the countdown has been going smoothly
overnight we have not been working any
technical issues since the tanking began
at 11:09 last night loading the Space
Shuttle external tank with the 525
thousand gallons of liquid hydrogen and
liquid oxygen was concluded that 205
this morning
once again all our countdown events are
proceeding normally leading to an
opening of a launch window in 806 we're
cautiously optimistic about the weather
we're now at the astronaut quarters and
the operations and check-out building at
the Kennedy Space Center where the STS
59 cake is in the center of the table
mission specialists - Linda Godwin down
at the end of the table and sitting next
to her mission specialist J apt Linda
Godwin and
J apt working on the space radar
laboratory during the flight and the
next two J apt is mission specialist Tom
Jones who will also be flying on the
space shuttle once again in August on
the next space Mars radar laboratory
mission
srl - again on endeavour our pilot Kevin
Chilton and sitting next to him is our
commander Sid guitarist and then on the
far end is mission specialist rich
Clifford this is shuttle launch control
at t-minus 3 hours and Counting
countdown has picked up once again for
the launch of STS 59 and endeavour and
all of our activities are on schedule
this morning cautiously optimistic about
the weather the broken layer at the
Shuttle Landing Facility is expected to
go scattered sometime after sunrise so
we're still love hopeful that if the
wind does not become any stronger than
it is currently that we will have a
launch this morning
among the tools that the ice team is
using is the portable infrared scanner
that's the most important device which
obtains temperature measurements on the
surface of the vehicle and it can also
spot any leaks and they're looking for
any ice which could be on the tank or
other areas of the fixed service
structure which could at launch could
break off and strike the orbiter
this is shuttle launch control at
t-minus three hours and holding our
commander sigit IRA's outfitted there
with his communications hood
and final the check of the helmet
and our pilot kevin chilton
flew previously on the sts-49 mission
he's ready to go this morning
and there's our payload commander Linda
Godwin
and mission specialist rich Clifford Tom
Jones mission specialists will be flying
again on endeavour in August on SRL to
astronaut Dave Lisa they're talking with
Jay apt
this is shuttle launch control at
t-minus two hours 51 minutes and
Counting our commander Sid gatir is
followed by mission specialist Tom Jones
SJ apt Linda Godwin rich Clifford
Dave Lisa moth and hoot Gibson also
riding down the elevator he'll be flying
the shuttle training aircraft this
morning and the t-38 for weather
reconnaissance Mike Stevens from NASA
security
and away they go
quite pleasant out of dad this morning
temperatures 72 degrees winds out of the
east-southeast
10 to 15 knots
aboard endeavour helping the crew again
today as astronaut Andy Thomas has been
in the crew compartment configuring the
switches making any changes necessary to
the compartment and will be assisting
the astronauts as they board
ETL your step eight points for step
eight twenty eight and seven friends is
reading one for 0.85
copy that step 8 26 through 832 and CDR
you can go ahead and reconsider VSS
memory and video please go to clues
tabatha sent down this is MPD taken
along to that of six a go/no-go for
launch so do you think go
ABC PPC CTC go stop here
I'll help you to go do some Pike go
mouse go
damn FM go hates console tape you go SP
SP entity go ahead a pity that's gonna
go pelagic scope CDR LOD LOD ago no Carl
that's alright let's go the other wing
clear to launch
copy at Devereaux PC close and lock your
visors that o2 flow - 45 seconds
standing by for the handoff to
endeavours onboard computers in about 10
seconds at t-minus 31
Debra's computer is now controlling
sound suppression water system being
activated seven six main engine start
five four three two one zero and liftoff
of the space shuttle Endeavour observing
the changes of planet Earth
Debra already traveling about 300 laws
now on a course that will have it the
northeast side of the Atlantic Ocean
parallel to the eastern seaboard the
United States
Dever speed now one thousand miles an
hour I'm miles downrange never go at
throttle up altitude nine miles three
engines now back at full throttle one
and a half minutes since launch
endeavours already burned more than two
and a quarter million pounds propellant
and weighs less than half of what it did
it lifts off altitude now 15 miles speed
2,100 miles an hour 15 miles east of the
launch pad Fat Controller standing by
for burnout and jettison of the twin
solid rocket
good solid rocket booster separation
confirmed Deborah now 33 miles northeast
to the launch pad altitude 30 miles
speed 2700 miles now and ever
performance phenomenal
p0 f OB ignition liftoff confirmed copy
Roger roll endeavour like I didn't see
the roll copy
thought aloud Street at 1:04 and never
go at throttle up
endeavour Houston we see at nominal Miko
homes one not required you have a go for
the et photo DTO by Capcom I'd like to
get the LS and LS times for Diego worked
up to add to the spiel I'll give them
four l OS and AOS from the east and the
West
and taco stand by one on the north of
Chile I want to know
all right you were checking licensing
plastic best
officials are great
and we've got a good picture rich ok so
what you're seeing is some live cells
growing in the space station los be
experiment s ft-lb along with its
companion st la or growing live cells in
the microgravity environment to evaluate
the effects of microgravity on the
growth process you know the novelty of
ft-lb is it's making its baton flight to
check out a new video microscope system
