| Mukai | ||
Personal: Female, Married. Born in Tatebayashi, Gunma Prefecture, Japan. MD Astronaut Career Astronaut Group: NASDA Group - 1985, Payload Specialist. Active Entered space service: 7 August 1985. Number of Flights: 2.00. Total Time: 23.65 days.
Official NASA Biography:
Mukai Spaceflight Log
Mukai Chronology 1988 February - STS-81-G (cancelled). Assignment: Proposed Prime Crew. Flight: STS-81-G. Planned Spacelab-J shuttle mission. Cancelled after Challenger disaster. 8 July 1994 - STS-65. Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight: STS-65. Carried IML-2; microgravity, biology experiments. Payloads: International Microgravity Laboratory (IML) 2, Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE), Commercial Protein Crystal Growth (CPCG), Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS), Military Applications of Ship Tracks (MAST), Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX). 23 July 1994 - Landing of STS-65. Assignment: Return Crew. Flight: STS-65. STS-65 landed at 10:39 GMT. 17 April 1998 - STS-90. Assignment: Backup Crew. Flight: STS-90. Columbia rolled out to pad 39B on March 23. Payloads:
The Neurolab mission was managed by NASA-Johnson at Houston, unlike earlier Spacelab flights which were NASA-Marshall/Huntsville's responsibility. Landed at Kennedy Space Center May 3 1998. 29 October 1998 - STS-95. Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight: STS-95. The flight of STS-95 provoked more publicity for NASA than any other flight in years, due to the presence of ex-astronaut Senator John Glenn on the crew, which also included the first Spanish astronaut, Pedro Duque. The US Navy PANSAT student satellite was deployed on Oct 30 into a 550 km x 561 x 28.5 degree orbit. The Spartan 201 satellite was deployed from Discovery on November 1 and retrieved on November 3. Spartan 201 was on its fifth mission to observe the solar corona. The data on this mission would be used to recalibrate the SOHO satellite which recently resumed observation of the Sun following loss of control. Discovery landed at 17:03:31 GMT November 7 on Runway 33 at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center. 29 October 1998 - STS-95 Mission Status Report # 02. Flight: STS-95. The crew of Discovery sailed through an opening day in orbit this afternoon, staying ahead of schedule for the most part as they prepared the spacecraft and a slate of more than 80 experiments for nine days in orbit. Three hours and ten minutes into the flight, astronaut John Glenn, Discovery's Payload ...more... 29 October 1998 - STS-95 Mission Status Report # 01. Flight: STS-95. The Shuttle Discovery blasted off into a cloudless sky today at 1:19 p.m. Central time from the Kennedy Space Center to kick off a planned nine-day scientific research mission and to return John Glenn to space, 36 years, 8 months and nine days after he became the first American to orbit the Earth. Launch was delayed briefly while flight controllers evaluated an alarm during cabin ...more... 30 October 1998 - STS-95 Mission Status Report # 03. Flight: STS-95. Discovery's astronauts will spend their first full day in space supporting wide-ranging activities, from releasing a small communications satellite to studying the behavior of materials at an atomic level. Commander Curt Brown, Pilot Steve Lindsey and Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski ...more... 31 October 1998 - STS-95 Mission Status Report # 05. Flight: STS-95. Medical investigations will begin in earnest today as Discovery's crew moves forward with research comparing the changes the human body goes through when making trips into orbit with the changes that occur as part of the natural aging process on Earth. Payload Specialist John Glenn, 77, will begin providing the 10 blood samples and ...more... 1 November 1998 - STS-95 Mission Status Report # 08. Flight: STS-95. Discovery's crew released a second satellite today, a telescope package that will fly free of the Shuttle for two days to study the sun and the solar wind, research that may help scientists better understand a phenomenon that sometimes can cause widespread disruptions of communications and power supplies on Earth. Mission Specialist Steve Robinson, using Discovery's robotic arm, lifted the Spartan ...more... 2 November 1998 - STS-95 Mission Status Report # 10. Flight: STS-95. Discovery's crew took a few hours break from the continuous pace of research activity on board today, a standard rest period for the crew that is planned during longer shuttle flights. Research continues, however, as the Spartan solar science satellite released by ...more... 2 November 1998 - STS-95 Mission Status Report # 09. Flight: STS-95. Discovery's astronauts were awakened at 6 a.m. Central time this morning by Andy Williams' rendition of the 1962 Academy Award winning song, "Moon