STS-69 - Mission Highlights

Mission Highlights

The 11-day mission was the second flight of the Wake Shield Facility (WSF), a saucer-shaped satellite that will fly free of the Shuttle for several days. The WSF will grow thin films in a near perfect vacuum created by the wake of the satellite as it moves through space. The crew also will deploy and retrieve the Spartan 201 astronomy satellite, perform a six-hour spacewalk to test assembly techniques for the international Space Station and test thermal improvements made to spacesuits used during space walks.

The Spartan 201 free-flyer will be making its third flight aboard the Shuttle. The Spartan 201 mission is a scientific research effort aimed at the investigation of the interaction between the Sun and its outflowing wind of charged particles. Spartan's goal is to study the outer atmosphere of the Sun and its transition into the solar wind that constantly flows past the Earth.

STS-69 will see the first flight of the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker (IEH-1), the first of five planned flights to measure and monitor long-term variations in the magnitude of absolute extreme ultraviolet (EUV) flux coming from the Sun, and to study EUV emissions from the plasma torus system around Jupiter originating from its moon Io.

Also flying aboard Endeavour will be the combined Capillary Pumped Loop-2/Gas Bridge Assembly (CAPL-2/GBA) payload. This experiment consists of the CAPL-2 Hitchhiker payload designed as an in-orbit microgravity demonstration of a cooling system planned for the Earth Observing System Program and the Thermal Energy Storage-2 payload, part of an effort to develop advanced energy generation techniques. Also a part of this payload are several Get Away Special (GAS) experiments which will investigate areas such as the interaction of spacecraft attitude and orbit control systems with spacecraft structures, fluid-filled beams as structural dampers in space and the effects of smoldering combustion in a long-term microgravity environment.

Another payload being flown with a connection to the development of the Space Station is the Electrolysis Performance Improvement Concept Study (EPICS). Supply of oxygen and hydrogen by electrolyzing water in space will play an important role in meeting NASA's needs and goals for future space missions. On-board generation of oxygen is expected to reduce the annual resupply requirement for the Space Station by approximately 5,400 kilograms (12,000 lb).

Other payloads aboard are the National Institutes of Health- Cells-4 (NIH-C4) experiment that investigates bone loss during space flight; the Biological Research in Canister-6 (BRIC-6) that studies the gravity-sensing mechanism within mammalian cells. Also flying are two commercial experiments. (CMIX-4) whose objectives include analysis of cell change in microgravity along with studies of neuro-muscular development disorders and the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus-7 (CGBA-7). CGBA is a secondary payload that serves as an incubator and data collection point for experiments in pharmaceuticals testing and biomedicine, bioprocessing and biotechnology, agriculture and the environment.

The Thermal Energy Storage (TES-2) experiment also is part of the CAPL-2/GBA-6. The TES-2 payload is designed to provide data for understanding the long-duration behavior of thermal energy storage fluoride salts that undergo repeated melting and freezing in microgravity. The TES-2 payload is designed to study the microgravity behavior of voids in lithium fluoride–calcium fluoride eutectic, a thermal energy storage salt. Data from this experiment will validate a computer code called TESSIM, useful for the analysis of heat receivers in advanced solar dynamic power system designs.