which is going to allow real-time
monitoring of cell growth process in
microgravity to check out the system
fish eggs are being used to watch the
development of the embryo during early
division stages this is going to
evaluate a changes in gravitational
force have an effect on cell movement in
three dimensions experiments like this
should provide unique insights on the
effects of physical forces on cell
movement and may provide clues to the
understanding of how wounds and organs
development okay Nancy Otero descent
with jealous commander of this SRL
mission and this morning I'm going to
try to do my most difficult task of the
entire mission and that is to attempt to
explain $0.00 steering so in the course
of this mission we've been initiating
proximately 460 maneuvers in fact this
morning we just initiated the behind two
hundred and sixty second of over four
hundred and sixty maneuvers by the time
we finished this flight we will have an
issue it in war maneuvers than any other
shuttle mission these servers are very
important because they help us point our
radar in a very special way in our
normal attitude we fly around the earth
with either our nose forward or our tail
forward with the payload Bay radar
pointed at selected sites they surveyed
our image by sending a radar signal
which is bounced off the earth and
returned to an antenna in the payload
Bay scientists used very powerful
computers and very complex software to
process this radar data in a very
special way to produce but we
a synthetic aperture radar image in fact
just this morning they transmitted up to
us on our tips machine a picture of a
radar image that was taken of the
Galapagos Islands was taken to the
Galapagos Islands just yesterday
probably hard to see this on the on the
television image but this was created
with the radar image this very complex
processing assumes that the orbiter is
parallel to its ground track as it
travels around the earth sue sees it
burn earth that does not rotate an earth
that's perfectly still this is probably
true but we all know that our earth
rotates so as the orbiter goes around
the earth and the earth rotates that
means that our ground track in the
orbiter are not perfectly aligned and
I've exaggerated this a little bit for
demonstration purposes we can make them
aligned by constantly maneuvering at
just a fraction of a degree per minute
so that as we fly around the earth and
as the Earth rotates underneath us our
orbiter is always aligned with the
ground track that we trace across the
ground which is what is really important
for the radar we call this zero Doppler
steering and this is one of their types
of consumables that sometimes can limit
flight duration we of course have plenty
stowed for our mission and that are very
large stutters it shouldn't that our
side so protecting firmly that we have
to remove before we put it down into the
air purification system this is the
earth at the end of each of our shifts
the red shift and a blue shift so we
swap out that sometimes one and
sometimes two kids try today
this is removed very carefully a save
via the tape repealing ours and the
coumarine and we put they used hands
back in that and still them back in the
same area and sometimes we know that we
can come back and get some of those at
again after some reason we need some
additional purification to nobility
hi from sick Gutierrez commander the
Space Shuttle Endeavor this message was
recorded in April as we were orbiting
the planet studying the surface of the
earth and the atmosphere above it as we
image the surface of the earth with our
radar and visual photography we've
noticed certain rectangular patterns all
over the world more and more of these
patterns are appearing in the United
States on closer examination we realized
that these are soccer fields more people
are playing soccer than any other sport
and for the first time in history the
World Cup is being held in the United
States so from way up here to all the
participating countries back on earth
welcome to world cup good luck but watch
out we're even working on a team up here
this is in five are you know it's
exciting and all to be up here in the
show tonight
the thing that really makes you feel
happiest ever for those watching Sid
he's talking to the Boy Scouts of
America down in Richardson Texas at this
time on our shuttle amateur radio
experiment basically a ham radio and
answering questions that the scouts have
lined up for him
and just all the stores it's being
applied
good morning to everyone and back there
on the central time zone I'm Tom Jones a
mission specialist aboard the space
shuttle Endeavour we're now over the
South Pacific Ocean just southeast of
New Zealand I want to take a few minutes
out of our busy schedule up here of
maneuvers and science operations to tell
you about our studies of global change
on this mission this mission of the
space radar lab aboard STS 59 on
endeavour is part of NASA's mission to
Planet Earth which is a comprehensive
program using the Space Shuttle and
unmanned satellites to study the earth
as the next century began to understand
the changes that are going on both
natural and man-made now I'd like to
tell you about our experiences here for
the first four days of the flight we've
been seeing traces of both man-made and
natural change spring is coming to the
northern hemisphere we can see the snow
line retreating across Asia and we're
seeing vegetation patterns land-use
changes natural changes caused by
weather and geology like volcanoes and
earthquakes but looking for all those
kinds of phenomena I'd like to tell you
about why we're able to study global
change from the space shuttle on this
flight
first of all I want to mention our
vantage point up here in orbit above the
earth what the space radar lab out in
the payload Bay is looking for and then
