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STS-63

STS-63
STS-63 launch.jpg
Discovery launches on STS-63
Mission type Research
Mir rendezvous
Operator NASA
COSPAR ID 1995-004A
SATCAT № 23469
Mission duration 8 days, 6 hours, 28 minutes, 15 seconds
Distance travelled 4,816,454 kilometers (2,992,806 mi)
Orbits completed 129
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft Space Shuttle Discovery
Payload mass 8,641 kilograms (19,050 lb)
Crew
Crew size 6
Members James D. Wetherbee
Eileen Collins
Bernard A. Harris, Jr.
Michael Foale
Janice E. Voss
Vladimir G. Titov
Start of mission
Launch date 3 February 1995, 05:22:04 (1995-02-03UTC05:22:04Z) UTC
Launch site Kennedy LC-39B
End of mission
Landing date 11 February 1995, 11:50:19 (1995-02-11UTC11:50:20Z) UTC
Landing site Kennedy SLF Runway 15
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Low Earth
Perigee 275 kilometres (171 mi)
Apogee 342 kilometres (213 mi)
Inclination 51.6 degrees
Period 92.3 minutes

Sts-63-patch.png

Sts-63 crew.jpg
Left to right - Seated: Voss, Collins, Wetherbee, Titov; Standing: Harris, Foale
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STS-63 was the first mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir Program, which carried out the first rendezvous of the American Space Shuttle with Russia's space station Mir. Known as the 'Near-Mir' mission, the flight used Space Shuttle Discovery, which lifted off from launch pad 39B on 3 February 1995 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. A night launch and the 20th mission for Discovery, it marked the first time a Space Shuttle mission had a female pilot, Eileen Collins, the first EVAs for both a UK born astronaut Michael Foale and a US astronaut of African heritage Bernard A. Harris, Jr. and it also carried out the successful deployment and retrieval of the Spartan-204 platform, along with the scheduled rendezvous and flyaround of Mir, in preparation for STS-71, the first mission to dock with Mir.

STS-63's primary objective was to perform a rendezvous and fly around the Russian space station Mir. The objectives of the Mir Rendezvous/Flyby were to verify flight techniques, communications and navigation aid sensor interfaces, and engineering analyses associated with Shuttle/Mir proximity operations in preparation for the STS-71 docking mission.

Other objectives of the flight were to perform the operations necessary to fulfill the requirements of experiments located in SPACEHAB-3 and to fly captively, then deploy and retrieve the Spartan-204 payload. Spartan-204, the Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy, was a free-flying retrievable platform. It was designed to obtain data in the far ultraviolet region of the spectrum from diffuse sources of light. Two crewmembers were scheduled to perform a five-hour spacewalk.


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