SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR COIN INSTALL

NASA says it was one of the most challenging spacewalks in the history of the space program. The December 1993 mission had five spacewalks in five days, with more than 35 hours outside. Astronauts on STS-61 fitted Hubble with adaptive optics to correct a faulty mirror, installed new solar arrays and swapped out other telescope components. The communications satellite successfully entered geosynchronous orbit and started service in time for the 1992 Summer Olympics.Įndeavour was also the shuttle that ferried the first Hubble Space Telescope repair crew. The astronauts equipped Intelsat VI with a new 'kick motor' and sent it on its way. It was a remarkable maneuver considering how little room there was for error in moving the Canadarm and Thuot near the shuttle's payload bay.

SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR COIN INSTALL

Then, the crew members inside the shuttle maneuvered Atlantis to just below where Intelsat spun.Ĭarefully, with Thuot giving hand gestures as instructions to the astronauts inside the shuttle, the Canadarm was maneuvered to a spot where Thuot, Hieb and Akers could all grasp the satellite and successfully install the capture bar. Thuot rode the Canadarm again as Richard Hieb and Thomas Akers attached themselves to the payload bay. For the first time, three astronauts did a spacewalk at the same time. NASA then came up with a new, riskier procedure to bring the satellite into the payload bay. More attempts the next day were also unsuccessful.

But as he touched it, Intelsat drifted away. Dangling on the end of the Canadarm, Pierre Thuot tried to attach the bar to the satellite. The crew members of STS-49, when they rocketed to space on May 7, 1992, were supposed to capture a satellite that was stuck in the wrong orbit, rescue it and loft it again into space.Ĭrew members reached the Intelsat VI satellite successfully, but ran into a snag when they needed to attach a 'capture bar' onto the satellite to bring it into the shuttle. Flew into space 25 times, with notable missions including the first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission and the first three-person spacewalk of the space shuttle program.Įndeavour's first flight was a challenging one. Notable: Built after the Challenger tragedy of 1986.Current location: California Science Center in Los Angeles, Calif.

Time in space: 296 days, 3 hours, 34 minutes, 2 seconds.

Final assembly finished in July 1990, and the shuttle was shipped to the Kennedy Space Center in May 1991 from its assembly location in Palmdale, Calif. Construction on Endeavour commenced in 1987, using spare parts from Discovery and Atlantis.

Space shuttle endeavour coin