give you some examples of the kinds of
change that we're hoping to study on the
flight our vantage point here aboard
endeavour is very important we're about
138 nautical miles above the Earth's
surface circling the globe once about
every 89 minutes and that elevation that
altitude gives us a horizon that's out
several hundred miles from wherever we
happen to be over the earth and that
gives us the broad perspective and the
ability for our sensors in the cargo bay
to see a long distance and measure
change in a reasonably efficient amount
of time also because we're in orbit our
speed is very important circling the
Earth of 17,000 miles an hour we're able
to use our speed to let our radar out in
the cargo bay circe XR create a much
larger electron
antenna than would otherwise be possible
we can see finer detail on the ground
because of our speed across the Earth's
surface that whole technique is called
synthetic aperture radar and also with
our pollution sensor called maps in the
cargo bay
our speed permits us to cover the world
as it rotates beneath us and thus we can
create in just two or three days a
global map of carbon monoxide a tracer
gas of pollution or burning on the
planet's surface so the vantage point
here is very important now what kinds of
changes can we see from this vantage
point in low-earth orbit our synthetic
aperture radar creates images pictures
of the ground using microwaves which can
be taken during darkness or through
clouds the maps carbon monoxide sensor
creates a map of global pollution it
traces sources of combustion and how
that trace gas Co spreads across the
globe by using those images and that
pollution map we can look at its past
present and its future we can look back
into Earth's past by noting changes in
the geology of the earth that tell us
about the world's past climate we can
look at the present and take a snapshot
a baseline measurement if you will of
the pulse of Earth's forests cities
production of pollution and both
hemispheres and we can also measure the
ecology the environment and take its
present temperature if you will and now
we can look into Earth's future by
flying the space radar lab twice this
year on STS 68 later in the year and
later radar of this type that a similar
suite of instruments could be orbited on
an unmanned platform and by measuring
Earth's environment over months and
years we can see the trends on our
ecosphere that would help us manage the
planet okay let's see what we did was
earlier today we recorded us doing what
we're here for which is to do a large
number of manoeuvres support the road
are exactly at the targets that the
radar folks are interested in and we
understand from the radar people that
they're getting accuracies that are far
beyond their initial expectations and
the targets are showing up right in the
middle of their radar swath and we will
happy to be able to help
that we are putting in one of the 465
maneuvers that the ground has planned
for us
and it's it's real pleasure to be able
to go do that and see the results like
the Reta folks have been showing people
down there know that we're able to point
the orbiter extremely precisely to get
very specific targets within range of
the radar beams from Nick's from our own
equipment out in the payload Bay this is
what we've spent most of our time doing
and what I think you guys have been
really helping us check
so we're just now coming up on Chile
after passing across the coastline and
the target area for this observation is
the Andes Mountains central cordiality
area
dr. Isaacs is mapping the topography and
studying the climate in the central
Andes Mountains he's napping
things such as plate tectonics or the
movement of the Earth's crust in this
area as well as mudslides and other
climatic events this image is of Sicily
this is a real-time image seen exactly
as the radar system aboard endeavour
records it and now endeavours radars
crossing the coast of Italy this is the
most southern tip of Italy here
the matira italy calibration site is
located in a very flat agricultural area
and the wavy lines and the image are the
former Yugoslavian territory Eastern
Europe you can see the Cuban antennae
lit up there and that's how a lot of the
data that you're super real-time down on
earth gets down there so near over okay
now close to the water here a lot Dorsey
okay where today great we're all
listening just ahead of us and the CIO
Chili's that tried to shoot right now
okay we're seeing the XR come down and
see the ice looking as large flows that
are breaking up we see those right now
the leads are showing up quite clearly
we have a video that will show you next
which is a view of the earth along the
across Canada and you'll see both the
earth as viewed by the astronauts
through a video downlink and the earth
as viewed by the radar and this is
coming across the screen now you see the
white areas on the right are frozen
lakes in the radar image they appear
black and the bright areas in the radar
image on the left are forests this is a
time of year when thawing is occurring
and in the early part of the mission the
astronauts were calling down that all of
these lakes appeared nearly completely
frozen and now today they're calling
down that some of the ice is starting to
break up and so we're pretty excited
about this
this means that we might capture the
thaw in these high boreal forest regions
this is a real-time image coming down
from the synthetic aperture radar the
site that is currently being tracked is
of the Netherlands region of flavell and
the orbiters again moving to the
southeast this is a calibration site of
high interest primarily because of its
it was artificially created by the Dutch
and it allows for easy interpretation of
the radar data once it's obtained here
on the ground these are the German Alps
