STS-75 Flight Day 1

Abstract

On this first day of the STS-75 mission, the flight crew, Cmdr. Andrew Allen, Pilot Scott Horowitz, Payload Cmdr. Franklin Chang-Diaz, Payload Specialist Umberto Guidoni (Italy), and Mission Specialists Jeffrey Hoffman, Maurizio Cheli (ESA) and Claude Nicollier (ESA), were shown performing pre-launch and launching activities. This international space mission's primary objective is the deployment of the Tethered Satellite System Reflight (TSS-1R) to a 12 mile length from the shuttle, a variety of experiments, and the satellite retrieval. These experiments include: Research on Orbital Plasma Electrodynamics (ROPE); TSS Deployer Core Equipment and Satellite Core Equipment (DCORE/SCORE); Research on Electrodynamic Tether Effects (RETE); Magnetic Field Experiments for TSS Missions (TEMAG); Shuttle Electrodynamic Tether Systems (SETS); Shuttle Potential and Return Electron Experiment (SPREE); Tether Optical Phenomena Experiment (TOP); and Observations at the Earth's Surface of Electromagnetic Emissions by TSS (OESSE). The mission's secondary objectives were those experiments found in the United States Microgravity Payload-3 (USMP-3), which include: Advanced Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (AADSF); Material pour l'Etude des Phenomenes Interessant la Solidification sur Terre et en Orbite (MEPHISTO); Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS); Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE); Critical Fluid Scattering Experiment (ZENO); and Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment (IDGE).