STS-47
Spacelab in Endeavour's payload bay
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| Mission type | Microgravity research |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA |
| COSPAR ID | 1992-061A |
| SATCAT no. | 22120 |
| Mission duration | 7 days, 22 hours, 30 minutes, 23 seconds |
| Distance travelled | 5,265,523 kilometers (3,271,844 mi) |
| Orbits completed | 126 |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Endeavour |
| Landing mass | 99,450 kilograms (219,250 lb) |
| Payload mass | 12,485 kilograms (27,525 lb) |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 7 |
| Members |
Robert L. Gibson Curtis L. Brown, Jr. Mark C. Lee Jay Apt N. Jan Davis Mae C. Jemison Mamoru Mohri |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 12 September 1992, 14:23:00.0680 UTC |
| Launch site | Kennedy LC-39B |
| End of mission | |
| Landing date | 20 September 1992, 12:53:24 UTC |
| Landing site | Kennedy SLF Runway 33 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Perigee | 297 kilometres (185 mi) |
| Apogee | 310 kilometres (190 mi) |
| Inclination | 57.0 degrees |
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 Left to right - Front row: Apt, Brown; Back row: Davis, Lee, Gibson, Jemison, Mohri |
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STS-47 was the 50th Space Shuttle mission of the program, as well as the second mission of Space Shuttle Endeavour. The mission mainly involved conducting experiments in life and material sciences.
Spacelab-J—a joint NASA and National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) mission using a manned Spacelab module—conducted microgravity investigations in materials and life sciences. The international crew, consisting of the first Japanese astronaut to fly aboard the Shuttle, the first African-American woman to fly in space and, contrary to normal NASA policy, the first married couple to fly on the same space mission (Lee and Davis), was divided into red and blue teams for around the clock operations. Spacelab-J included 24 materials science and 20 life sciences experiments, of which 35 were sponsored by NASDA, 7 by NASA and 2 collaborative efforts.
Ever since female space travelers became the norm during the 1980s, NASA instituted rules stipulating that husband/wife couples would not be launched together out of concern over disrupting in-flight morale. However, Mark Lee and Jan Davis had secretly married a few weeks before the launch of STS-47 and NASA was forced to waive this rule as it would not have been possible to cancel the mission or reassign crews at this point.
The first married couple in space created months of speculation and jibes from the media about the possibility of them having sexual relations in orbit, but NASA officials were not amused and vehemently shot down the rumors, noting among other things the lack of privacy in the cramped Shuttle cabin and the physics of zero gravity making intercourse difficult if not impossible. Davis and Lee, who later divorced, refused to answer queries about them engaging in intimate activities during the mission.
Materials science investigations covered such fields as biotechnology, electronic materials, fluid dynamics and transport phenomena, glasses and ceramics, metals and alloys, and acceleration measurements. Life sciences included experiments on human health, cell separation and biology, developmental biology, animal and human physiology and behavior, space radiation, and biological rhythms. Test subjects included the crew, Japanese koi fish (carp), cultured animal and plant cells, chicken embryos, fruit flies, fungi, plant seeds, frogs and frog eggs, and oriental hornets.
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