Space Shuttle Team Overcomes Challenges to Christen Orbiter

The Maiden Voyage of Discovery – Part 1

By Bob Granath

From the time the Space Shuttle Discovery first arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, preparations for the spacecraft’s maiden voyage poised many challenges for the team at the Florida spaceport. In spite of these issues, the new orbiter went on to fly a highly successful initial mission. Altogether, Discovery flew 39 times becoming the workhorse of the five-orbiter fleet.

As was the case with all NASA’s operational Space Shuttles, Discovery was named for historic ships of exploration. Henry Hudson’s Discovery sailed in 1610 and 1611 to explore Hudson Bay and in search of a Northwest Passage. Capt. James Cook’s HMS Discovery was the ship he commanded during his third and final voyage from 1776 to 1779 to study the Pacific Ocean.

NASA’s Discovery became the third operational Space Shuttle to enter service, preceded by Columbia in 1981 and Challenger in 1983.

The first flight was STS-41D with veteran NASA astronaut Hank Hartsfield, the pilot on STS-4, serving as commander. The pilot was Mike Coats and mission specialists were Judy Resnik, Richard Mullane and Steve Hawley, all flying for the first time. The crew also included McDonnell Douglas engineer Charlie Walker, the first commercially sponsored payload specialist to fly aboard the Space Shuttle. Resnik was the second American woman to fly in space after Sally Ride.

“That was nice that we got to fly the maiden flight of a vehicle,” said Coats during a Nov. 9, 2012 interview for the Johnson Space Center’s Oral History Project.

The mission included testing a Solar Array Flight Experiment and deploying three commercial communications satellites. The combined cargo weighed 41,184 pounds, the heaviest payload for the shuttle program up to that time.

Preflight Challenges

According to Charlie Adams, Lockheed Space Operations Company’s vehicle manager for Discovery, extensive testing was required in the months after the orbiter arrived on Nov. 9, 1983 from the Rockwell International assembly facility in California. Lockheed was NASA’s Shuttle Processing Contractor at Kennedy responsible for all ground processing of the orbiters, external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters, or SRBs, from October 1983 to July 1996.

“We had a great deal to do,” he said. “In addition to all the testing necessary for a new orbiter, some of the manufacturing work remained to be completed and numerous modifications were made.”

Each Space Shuttle had thousands of heat-resistant tiles covering the orbiter, especially the underside, to protect it from high temperatures of re-entry. But, the major difference between Discovery and its predecessors was the extensive use of flexible insulation blankets on the upper portion. By using fewer tiles and other manufacturing lessons learned from the first orbiters, Discovery weighed nearly 8,000 pounds less than the first Space Shuttle. This allowed for more payload capacity.

“Columbia had thermal protection tiles on all of the white areas of the orbiter,” Adams said. “Challenger had mostly tiles, but did have some thermal blankets. On the other hand, Discovery has blankets covering all of the white areas.”

The work was completed in Kennedy’s Orbiter Processing Facility, or OPF. It was comprised of three custom-built, 29,000-square-foot bays, or hangars. Inside, the highly experienced mechanics and technicians performed much of the work to prepare the shuttles between flights.

“We had numerous problems to overcome, but through hard work by our talented workforce, we’ve solved each one,” Adams said.

For example, a crucial electronics component in the orbiter, a multiplexer/demultiplexer, was removed from Discovery for use on Challenger during the previous mission, STS-41C, in April 1984.

Following completion of work in the OPF, Discovery was moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building where it was mated to the external fuel tank and the twin solid rocket boosters. The completed STS-41D flight vehicle rolled out to Launch Complex 39A on May 16, 1984.

The next major event for Discovery was the Flight Readiness Firing, or FRF, a static test of the orbiter’s three main engines on June 2, 1984. As each shuttle was prepared for its maiden voyage the Space Shuttle Main Engines, or SSMEs, were fired as a test of all systems. Like its sister ships, Columbia and Challenger, the Discovery’s main engines were ignited for a 20-second burn.

According to Tom Carpenter, Lockheed’s director of Launch Pad Operations, post-firing analysis showed that most systems functioned well.

“From a Pad Operations standpoint, the FRF went very well,” said. “Our crew now is in the process of making all of the final preparations for launch.”

The only exception to that report was the finding that a thermal shield on Space Shuttle Main Engine No. 1 had become partially debonded. This required that the engine be replaced with one from Challenger, an operation that was completed on June 9, 1984.

Following a 24-hour delay due to a failed backup general purpose computer, the first launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery and its six crewmembers was set for June 26, 1984.

‘We have an abort!’

At “T” minus six seconds, the main engines began roaring to life as exhaust briefly bellowed into the air.

“… six, five … we have main engine start … we have a cutoff,” said countdown commentator Mark Hess of NASA Public Affairs. “We have an abort by the on-board computers of the orbiter Discovery.”

The main engines abruptly shut down two seconds into the ignition sequence. This was only the second time an engine shutdown had occurred on a crewed launch. The first was Gemini VI on Dec. 12, 1965.

A fuel valve on SSME No. 3 did not open properly and the computer halted the launch sequence. Only engine No. 2 actually fired. Engine No. 3 never achieved internal ignition and engine No. 1 did not receive a start-up command before the shutdown.

The crew remained cool, Hartsfield recalled during an Oral History interview on June 15, 2001.

“There was a good moment of tension there, but Hawley broke the tension,” he said. “As soon as we looked at everything and everything was OK, Steve said, ‘Gee, I kind of thought we’d be a little higher at MECO (main engine cut off).’”

Why it happened was outlined at a news conference by Robert Lindstrom, manager of Shuttle Projects at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the NASA office responsible for the SSMEs,

“The failure indication was in the main fuel valve of engine No. 3,” he said. “The valve is commanded to open at a programmed rate. At 10 percent open, we (actually the computers) compare the actual position of the valve versus the commanded position of the valve. It only opened to six percent.”

According to Lindstrom, at that point a secondary system opened the valve, then switched on and performed properly. He emphasized that safety is the primary concern.

“We have a ground rule that we do not want to go to liftoff or go to SRB ignition when we have lost one leg of our redundancy to control the valves on the engines.”

NASA Director of Shuttle Management and Operations at Kennedy, Tom Utsman, had high praise for members of the Launch Team.

”They acted with dispatch and in a confident manner,” he said. “This is a tribute to their professionalism and training.”

Following initial vehicle safing, technicians returned to the launch pad to assist the astronauts as they left Discovery. NASA officials emphasized that the crew was in no danger at any time.

Another Engine Replacement

Shuttle program managers determined the faulty engine should be replaced and other modifications made. The vehicle was rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building on July 14, 1984 so Discovery could be de-mated from the external tank and SRBs and returned to the OPF. After processing crews replaced SSME No. 2, Discovery rolled back to the launch pad on Aug. 9, 1984.

Plans moved forward toward the next launch attempt set for Aug. 29, 1984, but there was another delay by one day due to a software issue.

The work of the Space Shuttle Processing Team began to pay off when Aug. 30, 1984 dawned with clear skies and smooth sailing for Discovery and its crew.

Editor’s Note: Check back on Feb. 2, 2022 for Part 2 of the Maiden Voyage of Discovery and see how the Space Shuttle Team on Earth christened the first of 39 highly successful missions of the shuttle program’s workhorse orbiter.

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