going out launch morning after a breakfast everybody anxious to get
strapped into the vehicle
roughly seven million pounds of thrust it was a exciting ride for us ... there
was a lot of racket shake rattle and roll here very rapid turn roll maneuver
that is to head down range things ticked along quite well ... as we watched Vance, Bruce the mid- deck ...
McCandless:to start on our respective tasks my first task was
getting the the portside MMU ready to fly and checking it out and starting
in to check flight followed by some translations up and down the payload Bay
and some longer range translations ... light on the back of the MMU is a locator
light in case a we got to flying around in the darkness Vance could keep an eye on
where we were ... basically we were very pleased with the way the MMU handled it
was very much like the simulations at the Martin company in Denver except that
we did find that when translating with the attitude hold system activated
since we had built it to conserve propellant by turning some of the
thrusters off if you started to pick up a rotational rate this hadn't been
modeled in detail in the simulator you got an averaged response and of course
here you could feel every little thruster coming on and off but other
than that the flying characteristics were virtually identical to the
simulator and of course here we had complete freedom to turn somersaults and
maneuver about all three rotational axes and actually the orbital mechanics were
much more realistic and of course the quality of the visuals that is the scene
was was a lot higher here than in any simulator. Here I am I guess backing out
to 150 feet coming back in and then out to 300 and coming back in this is
approximately the same sort of translation that the folks on the next
mission the solar maximum repair mission will be
faced with it moving from the orbiter over to the solar maximum spacecraft.
It was a interesting seeing Bob and Bruce go out to 300 yards that we had some
qualms about it before the flight we were burned they have a naturally human
being out that far untethered but we had backup procedures
to go get him if anything went wrong with their equipment so by the time
flight came along we were quite happy with the idea and it turned out to be
not bad. McCandless: back inside the cabin after the first TVA one of the tasks was to
recharge and replenish the pressure suits or EMUs. This shot here shows
installing or installing a fresh lithium hydroxide cartridge which absorbs the
exhaled carbon dioxide in your breath thereby ...
bruce mccandless mission specialist the mission emblem
on the cake on breakfast table which is Discovery with the Hubble Space
Telescope on a field of planets ... this is shuttle launch control at
t-minus ... there is Navy captain Bruce McCandless. McCandless and Kathy Sullivan
will be doing the contingency EVA on this flight should one be necessary
the crew now headed for the elevator that will take them down to the first
floor where they'll board the Astro van for the 20-minute ride out to pad B
commander and the pilot commander Shriver and pilot Charlie Bolden Bruce
McCandless and members of the support team we'll be going out there is the
crew headed down the elevator and momentarily we'll see them boarding the
Astro van
and numerous KSC employees usually wait by the walkway to greet them as they
head out
main engine start we are go for main engine start t-minus six five four three
two one and liftoff of the space shuttle Discovery with the Hubble Space
Telescope our window on the universe
Mission Control Houston . Roll program. Roger, roll, Discovery.
The roll maneuver puts the vehicle in the proper launch plane
guidance officer confirms a good roll maneuver engines now throttling back the
throttle down maneuver assist and reducing the aerodynamic loads on
Discovery's it passes through the area of not the maximum dynamic pressure
velocity now 1,200 feet per second discovery downrange 3 nautical miles
discovery go at throttle up all three engines now throttling back up engines
at 104 percent the go at throttle up calls signifies that all systems are
performing well all three auxiliary power units look good
Discovery's velocity now 2,300 feet per second and it's downrange eight nautical miles
photographic equipment on the flight deck to document the deploy
activities.
Discovery, Houston. Go ahead, Story.
you got a go to release the ... and
a go to transfer Hubble to internal power on time. Three panels out
when fully deployed both
of the arrays together produce about 6,000 volts about half of which is
required to operate telescope systems and during the daylight side of the past
the other half is used to recharge the six nickel hydrogen batteries
shift supervisor Pete Petaro just checking with his control team receiving a report
that from the ground as confirmed by the crew from orbit the deploy activity so
far is going very smoothly we see no indications of any problems at this time
discovery you can go auto ... we're setting up for the other array ...
and that is for you Houston Charlie downstairs in the process gettin Bruce
and Kathy buttoned up in the suits
EVA copies and we're watching the fans come on
discovery we'd like free drift
from minus SDM deploy.
okay we copy, free drift. That's affirm.
OK, you're in free drift now. Thank you
we see motion. So do we, Loren
as the blankets begin deploying the orbital verification team is watching
very closely the tension being placed on those wings so far looking good
discovery go for Hubble release.
OK, we have a go for release and we're gonna be a minute late
okay Charlie
Houston, Discovery
go ahead charlie
okay story we've been taking mark look
good and we'd like to go ahead ...
we concur Charlie
Story I was taking pictures you I
missed your call you want to go ahead and do RMS tie down so we get
the guys out of the airlock ... that's it your convenience, but once we do
have the RMS stowed, then we'll back out of EVA.
okay ... just a few more minutes
then getting some pictures here
yes sir do just that ...
our training team who worked
really so hard with us for actually quite a long time a couple of
years well I've been with the crew anyway so we really appreciate all the
long hours and late hours and all the hard work they did and it's really paid
off we believe and we'd like to thank them for
the little cards they gave us to read while we're here on orbit. Very appropriate
We'd like to let them know that all's going well, we're feeling great ...
okay I'm sure they're watching if they don't happen to be right now I will call them.