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STS-93 - Chandra Deployment Mission
View an abbreviated launch
timeline & accompanying diagram.
Preparing for Launch |
On July 23, 1999 at 12:31 a.m. EDT, the solid rocket motors in
the Solid Rocket Boosters on NASA Shuttle Transportation System
93 (STS-93) ignited. Under the command of Col. Eileen Collins,
the shuttle lifted off the launch pad at John F. Kennedy Space
Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its mission: to carry NASA's
Chandra X-ray Observatory into space.
STS-93 Launch! |
Two minutes later, the burn from the Solid Rocket Boosters was
completed and the boosters separated from the shuttle.
Parachutes blossomed and carried the boosters gently into the
Atlantic Ocean where they were recovered.
Eight minutes after launch the main engine cut off and the
disposable external fuel tank separated.
Forty-five minutes after launch the shuttle orbiter Columbia
achieved a circular orbit 320 kilometers (200 miles) above
Earth.
 Chandra Deployment
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At two hours into the mission, the payload doors opened and the
astronauts prepared to deploy the Chandra X-ray Observatory. For
six hours, while Columbia silently orbited Earth, all the
systems on the Chandra spacecraft were checked out and the
satellite reached equilibrium with the conditions in
space.
Eight hours and 42 minutes after launch, a small spring gently
catapulted
 Chandra Deployment
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the giant satellite into space. Columbia pulled away a safe
distance, and at 9 hours and 41 minutes into the mission, the
first of two solid rocket motors attached to Chandra's
spacecraft module ignited. The rocket burned for two minutes
before shutting off and separating from the spacecraft. Three
minutes later the second rocket fired. These firings lifted the
Chandra X-ray Observatory into a highly elliptical orbit that
took the satellite 64,000 kilometers away from Earth before
returning to a closest approach of 320 kilometers. The solar
panels deployed and the second solid rocket motor
separated.
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