Skylab being limited to 3 crew members due to failing hardware aboard the station. A new set of solar panels are brought to replace the decayed arrays of the 1970s, which are producing a fraction of the nominal power at launch. Problems are also cropping up in the life support systems. Some already speculate Skylab won't make it into the 1990s, given that it has already spent 15 years in space.
STS-81-C. 28 May 1988. Enterprise. Mission carrying various sensor platforms in free-flight for development of new observation satellite instrumentation. As a first and at the invitation of Secretary-General Gorbachev while on a visit to Moscow, Reagan spoke with the shuttle astronauts via the communication facilities of the Soviet Union's space program. During that visit, both leaders announced that discussions were underway for some time about cooperating on some projects in space, but without any clear definitive objective so far. Rumors of the time go from a Shuttle-Mir or Soyuz-Skylab remake of the ASTP, all the way to a manned mission to Mars.
STS-81-D. 8 August 1988. Columbia. Combined Skylab/Spacelab mission. Crew rotation, fresh supplies and experiment rotations performed.
STS-81-E. 29 September 1988. Discovery. TDRS deployment.
...to be continued...
