STS-94
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This is a mission of the United States Space Shuttle
| Space Shuttle program | |
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| Mission Insignia | |
| Missing image Sts-94-patch.jpg | |
| Mission Statistics | |
| Mission: | STS-94 |
| Shuttle: | Columbia |
| Launch Pad: | 39-A |
| Launch: | July 1, 1997 2:02:02 pm EDT. |
| Landing: | KSC 7/17/1997 6:47:29 am EDT. Shuttle Landing Facility Runway 33. |
| Duration: | 15 days, 16 hours, 45 minutes, 29 seconds. |
| Orbit Altitude: | 184 statute miles |
| Orbit Inclination: | 28.45 degrees |
| Distance Traveled: | 6.2 million miles |
| Crew photo | |
| Missing image Sts-94_crew.jpg | Previous Mission: STS-84 |
Next Mission: STS-85 |
| Contents |
Crew
- James D. Halsell (4), Mission Commander
- Susan L. Still (2), Pilot
- Janice E. Voss (4), Payload Commander
- Donald A. Thomas (4), Mission Specialist
- Michael L. Gernhardt (3), Mission Specialist
- Roger Crouch (2), Payload Specialist
- Greg Linteris (2), Payload Specialist
Mission Parameters
- Mass:
- Orbiter Landing with payload: 117,802 kg
- MSL-1 Spacelab Module: 10,169 kg
- Perigee: 296 km
- Apogee: 300 km
- Inclination: 28.5°
- Period: 90.5 min
Mission Highlights
This is a reflight of the STS-83 Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. MSL was originally launched on April 4, 1997 at 2:20pm EST and was intended to be on orbit for 15 days, 16 hours. The mission was cut short due to a problem with Fuel Cell #2 and Columbia landed on 4/8/97 after 3 days 23 hours.
MSL is a collection of microgravity experiments housed inside a European Spacelab Long Module (LM). It builds on the cooperative and scientific foundation of the International Microgravity Laboratory missions (IML-1 on STS-42 and IML-2 on STS-65), the United States Microgravity Laboratory missions (USML-1 on STS-50 and USML-2 on STS-73), the Japanese Spacelab mission (Spacelab-J on STS-47), the Spacelab Life and Microgravity Science Mission (LMS on STS-78) and the German Spacelab missions (D-1 on STS 61-A and D-2 on STS-55).
MSL features 19 materials science investigations in 4 major facilities. These facilities are the Large Isothermal Furnace, the EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to the Space Station (EXPRESS) Rack, the Electromagnetic Containerless Processing Facility (TEMPUS) and the Coarsening in Solid-Liquid Mixtures (CSLM) facility, the Droplet Combustion Experiment (DCE) and the Combustion Module-1 Facility. Additional technology experiments will also be performed in the Middeck Glovebox (MGBX) developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the High-Packed Digital Television (HI-PAC DTV) system will be used to provide multi-channel real-time analog science video.
The Large Isothermal Furnace was developed by the Japanese Space Agency (NASDA) for the STS-47 Spacelab-J mission and was also flown on STS-65 IML-2 mission. It will house the Measurement of Diffusion Coefficient by Shear Cell Method Experiment, the Diffusion of Liquid Metals and Alloys Experiment, the Diffusion in Liquid Led-Tin-Telluride Experiment, the Impurity Diffusion in Ionic Melts Experiment, the Liquid Phase Sintering II Experiment (LIF), and the Diffusion Processes in Molten Semiconductors Experiment (DPIMS).
The Combustion Module-1 (CM-1) facility from the NASA Lewis Research Center houses experiments on Laminar Soot Processes Experiment and the Structure of Flame Balls at Low Lewis-number Experiment (SOFTBALL).
The Droplet Combustion Experiment (DCE) is designed to investigate the fundamental combustion aspects of single, isolated droplets under different pressures and ambient oxygen concentrations for a range of droplet sizes varying between 2 and 5mm. The DCE apparatus is integrated into a single width MSL Spacelab rack in the cargo bay.
The EXPRESS rack replaces a Spacelab Double rack and special hardware will provide the same structural and resource connections the rack will have on the Space Station. It will house the Physics of Hard Spheres (PHaSE) experiment and the Astro/PGBA Experiment.
The Electromagnetic Containerless Processing Facility (TEMPUS) is used for the Experiments on Nucleation in Different Flow Regimes, Thermophysical Properities of Advanced Materials in the Undercooled Liquid State Experiment, Measurements of the Surface Tension of Liquid and Undercooled Metallic Alloys by Oscillating Drop Technique Experiment, Alloy Undercooling Experiments, the Study of the Morphological Stability of Growing Dendrites by Comparative Dendrite Velocity Measuremetns on Pure Ni and Dilute Ni-C Alloy in the Earth and Space Laboratory Experiment, the Undercooled Melts of Alloys with Polytetrahedral Short-Range Order Experiment, the Thermal Expansion of Glass Forming Metallic Alloys in the Undercooled State Experiment, the AC Calorimetry and Thermophysical Properties of Bulk Glass-Forming Metallic Liquids experiment and the Measurement of Surface Tension and Viscosity of Undercooled Liquid Metals experiment.
There will also be experiments on measuring microgravity. They include the Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS), the Microgravity Measurement Assembly (MMA), the Quasi-Steady Acceleration Measurement System and the Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE).
The Middeck Glovebox (MGBX) facility will support the Bubble and Drop Nonlinear Dynamics (BDND) Experiment, the Study of the Fundamental Operation of a Capillary-driven Heat Transfer (CHT) Device in Microgravity Experiment, the Internal Flows in a Free Drop (IFFD) experiment and the Fiber Supported Droplet Combustion experiment (FSDC-2).
Media
Related articles
- Space science
- Space shuttle
- List of space shuttle missions
- List of human spaceflights chronologically
External links
- NASA mission summary (http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-94/mission-sts-94.html)
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Space Shuttle program | Next Mission: STS-85 |