Nov 28 1985
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(New page: Crew aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission 61-B celebrated Thanksgiving in space today, saying it was one of the best Thanksgivings they ever had, the Washington Times repor...)
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Crew aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission 61-B celebrated Thanksgiving in space today, saying it was one of the best Thanksgivings they ever had, the Washington Times reported. It was the first U.S. manned spaceflight during that holiday since the third Skylab flight in 1973.
The crew's main job for the day was deployment of the 4,144-lb. SATCOM KU-2 satellite owned and operated by RCA American Communications (RCA Americom). The uninsured $50 million satellite was the last of three KU-brand domestic communications satellites that operated in the 12 to 14 gigahertz range. It had 16 operational transponders and six spares, each transmitting 45 watts of power, more than the 12 to 30 watts used for C-Band transponders.
The payload assist module (PAM) on the satellite was instrumented with radio frequency telemetry that would downlink data to ARIA (advanced range instrumentation aircraft) during burn of the solid-fuel rocket motor, a mission requirement for this first flight of a PAM-D2, the Kennedy Space Center Spaceport News explained. The uprated upper stage was identical to the PAM-D, except for size and weight. The spinup would be noticeably slower due to the larger mass and inertial components of the payload. NASA designed PAM-D2 to place up to 4,200 lb. in geosynchronous orbit, compared to the 2,800-lb. PAM-D version.
The crew's dinner menu-chicken consomme, smoked turkey, cranberry sauce, green beans, corn, pasta, butter cookies, and lemonade-sounded traditional, but the turkey was preserved before launch by irradiation, sealed in foil, and had to be heated in a device similar to a toaster oven. Crew added warm water to the consomme, vegetables, and pasta to make them edible. (W Times, Nov 29/85, 3A; Spaceport News, Nov 22/85, 4)
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