Space Shuttle Mission Report Series: Earth Observations during STS-055 April 26 - May 6, 1993

David E. Pitts University of Houston - Clear Lake Houston, Texas 77058 Kamlesh P. Lulla, Mary Fae McKay, Michael R. Helfert Earth Sciences and Image Analysis NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Houston, Texas 77058 Fred R. Brumbaugh, Cynthia A. Evans, M. Justin Wilkinson, David R. Helms Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Company Houston, Texas 77058 Steven G. Ackleson Ocean Optics Program Office of Naval Research 800 Quincy St. Arlington, VA 22217-5000 Steve Nagel, Tom Henricks, Jerry Ross, Bernard Harris, Charles Precourt, Ulrich Walter, Hans Schlegel Astronaut Office NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Houston, Texas 77058

The Mission

The Space Shuttle orbiter Columbia was launched on the STS-55 mission from NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center on April 26, 1993, and landed on May 6, 1993, at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The principal payload, Spacelab Mission D-2, was the second complete Spacelab payload under German mission management responsibility. The D-2 experiment complement emphasized microgravity research in both materials science and life science and also carried Earth observations and astronomy research payloads. The D-2 mission on STS-55 was preceded by the Spacelab D-1 mission in November 1985 on the STS-61A flight with German and European science astronauts onboard.      The seven crew members (fig. 1) worked two 12-hour shifts so that the payload could be used around the clock to conduct continuous microgravity and life science experiments. During this round-the-clock vigil, the astronauts also monitored global Earth resources with the Earth observations payload called MOMS (for Modular Optoelectronic Multispectral Stereo-Scanner) and with hand-held cameras. The 28.5°-inclination orbit allowed photography anywhere between the latitudes of 28.5° north and 28.5° south when lighting and crew activities permitted. Solar illumination, dictated by season and launch time, and cloud cover restricted the photography early in the flight to regions of North and South America and Africa. As the mission progressed, the daytime groundtracks drifted westward and photos were taken over the Near East, India, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Australia, and islands in the Pacific (fig. 2).      The altitude of the mission was nearly constant at 300 kilometers (160 n. mi.). A Hasselblad photo taken straight down from this, a typical altitude for a Space Shuttle mission, covers a swath of 163 km (88 n. mi.) wide using the 100-mm lens, and 65 km (35 n. mi.) wide using the 250mm lens. The Linhof 127-mm format camera when used with the 250-mm lens gave a 142 km (77 n. mi.) wide photograph and when used with the 90-mm lens gave a 394 km (214 n. mi.) wide photograph. About 85% of the Linhof photos and about 66% of the Hasselblad photos were taken with 250-mm lenses. The ground resolution expected with the 250mm lenses was about 24 m. A total of about 5000 Earth photos were taken using the hand-held cameras. Only a year earlier this would have been a record number, but the volume of Earth photographs continues to grow on each Space Shuttle mission as the interest in the Earth's environment increases.

Figure 1: Official Crew Portrait. Front row: Henricks, Nagel, Precourt. Back row: Harris, Schlegel, Ross, Walter. Ulrich Walter and Hans Schlegel were the payload specialists representing the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR) on the 10-day Spacelab D-2 mission. Jerry Ross was the payload commander. Bernard Harris, a physician, was a mission specialist. Tom Henricks was the pilot, and Steve Nagel was the commander of the STS-055 mission. Charlie Precourt was a mission specialist and the Earth observations lead. [NASA photograph STS055-S-002]

Figure 2: Nadir Positions for STS-55 Photographs With Recorded Data. Each black dot represents the position of the orbiter for one picture. About 5000 photographs were taken during the 10-day STS-055 mission. [NASA photograph S93-42041]

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