Nov 26 1985
From The Space Library
NASA announced that students in classrooms throughout the continental U.S. would have an opportunity to observe various aspects of Space Shuttle mission 51-L and to listen, look, and learn from NASA's Teacher in Space, Christa McAuliffe, during her flight on Challenger. A few students would also be able to question McAuliffe about the mission.
TV viewers with satellite dishes would be able to access the live lessons directly from the RCA satellite Satcom F-2R, Transponder 13. The Public Broadcasting Service, as a result of an agreement with NASA, would carry the live lessons via the satellite Westar IV, Transponder 12. PBS would offer the programs to member stations after requesting that they preempt regular instructional TV or classroom programming to carry the lessons live.
McAuliffe would teach two lessons on the sixth day of the flight [see Space Transportation System/Civilian in Space Program, Oct. 2]; the first at approximately 11:00 a.m. EST, the second at about 1:00 p.m. EST.
Classrooms with access to a satellite dish or cable network that carried NASA-Select would also be able to participate in a "Mission Watch," which covered aspects of the entire Space Shuttle flight from the day before launch through the conclusion of the mission. Barbara Morgan, backup for McAuliffe, would moderate the Mission Watch broadcast. (NASA Release 85-156)
During November NASA would launch the first RCA Satcom Ku-Band satellite, KU-2, on Space Shuttle mission 61-B. Three RCA Satcom Ku-Band satellites would complement the operating Satcom C-Band system in providing distribution of TV services to customers in metropolitan areas. (NASA Release 85-90)
NASA launched at 7:29 p.m. today from KSC the Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission 61-B to practice methods for building a space station and to launch three satellites, the Washington Post reported. People more than 400 miles away in South Carolina and Key West, Florida, saw the launch. There had been only two other previous U.S. night launches: in 1972 when the Apollo 17 crew left for the moon in the middle of the night and in 1983 when the Space Shuttle Challenger departed in early morning.
Nine minutes after launch, mission control reported Atlantis was in a secure orbit about 200 miles high, and launch director Gene Thomas said the countdown was the smoothest yet in the Space Shuttle program.
Crew onboard Atlantis were Lt. Col. Brewster Shaw, commander; Lt. Col. Bryan O'Connor, pilot; mission specialists Dr. Mary Cleave, Maj. Jerry Ross, and Lt. Col. Sherwood Spring; and payload specialists Rudolfo Neri Vela (Mexico's first astronaut) and McDonnell Douglas engineer Charles Walker.
During the mission the crew would launch Mexico's Morelos B satellite, Australia's AUSSAT 2, and RCA's Satcom KU-2. Jerry Ross and Sherwood Spring would also take two long spacewalks to assemble 93 aluminum struts into a 45-foot beam and six 12-foot beams into a 64-lb. inverted pyramid to test techniques that might be used to build the proposed permanently manned space station. Following each spacewalk, the mission specialists would disassemble and stow the beams. Cameras would record every move so that later a computer could reduce the photos to a motion study that engineers would use to determine how construction work could best be performed in the zero gravity of outer space. (NASA Release 85-153; W Post, Nov 27/85, A3)
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