At Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers prepared Discovery and its payloads for flight. A day before the planned February 2 launch, teams allowed time to replace a failed inertial measurement unit, delaying liftoff by 24 hours. After Discovery launched on February 3, a failed thruster and two persistent leaks threatened the rendezvous; ground teams worked with the astronauts to resolve the problems. [S1]
On the fourth flight day, commander James Wetherbee manually guided Discovery to within 33 feet of Mir’s Kristall module, assisted by his crewmates. The shuttle held position for about 10 minutes; the two crews spoke by radio and could see each other through their spacecraft windows, according to NASA. [S1]
Pilot Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a shuttle mission. Bernard Harris and Michael Foale also made history on their spacewalk as the first African American and first British-born astronauts, respectively, to walk in space. During the spacewalk they tested spacesuit modifications and handled a 2,600-pound satellite to study how such a mass could be moved. [S1]
The crew carried out 20 science and technology experiments in the Spacehab module. The SPARTAN-204 satellite recorded about 40 hours of observations of galactic dust clouds during its free flight; Janice Voss later used Discovery’s robotic arm to capture and stow it. [S1]
Source documents
- 30 Years Ago: STS-63, First Shuttle and Mir Rendezvous Missionhttps://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/johnson/30-years-ago-sts-63-first-shuttle-and-mir-rendezvous-mission/