Tag: STS-93
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Chandra helps reveal first-ever observed early-stage galaxy cluster merger
Coming 20 years after the x-ray telescope’s launch, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory has greatly aided an international team of scientists who performed the first-ever observations of the beginning stages of a galaxy cluster merger. Dr. Liyi Gu from RIKEN national science institute in Japan and SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, and the first author…
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STS-93 at Twenty Years: “A very long eight and a half minutes”
After another launch scrub for weather, Space Shuttle mission STS-93 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida twenty years ago in 1999 to begin an eventful ascent into low Earth orbit. Shuttle Columbia, with NASA’s first female spaceflight commander Eileen Collins leading a crew of five, successfully reached orbit and went on…
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STS-93 at Twenty Years: “I had to hit the button!”
In the span of a few seconds, a smooth countdown to launch Space Shuttle Mission STS-93, a five-person crew, and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory abruptly ended twenty years ago just before ignition of Orbiter Columbia’s three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME). An indication that hydrogen gas was leaking into the orbiter’s aft compartment where the…
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STS-93 at Twenty Years: Planning to launch Chandra
Just a few days from the thirtieth anniversary of Apollo 11, the mission that landed the first Americans on the Moon, the countdown for Space Shuttle mission STS-93 started at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Liftoff of Shuttle Orbiter Columbia from Launch Pad 39B was planned for early on the morning of July…
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Root cause found on Atlantis’ STS-125 ASA issue – SSMEs removed
Engineers have found the root cause of the Aerosurface Servoamplifer (ASA) channel 1 failure on Atlantis, after an expansive failure analysis effort found a short in the wiring. Atlantis is being processed for STS-129, following the highly successful STS-125 mission to Hubble. As part of her turnaround, the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) that helped…