Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-87) lifts of from Launch Complex 39B, 19:46:00 UTC, 19 November 1997. (NASA)
19 November 1997, 19:46:00 UTC, T minus Zero: Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, on mission STS-87. This was the 88th flight of the space shuttle program, and the 24th flight for Columbia.
The flight crew was led by mission commander, Colonel Kevin R. Kregel, U.S. Air Force, on his third space flight, with shuttle pilot Colonel Steven W. Lindsey, U.S. Air Force, on his first. Mission Specialist Captain Winston E. Scott, U.S. Navy, was on his second flight; Kalpana Chwala, Ph.D., was on her first; Takao Doi, Ph.D., Japanese Aerospace Explosration Agency (JAXA), was on his first; Payload Specialist Colonel Leonid K. Kandeniuk, Ukraine Air Force, and National Space Agency of Ukraine (NSAU), was on his only flight.
STS-87 carried a number of scientific research experiments which required Captain Scott and Doctor Doi to perform two “space walks”, the first EVAs conducted from Columbia.
Columbia landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF), Kennedy Space Center, at 12:20 UTC, 5 December 1997. The duration of the mission was 15 days, 16 hours, 35 minutes, 01 seconds.
The flight crew of Columbia (STS-87): left to right, in orange: Dr. Kalapana Chawla; Colonel Steven W. Lindsey, USAF; Colonel Kevin R. Kregel, USAF; Colonel Leonid K. Kadeniuk, UAF. In white, Captain Winston E. Scott, USN; Dr. Takao Doi, JAXA. (NASA)
Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off from LC 39B, 2:55:47 p.m. EST, 19 November 1996. (NASA)
19 November 1996, 19:55:47 UTC, T minus Zero: Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, on mission STS-80. The veteran flight crew was led by mission commander, Captain Kenneth D. Cockrell, U.S. Navy, on his third space flight, with shuttle pilot Captain Kent V. Rominger, U.S. Navy, on his second. Mission Specialist Story Musgrave, M.D., was on his sixth flight; Thomas D. Jones, Ph.D., (formerly Captain, USAF, a B-52 aircraft commander) was on his third; Tamara E. Jernigan, Ph.D. was on her fourth.
On STS-80, Story Musgrave became the only person to have flown on all five space shuttles. At 61, he was the oldest person to have flown into space at the time.
STS-80 was the longest mission of any space shuttle flight, with a duration of 17 days, 15 hours, 53 minutes, 18 seconds. Columbia landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at Kennedy Space Center, 11:49:05 UTC, 7 December 1996.
The flight crew of Columbia STS-80, seated, left to right: Captain Kent V. Rominger, USN, and Captain Kenneth D. Cockrell, USN; standing, Tamara E. Jernigan, Ph.D.; Franklin Story Musgrave, M.D.; and Thomas D. Jones, Ph.D. (NASA)
Skylab 4 (SA-208) lift off from Launch Complex 39B, 14:01:23 UTC, 16 November 1973. (NASA)
16 November 1973: Skylab 4 lifted off from Launch Complex 39B, Kennedy Space Center, at 14:01:23 UTC. Aboard the Apollo Command and Service Module were NASA astronauts Lieutenant Colonel Gerald Paul Carr, U.S. Marine Corps, Mission Commander; Lieutenant Colonel William Reid Pogue, U.S. Air Force; and Edward George Gibson, Ph.D. This would be the only space mission for each of them. They would spend 84 days working aboard Skylab.
Skylab 4 crew, left to right, Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson and William Pogue. (NASA)
The launch vehicle was a Saturn IB, SA-208. This rocket had previously stood by as a rescue vehicle during the Skylab 3 mission. The Saturn IB consisted of an S-IB first stage and an S-IVB second stage.
Mission SL-2 Saturn IB Launch Vehicle. (NASA)
The S-IB was built by Chrysler Corporation Space Division at the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, Louisiana. It was powered by eight Rocketdyne H-1 engines, burning RP-1 and liquid oxygen. Eight Redstone rocket fuel tanks, with 4 containing the RP-1 fuel, and 4 filled with liquid oxygen, surrounded a Jupiter rocket fuel tank containing liquid oxygen. Total thrust of the S-IB stage was 1,666,460 pounds (7,417.783 kilonewtons) and it carried sufficient propellant for a maximum 4 minutes, 22.57 seconds of burn. First stage separation was planned for n altitude of 193,605 feet, with the vehicle accelerating through 7,591.20 feet per second (2,313.80 meters per second).
The McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Co. S-IVB stage was built at Huntington Beach, California. It was powered by one Rocketdyne J-2 engine, fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The J-2 produced 229,714 pounds of thrust (1,021.819 kilonewtons), at high thrust, and 198,047 pounds (880.957 kilonewtons) at low thrust). The second stage carried enough fuel for 7 minutes, 49.50 seconds burn at high thrust. Orbital insertion would be occur 9 minutes, 51.9 seconds after launch, at an altitude of 98.5 miles (158.5 kilometers) with a velocity of 25,705.77 feet per second (7,835.12 meters per second).
The Skylab-configuration Saturn IB rocket was 223 feet, 5.9 inches (68.119 meters) tall. It had a maximum diameter of 22.8 feet (6.949 meters), and the span across the first stage guide fins was 40.7 feet (12.405 meters). Its empty weight was 159,000 pounds (72,122 kilograms) and at liftoff, it weighed 1,296,000 pounds (587,856 kilograms). It was capable of launching a 46,000 pound (20,865 kilogram) payload to Earth orbit.
Skylab in Earth orbit, as seen by the departing Skylab 4 mission crew, 8 February 1974. (NASA)
Apollo 12 Saturn V (AS-507) lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 16:22:00 UTC, 14 November 1969. (NASA image scanned and remastered by Dan Beaumont)
14 November 1969: At 16:22:00.68 UTC (11:22:00 a.m., Eastern Standard Time), the Apollo 12 Saturn V (AS-507) lifted off from Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida.
This was the second manned space flight to the Moon. The flight crew were Commander Charles “Pete” Conrad, Jr., United States Navy, Mission Commander; Commander Richard F. Gordon, Jr., U.S. Navy, Command Module Pilot; Commander Alan L. Bean, U.S. Navy, Lunar Module Pilot.
Their destination was Oceanus Procellarum.
The crew of Apollo 12: Charles “Pete” Conrad, Jr., Richard F. Gordon, Jr., and Alan L. Bean. (NASA)
Two lightning strikes 36.5 seconds after liftoff caused the spacecraft’s automatic systems to shut down three fuel cells, leaving Apollo 12 operating on battery power. A third electrical disturbance at T + 52 seconds caused the “8 ball” attitude indicator in the cockpit to fail. A quick thinking ground controller, the “EECOM,” called “Try SCE to Aux.” Alan Bean recalled this from a simulation a year earlier, found the correct switch and restored the failed systems.
The lightning discharge was caused by the Apollo 12/Saturn V vehicle accelerating through rain at approximately 6,300 feet (1,950 meters). There were no thunderstorms in the area. Post-flight analysis indicates that it is probable that the lightning discharge started at the top of the Apollo 12/Saturn V vehicle. Energy of the discharge was estimated at 10⁴–10⁸ joules.
Lightning discharge near Launch Complex 39A (NASA)
Soon after passing Mach 1, the Saturn V rocket encountered the maximum dynamic pressure (“Max Q”) of 682.95 pounds per square foot (0.327 Bar) as it accelerated through the atmosphere.
The Saturn V rocket was a three-stage, liquid-fueled heavy launch vehicle. Fully assembled with the Apollo Command and Service Module, it stood 363 feet, 0.15 inches (110.64621 meters) tall, from the tip of the escape tower to the bottom of the F-1 engines. The first and second stages were 33 feet, .2 inches (10.089 meters) in diameter. Fully loaded and fueled the rocket weighed approximately 6,200,000 pounds (2,948,350 kilograms).¹ It could lift a payload of 260,000 pounds (117,934 kilograms) to Low Earth Orbit.
The first stage was designated S-IC. It was designed to lift the entire rocket to an altitude of 220,000 feet (67,056 meters) and accelerate to a speed of more than 5,100 miles per hour (8,280 kilometers per hour). The S-IC stage was built by Boeing at the Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, Louisiana. It was 138 feet (42.062 meters) tall and had an empty weight of 290,000 pounds (131,542 kilograms). Fully fueled with 203,400 gallons (770,000 liters) of RP-1 and 318,065 gallons (1,204,000 liters) of liquid oxygen, the stage weighed 5,100,000 pounds (2,131,322 kilograms). It was propelled by five Rocketdyne F-1 engines, producing 1,522,000 pounds of thrust (6770.19 kilonewtons), each, for a total of 7,610,000 pounds of thrust at Sea Level (33,851 kilonewtons).² These engines were ignited 6.50 seconds prior to Range Zero and the outer four burned for 161.74 seconds. The center engine was shut down after 135.24 seconds to reduce the rate of acceleration. The F-1 engines were built by the Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation at Canoga Park, California.
