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First satellite repair
The mission for the crew of space shuttle Challenger's April 1984 flight was two-fold -- deploy the experiment-laden Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) and then track down the crippled Solar Max spacecraft, capture it and perform repairs during spacewalks. Initial attempts by the astronauts to grab the craft while wearing the Manned Maneuvering Unit spacewalk backpacks failed, but the crew ultimately retrieved Solar Max and installed fresh equipment while it was anchored in the payload bay. The crew narrates this post-flight presentation of home movies and highlights from mission STS-41C.
STS-26: Back in space
The space shuttle program was grounded for 32 months in the painful wake of the 1986 Challenger accident. Americans finally returned to space in September 1988 when shuttle Discovery safely launched for its mission to deploy a NASA communications satellite. Enjoy this post-flight presentation narrated by the astronauts as they show movies and tell the story of the STS-26 mission.
Amazing STS-51I flight
Imagine a space shuttle mission in which the astronaut crew launched two commercial and one military communications spacecraft, then conducted a pair of incredible spacewalks to recover, fix and redeploy a satellite that malfunctioned just four months earlier. The rescue mission was a success, starting with an astronaut making a catch of the spinning satellite with just his gloved-hand. Enjoy this post-flight presentation narrated by the astronauts as they tell the story of shuttle Discovery's August 1985 mission known as STS-51I.
Discovery's debut
In our continuing look back at the classic days of the space shuttle program, today we show the STS-41D post-flight presentation by the mission's astronauts. The crew narrates this film of home movies and mission highlights from space shuttle Discovery's maiden voyage in August 1984. STS-41D deployed a remarkable three communications satellites -- a new record high -- from Discovery's payload bay, extended and tested a 100-foot solar array wing and even knocked free an icicle from the shuttle's side using the robot arm.
"Ride of Your Life"
As the title aptly describes, this movie straps you aboard the flight deck for the thunderous liftoff, the re-entry and safe landing of a space shuttle mission. The movie features the rarely heard intercom communications between the crewmembers, including pilot Jim Halsell assisting commander Bob Cabana during the landing.
Message from Apollo 8
On Christmas Eve in 1968, a live television broadcast from Apollo 8 offered this message of hope to the people of Earth. The famous transmission occurred as the astronauts orbited the Moon.
ISS receives supply ship
The International Space Station receives its 20th Russian Progress cargo ship, bringing the outpost's two-man Expedition 12 crew a delivery of fresh food, clothes, equipment and special holiday gifts just in time for Christmas.
Goodbye, Topex/Poseidon NASA/JPL NEWS RELEASE Posted: January 7, 2006
The joint NASA/Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales Topex/Poseidon oceanography satellite ceased operations after nearly 62,000 orbits of Earth. The spacecraft lost its ability to maneuver, bringing to a close a successful 13-year mission.
Credit: NASA/JPL
"Topex/Poseidon revolutionized the study of Earth's oceans, providing the first continuous, global coverage of ocean surface topography and allowing us to see important week-to-week oceanic variations," said Dr. Mary Cleave, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "Its data made a huge difference in our understanding of the oceans and their effect on global climatic conditions."
Topex/Poseidon data have helped in hurricane and El Nino/La Nina forecasting, ocean and climate research, ship routing, offshore industries, fisheries management, marine mammals' research, modernizing global tide models and ocean debris tracking.
"Topex/Poseidon was built to fly up to five years, but it became history's longest Earth-orbiting radar mission," said Topex/Poseidon Project Scientist Dr. Lee-Lueng Fu of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It provided, on average, more than 98 percent of the science data it was designed to collect in every 10-day measurement cycle, a remarkable achievement."
The satellite's pitch reaction wheel, which helps keep the spacecraft in its proper orbital orientation, stalled on October 9, and ground controllers concluded the wheel was not functioning. The satellite remains in orbit 1,336 kilometers (830 miles) above the Earth, posing no threat to the planet.
"Topex/Poseidon was a unique mission that attracted users around the world, including more than 600 scientists in 54 countries," said Dr. Yves Menard, Topex/Poseidon project scientist at Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales in Toulouse, France.
Topex/Poseidon's data have been the subject of more than 2,100 research publications; major science and application achievements include:
the first decade-long global descriptions of seasonal and yearly ocean current changes
refined scientists' estimates of rising global sea level during the past decade
provided a new understanding of the role tides play in mixing the deep ocean
developed the most accurate ever global ocean tides' models
provided the first global data set to test ocean general circulation model performance
demonstrated global positioning system measurements in space could determine
spacecraft positions with unprecedented accuracy, enabling rapid delivery of data.
Jason, a follow-on oceanography mission launched in December 2001, is continuing Topex/Poseidon's study of ocean circulation affects on the Earth's climate. Jason precisely maps the surface height, wind speed and wave height of 95 percent of Earth's ice-free oceans every 10 days. The data provide invaluable input for short-term weather forecasting, long-term climate forecasting and prediction models.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Topex/Poseidon's stellar performance allowed it to fly in tandem with Jason for nearly three years, doubling data collection. This allowed the study of smaller-scale ocean phenomena like coastal tides, ocean eddies and currents. It also improved understanding of how low-frequency ocean waves transmit signals of climate change.
Beyond Jason, the Ocean Surface Topography Mission is in development for a scheduled launch in 2008. It will continue providing high-precision sea surface height data to the oceanographic science community.
The joint effort had its genesis in 1979, when NASA began developing the Topex mission, while the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales was planning a similar one called Poseidon. The agencies formed a single mission in 1983, and it was launched August 10, 1992. JPL manages the U.S. portion of Topex/Poseidon/Jason for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales manages the French portion of both missions.
JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.