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Space History for December 13

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1816
Born, Werner von Siemens, German inventor and industrialist

Ernst Werner von Siemens (13 December 1816 - 6 December 1892) was a German inventor and industrialist. Siemens invented a telegraph that used a needle to point to the right letter, instead of using Morse code. Based on this invention, he founded the company Siemens AG on 12 October 1847. He retired from it in 1890.

Siemens' name has been adopted as the SI unit of electrical conductance, the siemens.
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1920
Francis Pease first used the interferometer at Mount Wilson Observatory to measure a stellar diameter, that of Betelgeuse.
ref: books.google.com

1928
L. Volta discovered asteroid #1115 Sabauda.

1958
The UN Committee on Peaceful Use of Outer Space was established.
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1958 03:53:00 EST (GMT -5:00:00)
The US Army launched rocket Jupiter AM-13 with the first monkey in space aboard, a squirrel monkey named Gordo.

The first monkey in (sub-orbital space) was a squirrel monkey called Gordo, launched into space on 13 December 1958, in the nose cone of the US Army rocket Jupiter AM-13. Gordo did well in the flight, but died in the Atlantic Ocean when the capsule's parachute failed to deploy and it sank after impact.
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1962 04:05:00 GMT
The USAF lofted Injun 3 to orbit, a magnetic field-aligned-spacecraft particularly instrumented for a high-latitude and auroral study of geophysical phenomena, on a Thor launched from Vandenberg AFB with the USAF/USN 1962 Beta Tau surveillance satellites.
ref: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov

1962 23:30:00 GMT
NASA launched the Relay 1 communication satellite whose payload included experiments designed to map Earth's radiation belts.
ref: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov

1967 14:08:00 GMT
NASA launched Pioneer 8 into solar orbit to collect solar radiation data.

Pioneer 8 in solar orbit, NASA illustration

Pioneer 8, launched 13 December 1967, was the third in a series of solar-orbiting satellites designed to obtain measurements of interplanetary phenomena from widely separated points in space on a continuing basis. The spacecraft carried experiments to study the positive ions and electrons in the solar wind, the interplanetary electron density (radio propagation experiment), solar and galactic cosmic rays, the interplanetary magnetic field, cosmic dust, and electric fields. Its main antenna was a high-gain directional antenna. The spacecraft was spin-stabilized at about 60 rpm, and the spin axis was perpendicular to the ecliptic plane and pointed toward the south ecliptic pole. By ground command, one of five bit rates, one of four data formats, and one of four operating modes could be selected. The time interval between the collection and storage of successive frames could be varied by ground command between 2 and 17 minutes to provide partial data coverage for periods up to 19 hours, as limited by the bit storage capacity. In the memory readout mode, data were read out at whatever bit rate was appropriate to the satellite distance from Earth.
ref: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov

1993 00:25:37 EST (GMT -5:00:00)
NASA's STS 61 (Endeavor 5, 59th shuttle mission) landed at KSC, returning from the first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.

The STS 61 Endeavor launch was originally scheduled to occur from Launch Pad 39A, but after rollout, contamination was found in the Pad 39A Payload Changeout Room and a decision was made to move the Shuttle and payloads to Pad 39B. Rollaround occurred on 15 November. The first launch attempt on 1 December was scrubbed due to out-of-limit weather conditions at the Shuttle Landing Facility (required in event of the return-to-launch-site contingency plan). The 2 December 1993 launch finally occurred on schedule.

The final Shuttle flight of 1993 was one of the most challenging and complex manned missions ever attempted. During a record five back-to-back space walks totaling 35 hours and 28 minutes, two teams of astronauts completed the first servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). In many instances, the tasks were completed sooner than expected, and the few contingencies that did arise were handled smoothly.

The Hubble rendezvous, grapple and berthing occurred on flight day three, with Nicollier using the remote manipulator system arm to position the 43-foot (13-meter) long Hubble upright in payload bay. Throughout mission, commands to Hubble were issued from the Space Telescope Operations Control Center (STOCC) at Goddard Space Flight Center. After each servicing task completed, STOCC controllers verified the electrical interfaces between the replacement hardware and telescope.

