Nov 16 1982
From The Space Library
Space Shuttle Columbia began a year-long vacation as the second operational Shuttle, Challenger, began final engine tests at KSC in preparation for a three-day mission in January 1983 with a four-man crew.
After its landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Columbia was scheduled to return to KSC for "six dozen minor modifications" after completing its first commercial venture, STS-5. The modifications would prepare it for the December 1983 launch of Spacelab, built for NASA by ESA. NASA spokesman said that the first five flights had proved that the Shuttle could launch satellites into space with "remarkable accuracy"; demonstrated that four men could do high-pressure jobs in a cabin the size of a pickup camper; and showed that the Shuttle, like an airplane, worked better the more it was used. (USA Today, Nov 17/82, 3A)
MSFC said that it had sent NASA's first inertial upper stage (IUS-1) to Cape Canaveral to ready it for launch in Challenger's payload bay in January 1983. The first of six to be built by Boeing for the U.S. Air Force Systems Command, IUS-l was an unmanned system for pushing payloads to high altitudes unreachable by the Shuttle in its 150-mile orbit. The two-stage vehicle, 17 feet long and about 9 feet in diameter, weighed more than 16 tons, had more than 64,000 pounds of thrust, and could carry up to 5,000 pounds of payload to geostationary orbit 22,300 miles up.
At KSC, the IUS would be mated to a tracking and data-relay satellite (TDRS), first of four planned for launch to replace present ground stations and improve command and telemetry functions for the growing number of operational satellites. NASA hoped to have the four-craft system in operation late in 1983. (MSFC Release 82-103)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
