STS-60

STS-60 was a Space Shuttle program mission of NASA that launched on February 3, 1994, from Kennedy Space Center. The flight, utilizing the Orbiter ''Discovery'', was notable for carrying the first Russian cosmonaut, Sergei K. Krikalev, on a Space Shuttle mission, marking a significant step in post-Cold War international space cooperation. The primary objectives included operating the Wake Shield Facility and conducting a suite of scientific experiments in the Spacelab module.

Mission highlights

The mission launched successfully on its first attempt despite initial concerns about weather at the Transoceanic Abort Landing sites. A significant in-flight event involved the deployment and retrieval of the Wake Shield Facility, a free-flying satellite designed to create an ultra-high vacuum in its wake to grow thin semiconductor films. The crew also conducted extensive operations with the commercially developed Spacehab module, which was flying for the second time, carrying numerous experiments in materials science and life sciences. The flight included a rendezvous and proximity operations demonstration with the Wake Shield Facility, testing techniques that would be vital for future missions like those to the Mir space station.

Crew

The crew consisted of Commander Charles F. Bolden Jr., a veteran of three previous shuttle flights, and Pilot Kenneth S. Reightler Jr., on his second flight. The mission specialists were N. Jan Davis and Ronald M. Sega, both on their second spaceflights, and Franklin R. Chang Díaz, a veteran of four previous missions. Payload Specialist Sergei K. Krikalev, a veteran of long-duration stays on the Mir station, became the first Russian to fly aboard an American spacecraft since the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project in 1975. Krikalev's assignment was a direct result of the newly signed agreement between NASA and the Russian Space Agency.

Mission background

STS-60 was the first mission in the Shuttle-Mir Program, a series of cooperative flights that paved the way for the International Space Station. It originated from the 1992 U.S.-Russian Space Agreement between President George H. W. Bush and President Boris Yeltsin. The mission was also the second flight of the Spacehab module, a pressurized laboratory that increased the shuttle's middeck experiment capacity. Originally manifested for a 1993 launch, the flight was delayed due to payload and scheduling changes within the shuttle manifest following the Challenger disaster investigations and subsequent return-to-flight planning.

Scientific payloads

The primary scientific payloads were housed in the Spacehab module and on a bridge assembly in the payload bay. Key experiments included the Commercial Protein Crystal Growth investigation, which aimed to grow higher-quality protein crystals for pharmaceutical research in microgravity. The Orbital Debris Radar Calibration Spheres were deployed to help calibrate ground-based radar tracking of space debris. Other significant investigations were part of the Space Experiment Module program, offering low-cost access to space for student experiments, and the Bioserve Instrumentation Technology Associates Materials Dispersion Apparatus, which processed various material samples.

Wake Shield Facility operations

The Wake Shield Facility was a unique, disk-shaped satellite developed by the University of Houston and Space Industries Incorporated. It was designed to be released from the shuttle's robotic arm to fly freely, using its wake in the rarefied orbital environment to create an ultra-vacuum estimated to be 1,000 times better than achievable in the best Earth-based chambers. In this environment, it used epitaxial growth techniques to create thin films of gallium arsenide. Although deployment and film growth operations faced some technical challenges, including issues with attitude control, the facility demonstrated the proof-of-concept and produced several high-quality semiconductor film samples for analysis back on Earth.

Mission insignia and legacy

The mission insignia featured the Space Shuttle Discovery against the backdrop of a sunrise over Earth's limb, with a stylized representation of the Wake Shield Facility and the flags of the United States and Russia intertwined, symbolizing the new era of cooperation. The flight's legacy is profound, as it successfully initiated the Shuttle-Mir Program, which provided critical experience in long-duration spaceflight, international partnership logistics, and station operations that were directly applied to the development and assembly of the International Space Station. The inclusion of Sergei K. Krikalev set a precedent for integrated crew operations that continues to define human spaceflight today. Category:Space Shuttle missions Category:1994 in spaceflight Category:Space Shuttle Discovery