The S-II second stage was built by North American Aviation at Seal Beach, California. It was 81 feet, 7 inches (24.87 meters) tall and had the same diameter as the first stage. The second stage weighed 80,000 pounds (36,000 kilograms) empty and 1,060,000 pounds loaded. The propellant for the S-II was liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The stage was powered by five Rocketdyne J-2 engines, also built at Canoga Park. Each engine produced 232,250 pounds of thrust (1,022.01 kilonewtons), and combined, 1,161,250 pounds of thrust (5,165.5 kilonewtons).³
The Saturn V third stage was designated S-IVB. It was built by Douglas Aircraft Company at Huntington Beach, California. The S-IVB was 58 feet, 7 inches (17.86 meters) tall with a diameter of 21 feet, 8 inches (6.604 meters). It had a dry weight of 23,000 pounds (10,000 kilograms) and fully fueled weighed 262,000 pounds. The third stage had one J-2 engine and also used liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for propellant. The S-IVB would place the Command and Service Module into Low Earth Orbit, then, when all was ready, the J-2 would be restarted for the Trans Lunar Injection.
Eighteen Saturn V rockets were built. Only three still exist. One, on display at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, is made up of the the S-IC first stage of SA-514, S-II second stage of SA-515, and S-IVB third stage of SA-513. It is the only one consisting of flight-certified hardware. The Apollo Command and Service Module is CSM-115, originally intended for the Apollo 19 mission.
¹ The AS-507 total vehicle mass at First Stage Ignition (T – 6.50 seconds) was 6,137,868 pounds (2,784,090 kilograms).
² Post-flight analysis gave the total thrust of AS-507’s S-IC stage as 7,594,000 pounds of thrust (33,780 kilonewtons).
³ Post-flight analysis gave the total thrust of AS-507’s S-II stage as 1,161,534 pounds of thrust (5,166.8 kilonewtons).
⁴ Post-flight analysis gave the total thrust of AS-507’s S-IVB stage as 206,956 pounds of thrust (920.6 kilonewtons) during the first burn; 207,688 pounds (923.8 kilonewtons) during the second burn.
Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-74) lifts off from Pad 39A, 7:30:43 a.m., EST, 12 November 1995. (NASA)
12 November 1995, 12:30:43.071 UTC, T minus Zero: Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-74) is launched from Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The mission commander was Colonel Kenneth Donald Cameron, United States Marine Corps, and Colonel James Donald Halsell, Jr., United States Air Force, was the shuttle pilot.
There were three mission specialists on this flight: Colonel Chris Austin Hadfield, Royal Canadian Air Force; Colonel Jerry Lynn Ross, U.S. Air Force; and Colonel William Suries McArthur, Jr., United States Army. Colonels Cameron, Halsell, Hadfield and McArthur had all been military test pilots before joining the space program. Colonel Ross was a flight test engineer.
Left to right: Colonel William S. McArthur, Jr., U.S. Army; Colonel James D. Halsell, Jr., U.S. Air Force (seated); Colonel Jerry L. Ross, U.S. Air Force; Colonel Kenneth D. Cameron, USMC (seated); Colonel Chris A. Hadfield, Royal Canadian Air Force/Canadian Space Agency. (NASA)
Mission STS-74 was the second orbital docking with the Russian space station Mir. The astronauts installed a docking module which had been carried in Atlantis‘ cargo bay. This allowed the shuttle to dock with the space station, and supplies and equipment were transferred during the three days the two spacecraft were docked.
Space Station Mir, photographed from Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-74. (NASA)
Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center 12:01:27 p.m., EST, on 20 November. The duration of the mission was 8 days, 4 hours, 30 minutes, 44 seconds.
Space Shuttle Atlantis (OV-104) lands at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, at the end of Mission STS-74, 12:01:27 p.m., EST, 20 November 1995.. (NASA)