River." Annie Glenn requested the song as a tribute to the longstanding friendship between Williams and her husband, Payload Specialist John Glenn. The seven crew members are looking forward to some free time today, following yesterday's successful deployment of the Spartan solar physics satellite, which will study the outer layers of the sun's atmosphere until it is retrieved by Discovery tomorrow. Work will continue today with a wide variety of science experiments on board, although ...more... 3 November 1998 - STS-95 Mission Status Report # 11. Flight: STS-95. Discovery's astronauts began the second half of their flight at 5:25 a.m. Central time this morning to the sounds of Stevie Ray Vaughn's "If the House is A-Rockin," in honor of Mission Specialist Steve Robinson. Robinson is known as "Stevie Ray Robinson" by the other members of the astronaut band known as "Max Q". After enjoying a break in their schedule yesterday, the crew is focusing its attention on this afternoon's retrieval of the Spartan solar physics satellite, which has spent the past two days studying the outer layers of the sun's atmosphere. Retrieval is set for 2:45 p.m. Central time. Rendezvous activities will begin when Commander Curt Brown fires Discovery's engines ...more... 3 November 1998 - STS-95 Mission Status Report # 12. Flight: STS-95. The SPARTAN satellite was captured and returned to its berth this afternoon, successfully completing its two-day solar science mission. SPARTAN Mission Manager Craig Toohey congratulated the crew and flight control team on their performance in executing the mission exactly as planned. Toohey said that 30 percent of the science data already had been linked to the ground and the remainder would be off-loaded at landing. SPARTAN Scientist Dr. Richard Fisher noted that investigators were pleased to have the satellite in orbit near a solar maximum cycle and that its instruments had captured sought-after data on a solar mass ejection event. The rendezvous began with Commander Curt Brown firing Discovery's orbital maneuvering ...more... 4 November 1998 - STS-95 Mission Status Report # 13. Flight: STS-95. Music from Japan awakened Discovery's astronauts at 4:50 a.m. Central time this morning. "Wakaki Chi," a cheering song from Keio University where Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai received her medical degree, was played in recognition of the phone call she will receive at 2:55 p.m. from Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Minister of State for Science and Technology, Yutaka Takeyama. The astronauts will once again remove the Spartan solar science satellite from its ...more... 4 November 1998 - STS-95 Mission Status Report # 14. Flight: STS-95. The seventh day in orbit for Space Shuttle Discovery and its seven-member astronaut crew was packed with ongoing science operations. Early in the day, Mission Specialist Steve Robinson, assisted by Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski, tested the Orbiter Space Vision System. OSVS uses special markings on Spartan and the shuttle cargo bay to provide an alignment aid for the arm's operator using shuttle television images. This was its final on-orbit test before going into operational use on the next Space Shuttle flight in December as an aid in using the arm to join together the first two modules of the International Space Station. This afternoon Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai along with STS-95 commander Curt ...more... 5 November 1998 - STS-95 Mission Status Report # 15. Flight: STS-95. The Moody Blues awakened Discovery's seven astronauts at 4:15 a.m. Central time this morning for their eighth day of on-orbit science activities. The song, "I Know You're Out There Somewhere," was chosen by Commander Curt Brown's family. With the Spartan solar science satellite again secured in its berth in Discovery's ...more... 5 November 1998 - STS-95 Mission Status Report # 16. Flight: STS-95. Some of the 80-plus experiments aboard Discovery were being wrapped up today as the end of the STS-95 mission approaches. Others will continue through Friday afternoon, the final full day on orbit. Pilot Steve Lindsey and Mission Specialists Steve Robinson and Pedro Duque checked ...more... 7 November 1998 - STS-95 Mission Status Report # 20. Flight: STS-95. Discovery's astronauts glided to a smooth landing at the Kennedy Space Center today to wrap up a nine-day, 3.6 million mile mission which marked the return of John Glenn to orbit and saw the crew members successfully conduct more than 80 scientific experiments. Commander Curt Brown and Pilot Steve Lindsey set Discovery down on the 3-mile long ...more... 7 November 1998 - Landing of STS-95. Assignment: Return Crew. Flight: STS-95. STS-95 landed at 17:03 GMT. Bibliography and Further Reading
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