Missions: STS-57 Launches First Mission

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During the course of the eight-day flight, the astronauts successfully conducted scores of biomedical and materials sciences experiments inside the pressurized SPACEHAB module.

CREW
Ronald Grabe, Commander; Brian Duffy, Pilot; David Low, Payload Commander; Nancy Sherlock, Mission Specialist; Janice Voss, Mission Specialist; Peter Wisoff, Mission Specialist.

LAUNCH INFO:
Date: June 21, 1993
Time: 7:10 a.m. EST
Site: Kennedy Space Center, FL

SHUTTLE FLIGHT:
Orbiter: Endeavour (OV-105)
Orbit Altitude: 250 nautical miles
Orbit Inclination: 28.45°
Mission Duration: 9 Days, 23 hours, 44 minutes

LANDING INFO:
Date: July 1, 1993
Time: 8:52 a.m. EDT
Site: Kennedy Space Center, FL

PAYLOAD(S):
SPACEHAB-SM Single Module (FU1)
Get Away Special (GAS)
Consortium for Materials Development in Space
Complex Autonomous Payload-IV (CONCAP-IV)
Superfluid On-Orbit Transfer (SHOOT)

STS-57 marked the first flight of the commercially-developed SPACEHAB Module, a pressurized laboratory designed to more than double the workspace for crew-tended experiments. Once on orbit, the crew focused on payload operations which included the experiments housed in the SPACEHAB Module.

On flight day two, activities involved the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) check-out and a survey of the payload bay via the RMS. Crew members also checked-out the laser range finder equipment. Rendezvous and retrieval of the EURECA-1 payload occurred on flight day 4. Flight day 5 included extravehicular activity (EVA).

In addition to the daily experiments conducted within the SPACEHAB Module throughout the mission, crew members completed medical tests and communicated with ham radio operators on Earth via the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX).

STS-57 will forever be known as the first flight of SPACEHAB, the pioneer of space access and commerce.

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