STS-89 Day 1 Highlights
Return to STS-89 Mission Summary
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- On Thursday, January 22, 1998, 9:30 p.m. CST, STS-89 MCC Status Report # 01
reports:
- The shuttle Endeavour and its seven astronauts streaked into orbit
on time tonight, lighting up the Florida skies at 8:48 p.m. Central
time to kick off the first shuttle mission of the year.
- Commander Terry Wilcutt, Pilot Joe Edwards and Mission Specialists
Jim Reilly, Mike Anderson, Bonnie Dunbar, Salizhan Sharipov and Andy
Thomas settled into orbit less than nine minutes later, on course to
rendezvous with and dock to the Russian Mir Space Station Saturday
afternoon.
- The Mir was sailing over the North Atlantic Ocean at the time of
Endeavour's launch, more than 3800 nautical miles in front of the
shuttle. Mir 24 Commander Anatoly Solovyev, Flight Engineer Pavel
Vinogradov and U.S. astronaut David Wolf were asleep at the time of
launch. A series of rendezvous maneuvers over the next two days will
enable Endeavour to catch up with the Mir for the eighth Shuttle
docking with the Russian outpost. Thomas will switch places with Wolf
on Sunday to become the seventh and final American to live and work on
the Mir. Wolf will return to Earth with his STS-89 crewmates on
Jan. 31 while Thomas will remain in orbit until early June when he
returns to Earth on STS-91, the final scheduled shuttle docking
mission to the Mir.
- After Endeavour's astronauts open their ship's cargo bay doors, they
will begin to activate systems and conduct a partial activation of the
double SPACEHAB module in the rear of the payload bay in which science
experiments and supplies for the Mir are housed. The astronauts are
scheduled to begin an eight-hour sleep period at 1:48 a.m. Friday
morning and will be awakened by Mission Control at 9:48 a.m. to begin
their first full day in space.
- Endeavour is orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of
about 210 nautical miles with all systems in good shape.
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Go to STS-89 Flight Day 2 Highlights: