STS 103 Crew Briefs Kennedy Space Center

By: Brandt Secosh
March 7, 2000

The crew of STS 103 spent almost an hour today briefing an audience at Kennedy Space Center on the Hubble repair mission. It was an hour of fascinating accounts of their experience in space, awesome pictures, video tape and good humor! The crew collectively   expressed their appreciation to all of those that support the Space Program. This appreciation includes all of you! This is a photograph of the STS 103 astronauts - minus Mission Commander, Curtis Brown. The astronauts opened the presentation by thanking the Kennedy Space Center ground crews for providing them with a "safe launch vehicle" (Discovery) to complete a very important mission. The astronauts then presented KSC with a montage of mission photographs and crew patch that was flown on the mission noting that the STS 103 crew orbited the earth 120 times at an altitude of 308 miles and traveling 3.3 million miles from December 19th to December 27th 1999.

After crew introductions, an explanation of how the STS 103 mission patch was developed. This was followed by a video tape that showed each crew member being suited up at the Operations and Checkout building. As many of you recall, STS 103 was the last mission of the century and fell under some unusual constraints. First the mission was delayed by weather. This was complicated by the issue of having STS 103 back on the ground before the turn of the century because of Y2K. This resulted in the mission duration being shortened and the crew would end up making three eight-hour space-walks instead of four six-hour space-walks. The film then went on to show the inside of the orbiter during the launch sequence. Some SERIOUS shaking and vibration was taking place that is normal in every launch. The video provided an incredible view of the awesome power that the space shuttle has. As the launch footage progressed, there was a VERY bright flash that illuminated the cockpit two minutes into the flight. This is when the solid rocket boosters separated from the orbiter. The pictures of the SRB's separating and falling back to earth were stunning! We could view the SRB's falling gracefully away, just as planned, against a back drop of our earth and the blackness of space - beautiful! Once in space, the crew spent almost two days "catching up" to the Hubble space telescope before capturing it with the orbiters robotic arm and bringing it into the payload bay. Some of the gyroscopes on the Hubble had failed and the astronauts had to maneuver Hubble 180 degrees to properly secure it into the payload bay.

The pictures of the space walks from the astronauts' perspective were incredible! The space suits the astronauts wear weigh 300 pounds on earth but are very comfortable and easy to move in once in space. The astronauts explained that half of their work was in the dark and half in the light. A reminder that the sun goes up and down sixteen times each day! The first task was to replace the gyros. In fact the goal was to replace thirteen boxes containing gyros - and thirteen were replaced! The next task was to replace the 386 computer with a 486 computer and once again, a complete success! Next was to extract and replace the fine guidance sensor, which is the size of a baby grand piano and weighs about 300 pounds on earth. The third space walk required the Hubble to be rewired for its new fine guidance system and several other servicing boxes to be replaced. An S-band radio transmitter was changed and a reel-to-reel data recorder was replaced with solid state memory, further increasing the capability of the new 486 computer. Finally some of the insulation was repaired. It was pointed out that part of the Hubble is always in the light, while the other part is always in the dark when it is on orbit. The section that was exposed to the light had shown signs of wear and this is what was replaced. After having the Hubble Telescope in the bay of Discovery for five days and completing all of the required service missions, it was time to release it back into space. Hubble was once again secured by the orbiters robotic arm and positioned for release. Once in position, only the forward RTS jets were used to maneuver Discovery away from Hubble. By using only the forward jets, contamination of Hubble's optical sytem was avoided.

The views of each of these maneuvers were spectacular. I have always enjoyed seeing the views of our earth from the astronauts' perspective. The views shown in the slide-show presentation included deserts, oceans, storms and so much more. In one of the shots you could see almost the entire United States! A person would have to appreciate the earth we live on after seeing these incredible shots. I wish I could have taken pictures to share with you but it would have interrupted the presentation. Instead, please visit this Johnson Space Center site to get an idea of how incredible these photos are.

Hearing the STS 103 crew account for their mission in space first hand was impressive to say the least. It is obvious that they and their fellow astronauts have had the privilege of seeing our planet and solar system from a much different perspective - space. Thanks to the STS 103 crew for a great mission and sharing their experiences!