On flight day four, the first EVA team of Musgrave and Hoffman performed EVA #1, replacing two Rate Sensing Units (RSUs), each housing a pair of gyroscopes; two Electronic Control Units which direct the RSUs; and eight electrical fuse plugs. The only unexpected problem occurred when Hoffman and Musgrave had difficulty closing the compartment doors after replacing the RSUs. The seven-hour, 54-minute space walk was the second longest in US history to date, topped only by an STS-49 EVA lasting eight hours, 29 minutes. During the EVAs, Nicollier operated the robot arm carrying one of the two EVA crew members.

One of the primary servicing goals - installation of new solar arrays - was accomplished during EVA #2, performed on flight day five by Thornton and Akers and lasting six hours, 35 minutes. The timeline was re-worked to accommodate jettison of one of the two original solar arrays, which could not be fully retracted due to a kink in its framework. The other solar array was stowed in the payload bay and the replacement pair - a set of modified spares - was installed without difficulty.

The expected four-hour replacement of one of Hubble's five scientific instruments, the Wide Field/Planetary Camera (WF/PC), was completed in about 40 minutes by Hoffman and Musgrave during EVA #3 on flight day six. WF/PC II is an upgraded spare modified to compensate for the flaw in the HST primary mirror. Also, two new magnetometers were installed at the top of the telescope during the six-hour, 48-minute EVA.

EVA #4 was performed on flight day seven by Thornton and Akers. The High-Speed Photometer, one of the original Hubble scientific instruments, was removed and replaced with the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) unit. This task also took less time to complete than was expected. COSTAR is designed to redirect light to three of the four remaining Hubble instruments to compensate for the flaw in primary mirror of the telescope. Thornton and Akers also installed a co-processor to enhance the memory and speed of Hubble's computer. During the six-hour, 50-minute EVA, Akers set a new US space-walking record of 29 hours, 39 minutes, topping Eugene Cernan's 20-year-old record of 24 hours, 14 minutes. Thornton is the leading US female space walker with a total of 21 hours, 10 minutes.

The final EVA was performed by Hoffman and Musgrave on flight day eight. During the seven-hour, 21-minute-long EVA #5, Hoffman and Musgrave replaced the Solar Array Drive Electronics (SADE) unit and installed the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph Redundancy (GHRS) kit; and also installed two protective covers over the original magnetometers. After space walk was completed, the new solar arrays and two high-gain antennas were deployed by STOCC. HST was also re-boosted to slightly higher orbit of 321 nautical miles (595 kilometers) on flight day eight prior to the last EVA.

Hubble was redeployed on flight day nine. Release was delayed several hours to allow troubleshooting of erratic data telemetry from the Hubble subsystems monitor; the problem had occurred before and was not related to the servicing operations. President Clinton and Vice President Gore congratulated the crew, and the Swiss minister of internal affairs called the following day to congratulate Nicollier.

The STS 61 mission ended 13 December 1993 when Endeavor landed on revolution 163 on Runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, the second night landing at KSC. Rollout distance: 7,922 feet (2,415 meters). Rollout time: 53 seconds. Launch weight: 250,314 pounds. Landing weight: 211,210 pounds. Orbit altitude: 321 nautical miles. Orbit inclination: 28.45 degrees. Mission duration: 10 days, 19 hours, 58 minutes, 37 seconds. Miles traveled: 4.4 million. The orbiter returned one orbit earlier than originally planned to allow two landing opportunities at KSC.

The STS 61 crew was: Richard O. Covey, Commander; Kenneth D. Bowersox, Pilot; F. Story Musgrave, Payload Commander; Kathryn C. Thornton, Mission Specialist 1; Claude Nicollier, Mission Specialist 2; Jeffrey A. Hoffman, Mission Specialist 3; Thomas D. Akers, Mission Specialist 5.
ref: www.nasa.gov

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