A Bright Star Aloft for NASA

By Kenneth M. Pierce.

Despite minor glitches, the shuttle's eighth flight goes smoothly

It was like the inside of a bonfire." Thus did the pilot of Challenger, Daniel Brandenstein, describe the fiery view from his cockpit last week during the first nighttime launch of a U.S. space shuttle. So bright were the exhaust flames of Challenger's main engines and twin solid-fuel rocket boosters, which burn at 6000DEG F, that observers gathered at Kennedy Space Center for the eighth flight of NASA's Space Transportation System (STS-8) could read newspapers outdoors at 2:32 a.m. Awed by the sight of the flames against the night sky, Flight Commander Richard Truly, a veteran of the shuttle's second flight, asked ground controllers to record his impressions moments after liftoff. Said he: "The light from the solid rocket motors was about 500 times more than I remember on STS-2."

The nighttime lift-off was necessary to accomplish one of the mission's major goals: the launch for the government of India of a $45 million communications and weather satellite, known as Insat-lB. According to the laws of orbital mechanics, it was the only time of day that Challenger could leave Kennedy and be in position to place Insat-1B into the proper orbit over India.

On the shuttle's second day aloft, while orbiting 185 miles above the Pacific, the crew set Insat-1B spinning outside the open doors of the shuttle's payload bay. The satellite spun near by in space for 45 minutes, then, reflecting the sun's rays like a giant shiny ice cube, it flawlessly began its week-long climb to an altitude of 22,300 miles, propelled by its own rocket boosters. "The deployment was on time, and the satellite looks good," reported Mission Specialist Guion S. Bluford Jr., an aerospace engineer and veteran Air Force pilot who is the first U.S. black astronaut to fly a space mission.

Bluford's report delighted NASA'S engineers, as did the absence of other serious problems aboard the shuttle when the five-man crew completed its orbital agenda. A key test of the Challenger's 50-ft. mechanical arm went off smoothly. Guided by Bluford and Mission Specialist Dale Gardner, the arm slowly grasped an 8,500-lb. dumbbell in the middle of the cargo bay, hauled it out into space and brought it back inside. The test was a preparation for STS-13, scheduled for next April, when NASA hopes the arm will pluck a malfunctioning 5,100-lb. satellite from space and bring it aboard the shuttle for repairs. Throughout the flight, Bluford and other crew members served as subjects for research conducted aloft by Astronaut and Physician William Thornton, into the causes of motion sickness. Fully 40% of shuttle astronauts have complained of nausea while weightless in space. To aid understanding of the malady, crew members affixed electrodes to their skin to record eye movements as they floated about the weightless cabin.

One jarring note was the loud whine of a smoke-alarm klaxon, which briefly startled the crew. Because a fire or any outpouring of gas in Challenger's confined atmosphere would have lethal potential, the shuttle has seven fire extinguishers primed for instant use. However, a quick check showed that the alarm was set off by a sensor in the cargo area's aft bay No. 1 that had a history of being supersensitive, like a home smoke detector that goes off at the merest cigarette puff. Other sensors on Challenger's control panel were normal, and so, with the approval of flight engineers, the crew turned off the trigger-happy sensor, relying for fire warnings on the others aboard. "They handled it with easy skill," said one flight director, "like the old pros that they are."

At week's end, after six days in space that fulfilled the astronauts' pre-launch hope for a mission that would be technically "routine," Challenger was readied for its first nighttime landing, scheduled to take place five hours before dawn on Monday at California's Edwards Air Force Base.

Among those cheering the astronauts on was vacationing President Reagan, who placed a televised phone call from his ranch near Santa Barbara, Calif, to the orbiting crew. Reagan, whose budget and hiring policies have drawn sharp criticism from black leaders, included a special message of congratulations for Bluford. Said the President: "You, I think, are paving the way for many others, and you are making it plain we are in an era of brotherhood here in our land." It was Commander Truly who thanked Reagan on behalf of all the crew members. Said Truly: "We appreciate your taking time to call us, and we're very pleased and proud to be here."

NASA officials had hoped that Reagan's call would be electronically routed to Challenger through the troubled Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TORS), which failed to reach its proper orbit for more than two months after its April launch. The satellite is supposed to enable continuous transmissions from space to ground while the shuttles orbit around the globe. TDRS made successful hookups with Challenger earlier in the mission, but by the time Reagan placed his call, the $1 billion radio relay system was temporarily on the fritz. The cause: computer failure at the radio receiving station in White Sands, N. Mex. So Reagan's call was routed the old way, via a ground transmitter in Hawaii. Conceded Flight Director Harold M. Draughon: "We're having some maturity problems with the TDRS."

A working TDRS is the key to the shuttle's next flight, ST59 (scheduled for Oct. 28). The system will be vital to the operation of the European-built Spacelab, a laboratory for ongoing space experiments to be borne aloft by STS-9. To reassure Spacelab's anxious European backers, NASA added a day to the initial schedule for STS-8, thus allowing more time for the crew to check the voice, data and video transmission circuits of TDRS. Though the system delivered an "out of order" message to the President, NASA technicians were at pains to insist that at other times during the week, the performance of the relay satellite, like Challenger itself, was "fantastic." --By Kenneth M. Pierce. Reported by Jerry Hannifin/Kennedy Space Center

With reporting by Jerry Hannifin, Kennedy Space Center This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.