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- MISSION CONTROL STATUS REPORT
- Report #2
-
- Oct. 6, 1990
- MET 00/15:45
- CDT 10:30 p.m.
-
- Following a successful deploy of the Ulysses spacecraft,
- flight controllers are busy finalizing plans and preparing
- messages for the second day of STS-41.
-
- Ulysses was successfully deployed from Discovery's payload
- bay about six hours after launch. The two Inertial Upper
- Stage motors and the single Payload Assist Module then
- started the spacecraft on its five-year journey to the sun.
- The PAM burn accelerated Ulysses to a speed of more than
- 34,000 mph, the fastest a vehicle has left Earth orbit. By
- using a gravity assist of Jupiter to fling Ulysses out of
- the orbital plane, the spacecraft will travel through a
- previously unexplored area of space.
-
- The STS-41 crew currently has slightly more than three hours
- remaining in its eight-hour sleep period with the
- wakeup call scheduled for 1:47 a.m. CDT. The five-man crew
- will have a busy day working with eight
- of the nine secondary payloads. Secondary payload activities
- include work with Chromex, Investigations into Polymer
- Membrane Processing, the Voice Control System, the Solid
- Surface Combustion Experiment and the Physiological Systems
- Experiment. The crew also will activate and take the first
- data takes with the Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet
- instrument, and will position the Remote Manipulator System
- Arm to collect data with the IntelSat Solar Array Coupon.
-
- During the sleep period flight controllers enjoyed numerous
- Earth views from the four payload bay and two remote
- manipulator system cameras. Controllers also took the
- opportunity to inspect the payload bay and orbiter's wings as
- the cameras were being exercised.
-
- Discovery currently is in a 178 x 160 nautical mile orbit.
-