The STS-70 is a Space Shuttle program mission.

Space Shuttle program
Mission Insignia
Mission Statistics
Mission:	STS-70
Shuttle:	Discovery
Launch Pad:	39-B
Launch:	July 13, 1995 at 9:41:55.078 a.m. EDT.
Landing:	KSC July 22,1995 at 8:02 a.m. EDT on Runway 33.
Duration:	8 days, 22 hours, 20 minutes, 5 seconds.
Orbit Altitude:	160 nautical miles (296 km)
Orbit Inclination:	28.45 degrees
Distance Traveled:	3.7 million miles (6 million km)
Crew photo
Previous Mission: STS-71	Next Mission: STS-69

Crew

• Terence T. Henricks (3), Commander
• Kevin R. Kregel (1), Pilot
• Nancy J. Currie (2), Mission Specialist
• Donald A. Thomas (2), Mission Specialist
• Mary E. Weber (1), Mission Specialist

Mission Parameters

• Mass: 20,159 kg payload
• Perigee: 257 km
• Apogee: 257 km
• Inclination: 28.5°
• Period: 90.5 min

Mission Highlights

The primary mission is the launch and deployment of the 7th Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) by means of the two-stage Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) solid rocket.

The TDRS will be the 6th placed in operational use. The first TDRS was launched aboard STS-6 on 4/5/83 with a scheduled lifetime of 7 years. The second TDRS (TDRS-2) was lost aboard Challenger on mission 51-L . Other TDRS satellites have flown on STS-26 (TDRS-3), STS-29 (TDRS-4), STS-43 (TDRS-5) and STS-54 (TDRS-6). The on-orbit TDRS network is currently being rearranged and will include two fully operational spacecraft occupying the TDRS East and West slots, one on-orbit fully functional spare, a nearly depleted TDRS which has exceeded its planned lifetime, and a partially operational TDRS devoted to supporting the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO). It is also used to cover an area that can't be seen by the other satellites known as the Zone of Exclusion.

The TDRS system is a space-based network that provides communications, tracking, telemetry, data acquisition and command services essential to the Space Shuttle and other low-Earth orbital spacecraft such as the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO), the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE), TOPEX-Poseidon, Landsat and many more. TDRS-G will reside in geosynchronous orbit at 22,300 miles (35,888 kilometers) at 178 degrees West longitude. It was built by TRW and weighs about 4,900 pounds (2,200 kg).

The deploy operations utilize 3 separate control centers to manage orbit operations. The White Sands ground station will control the TDRS, the JSC Mission Control Center (MCC) will control the shuttle, and the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) control center at Onizuka Air Force Base in Sunnyvale California will control the booster stage. Deploy operations will begin six hours into the mission. Once deployed, the TDRS satellite has a wingspan of 57 ft. TDRSS-G will add to the complement of satellites already in orbit.

Secondary objectives of the mission are to fulfill the requirements of the Physiological and Anatomical Rodent Experiment / National Institutes of Health-Rodents (PARE/NIH-R); Bioreactor Demonstration System (BDS), Commercial Protein Crystal Growth (CPCG); Space Tissue Loss/National Institutes of Health-Cells (STL/NIH-C); Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC); Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment-II (SAREX-II), Visual Function Tester-4 (VFT-4); Hand-Held, Earth Oriented, Real-Time, Cooperative, User-Friendly, Location-Targeting and Environmental System (HERCULES); Microcapsules in Space-B (MIS-B); Windows Experiment (WINDEX); Radiation Monitoring Equipment-III (RME-III); and the Military Applications of Ship Tracks (MAST).

STS-70 will mark the maiden flight of the new Block 1 orbiter main engine. Engine number 2036 features the new high-pressure liquid oxygen turbopump, a two-duct powerhead, baffleless main injector, single-coil heat exchanger and start sequence modifications. The modifications are designed to improve both engine performance and safety. The Block I engine will fly in the number one position on Discovery. The other two engines are of the existing Phase II design.

Related articles

• Space science
• Space shuttle
• List of space shuttle missions
• List of human spaceflights chronologically

External links

• NASA mission summary