Altman

Buckey

Hire

Linnehan

Pawelczyk

Searfoss

Williams Dave

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STS-90

17 April 1998 18:19 GMT. Landing Date: 1998-05-03 16:09:00 PM. Flight Time: 15.91 days. Flight Up: STS-90. Flight Back: STS-90. Call Sign: Columbia. Crew: Altman, Buckey, Hire, Linnehan, Pawelczyk, Searfoss, Williams Dave. Backup Crew: Mukai, Dunlap. Program: Spacelab. Columbia rolled out to pad 39B on March 23. Payloads:

• Spacelab transfer tunnel
• Spacelab Long Module, with Neurolab experiments for the following life science studies:
  • Chronic Recording of Otolith Nerves in Microgravity
  • Development of the Aortic Baroreflex under Conditions of Microgravity
  • Neural-Thyroid Interaction on Skeletal Isomyosin Expression in OG
  • Spatial Orientation of the Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex and Velocity Storage
  • Autonomic Neuroplasticity in Weightlessness

• Extended Duration Orbiter pallet
• Two Get Away Special beams with canisters G-197, G-467, G-772 (Colorado's COLLIDE experiment, which collided small particles into each other to simulate the formation of planets and rings).

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.

Williams Dave Credit- www.spacefacts.de

Launch:

April 17, 1998, 2:19:00 p.m. EDT. Launch postponed on April 16 for 24 hours due to difficulty with one of Columbia’s two network signal processors, which format data and voice communications between the ground and the Space Shuttle. Network signal processor 2 was replaced, and liftoff on April 17 occurred on time.

Landing:

May 3, 1998, 12:08:59 p.m. EDT, Runway 33, Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Rollout distance: 9,998 feet (3,047 meters). Rollout time: 58 seconds. Mission duration: 15 days, 21 hours, 49 minutes, 59 seconds. Landed on orbit 256, on first KSC opportunity for day. Logged 6.375 million statute miles. Marked 14th consecutive Shuttle landing at KSC and 21st in the last 22 missions.

Mission Highlights:

Neurolab’s 26 experiments targeted one of the most complex and least understood parts of the human body – the nervous system. Primary goals were to conduct basic research in neurosciences and expand understanding of how the nervous system develops and functions in space. Test subjects were crew members and rats, mice, crickets, snails and two kinds of fish. Cooperative effort of NASA, several domestic partners and the space agencies of Canada (CSA), France (CNES) and Germany (DARA), as well as the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA).

Most experiments conducted in pressurized Spacelab long module located in Columbia’s payload bay. This was 16th and last scheduled flight of the ESA-developed Spacelab module although Spacelab pallets will continue to be used on the International Space Station. Research conducted as planned, with the exception of the Mammalian Development Team, which had to reprioritize science activities because of the unexpected high mortality rate of neonatal rats on board.

STS-90 Credit- www.spacefacts.de

Other payloads included the Shuttle Vibration Forces experiment, the Bioreactor Demonstration System-04, and three Get- Away Special (GAS) canister investigations.

Working with engineers on the ground a week into the flight, the on-orbit crew used aluminum tape to bypass a suspect valve in the Regenerative Carbon Dioxide Removal System that had threatened to cut short the mission.

Mission Management Team considered, but decided against, extending the mission one day because the science community indicated an extended flight was not necessary and weather conditions were expected to deteriorate after planned landing on Sunday, May 3.

STS-90 Mission Specialist Kay Hire was Kennedy Space Center’s first employee to be chosen as an astronaut candidate.

• 1998 Apr 17 - STS-90  Crew: Searfoss, Altman, Linnehan, Hire, Williams Dave, Buckey, Pawelczyk. Spacecraft: Columbia. Payload: Columbia F25 / Spacelab LM Eurolab. Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Shuttle. Duration: 15.91 days. Perigee: 247 km (153 mi). Apogee: 274 km (170 mi). Inclination: 39.00 deg. Period: 89.70 min.

  Columbia rolled out to pad 39B on March 23. Payloads:

  • Spacelab transfer tunnel
  • Spacelab Long Module, with Neurolab experiments for the following life science studies:
    • Chronic Recording of Otolith Nerves in Microgravity
    • Development of the Aortic Baroreflex under Conditions of Microgravity
    • Neural-Thyroid Interaction on Skeletal Isomyosin Expression in OG
    • Spatial Orientation of the Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex and Velocity Storage
    • Autonomic Neuroplasticity in Weightlessness

  • Extended Duration Orbiter pallet
  • Two Get Away Special beams with canisters G-197, G-467, G-772 (Colorado's COLLIDE experiment, which collided small particles into each other to simulate the formation of planets and rings).

  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.

• 1998 May 3 - Landing of STS-90 

  STS-90 landed at 16:09 GMT.