showing up now on the radar
now we're approaching the super site at
over five and hoof in Germany where the
24 locations with their active radar
calibrators are set up and the Munich
Airport passing right below / - - is
just outside Munich and the Danube River
now in the picture before sunrise on the
California coast but the radar can see
through that as the California coastline
comes into view on a northeasterly track
endeavour will cost across the coastal
ranges which are mountains that are made
from various fault lines should also
cross over the San Andreas Fault just
before the San Joaquin Valley which is
coming into view a large agricultural
area the orbiter is now crossing the
Sierra Nevada to the Mammoth Mountain
area which is a backup super site which
is on the eastern part of the Sierras
as mentioned this is a hydrology site
the interest here is for the snow cover
and the amount of snow cover in that
area because of the production of water
that the Sierras produced for the
Southern California area
what you're going to see in a minute is
a sur CL band image of Death Valley
Death Valley is one of what we call our
super sites in front of you you can see
the Long Valley which is the dark area
at the at the center of the image and on
either side you can see the high ranges
now a lot of you may be familiar we
produce some similar videos for the
Magellan mission we start out here in
the cotton ball Basin the bright rough
surfaces that you see are salt deposits
along the bottom of the valley and also
some of the rougher rocky or surface
surfaces now this is El ban which means
that the bright surfaces you that you
see are produced by sort of rubble sized
or medium sized blocks now we're flying
down through Death Valley the smooth
deposits you're seeing are some of the
relatively smooth salt deposits on the
floor and some of the smoother fans now
these fans that are coming down from the
sides of the valley are produced by much
wetter periods in history what we're
trying to understand here at Death
Valley with this radar data is what can
these alluvial fans tell us about the
past climate history of the earth and
the coastline coming into view vision
from the synthetic aperture radar as
endeavour crosses the coastline of North
America up just above the state of
Washington the data take is of the Juan
de Fuca Strait which is off the coast
line and this is an oceanographic data
take for the radar system again designed
to observe surface and internal waves as
as well as wind motion at the sea
surface
we're using 14 cameras on this flight 35
millimeter cameras Hasselblad cameras -
these cameras out the payload Bay a
movie camera and this big four by five
inch camera
alright now this just short clip here is
a far northeastern Asia or the mainland
passing out to sea and you can see on
the video here the coastline of Sakhalin
Island and it's very snowy still in this
part of the world as winter ends and
there is sea ice all along the island of
Sakhalin up to the cmf not the radar is
imaging for experiments on the
penetration of the radar into the ice
field and you can see frozen lakes and
ponds of the tundra region up here and
in particular one of the calibration
sites for the radar mission to evaluate
the performance of the radar beam that
strength and signal intensity and it's a
the ability to aim the radar actually is
Sarabeth to Japan then that calibration
site is coming into view right here you
can see some of the snow-capped peaks
around this area of the coast and then
the street pattern there just to the
north needs to serve ETSU on the coast
of Hokkaido and there you see us passing
out over the east coast of Hokkaido into
the Pacific Ocean take of the water for
agricultural irrigation of the constancy
of the Democratic staff and it's not the
area just to the top your screen there
up at the bottom of your screen left
high and dry 30 or 40 miles of the water
used to be an enormous commercial
fishing area but now it's drawn up at
the predictions that if things continue
at the current rate of diverting water
the whole air or sea will be dry by year
2020
this is Mission Control these views are
from endeavours payload Bay cameras as
it flies down across the Southern
Pacific Ocean on this orbit it will pass
just slightly north of the tip of New
Zealand endeavour is on a southeasterly
track now out over the Atlantic Ocean
just after crossing over the coastline
of the east coast of the United States
the orbiters in a nose forward position
with the payload bay of the orbiter
pointed toward Earth
endeavour Houston were alive on the
flight day
and Deborah Houston New York City sure
was impressive
yeah bill we just got a beautiful pass
up the Hudson River at a point
you're rich I'm trying to tell Brent he
should have gotten here just a couple
minutes ago and maybe has seen that
other school further down the coast
yeah I do yeah I have a surplus
Danny could see this last time
we'll stop damn straight that would have
a deal but billiard fantasticks it felt
smooth be reduced endeavour wheel stop
Dever is about to get on to the heading
alignment circle and will begin
executing a 285 degree left overhead
turn to align the vehicle for a landing
on Edwards runway 22 at about 57,000
feet
traveling eight hundred seventy five
miles an hour descending at about three
hundred feet per second
now below 30,000 feet 530 miles an hour
endeavour on energy at the 180
endeavor you're on glide slope on
centerline surface wind three six zero
two feet four
we'll stop roger wheelstop endeavour did
your radar laboratories provided an
unprecedent view of our planet and you
and your crew been a joy to work with
welcome home
I don't still own glideslope instead yes
sir
endeavour you're on glide slope on
centerline surface wind three six zero
two feet four