Bloomington High School South, The Gothic, 1985, Page 22

Description:	Miscellaneous, etc.Look—up in the sky!Its a space shuttle!The first mission ofthe space shuttleDiscovery was flownduring the first part ofthe 1984-85 schoolyear, carrying a six-person crew, one beinga native of nearbyBedford, Ind.The Discovery waslaunched on August 30,at 8:41 a.m. EDT.Once in orbit theDiscoverys crewlaunched threesatellites the most everlaunched by one shuttleat that time. CharlesWalker, who was thefirst commercialpassenger, didexperiments to processpharmaceuticalmaterials.One of the fewproblems that occurredwas an ice build-up onthe waste outlet,forcing the crew to useApollo-era wastedisposal bags. The icewas finally removed bythe remote manipulatorarm before the landingwhich took placeSeptember 5.The next shuttlemission involved theChallenger, and carriedthe largest crew everinto space, includingtwo women, oneCanadian engineer andan Australianoceanographer.The manipulater armwas handy on thismission, as it was usedto shake loose a solarplane on a launchedsatellite and to latch anantenna closed.David Leetsma andKathryn Sullivan madea 3.5 hour space walkto demonstrate how asatellite could berefueled in space. TheChallenger toucheddown on October 13.Discoverys secondmission began in themorning of November8, 1984.On this flight,spacewalker DaleGardner ran intotrouble when aspecially treatedbracket would not fitinto the satellite,preventing further useof the mechanical armto help secure thePalapa B-2 satellite.Joseph Allen was thenforced to hold the1,200-pound satellitefor 90 minutes while aberthing device wasattached by Gardner.The two spacewalkersreversed these roles torescue a WesternUnion Westar-6satellite. Mission 51-Alanded at KennedyCenter landing strip onNovember 15 as one ofthe most trouble-freeflights to date.The sixteenthlaunching of theDiscovery was made onthe fourth anniversaryof the first shuttlelaunch. On board wasthe first civilian to gointo space: UtahSenator Jake Garn,chairman of thesubcommittee whichoversees the NASAbudget. The April 12launch was the sixthattempt after technicalproblems and andaccident damaged theleft pay-load bay door.Finally in orbit, thecrew launched aHughes companysatellite, which failedafter launch. A spacewalk attempt to savethe satellite failed, andthe shuttle returned toEarth. Other shuttlemissions werescheduled for theremaining part of theyear, but could not becovered because ofpublication deadlines.The Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off on April 12, 1985.22 Student Life
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomsouth/id/2189
Collection:	Bloomington High School South

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