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STS-57 launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on June 21, 1993, and returned there on July 1, 1993. The primary objective of this flight was the retrieval of the European Retrievable Carrier satellite (EURECA) using the RMS. Additionally, this mission featured the first flight of Spacehab, a commercially-provided middeck augmentation module for the conduct of microgravity experiments, as well as a spacewalk by two crew members, which also involved the use of the Shuttle's robotic arm. Spacehab carried 22 individual flight experiments in materials and life sciences research. STS-57 was accomplished in 155 orbits of the Earth in 239 hours.
STS-70 launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on July 13, 1995, and returned there July 22, 1995. The five-member crew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery deployed the final NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite to complete the constellation of NASA's orbiting communication satellite system. The crew also conducted a myriad of biomedical and remote sensing experiments. During this 8 day 22 hour mission, the crew completed 142 orbits of the Earth, traveling 3.7 million miles. STS-70 was the first mission controlled from NASA's new combined control center.
Manned six crew. Carried Spacehab 1; retrieved Eureca-1 spacecraft. Payloads: Spacehab 01, retrieval of European Retriev-able Carrier (EURECA) Satellite, Superfluid Helium On-Orbit Transfer (SHOOT), Consortium for Materials Development in Space Complex Autonomous Payload (CONCAP)-IV, Fluid Acquisition and Resupply Experiment (FARE), Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) II, Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS), GAS bridge assembly with 12 getaway special payloads.
Deployed TDRS 7. Payloads: Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) G/ Inertial Upper Stage (IUS); Bioreactor Demon-stration System (BDS) B; Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC); Commercial Protein Crystal Growth (CPCG); Hand-Held, Earth-Oriented, Real-Time, Cooperative, User-Friendly, Location-Targeting and Environmental System (HER-CULES); Microcapsules in Space (MIS) B; Physiological and Anatomical Rodent Experiment (PARE)/National Institutes of Health (NIH) Rodents (R); Radiation Monitoring Experiment (RME) III; Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) II; Space Tissue Loss (STL)/National Institutes of Health (NIH) Cells (C); Military Applications of Ship Tracks (MAST); Visual Function Tester (VFT) 4; Window Experiment (WINDEX).
First attempted launch of STS-88 was scrubbed at 09:03 GMT on December 3 due to a problem with a hydraulic system sensor. Launch came the next day, with Endeavour entering an initial 75 km x 313 km x 51.6 degree orbit. Half an orbit after launch, at 09:19 GMT, Endeavour fired its OMS engines to raise the orbit to 180 km x 322 km x 51.6 degree.
On December 5 at 22:25 GMT Nancy Currie unberthed the Unity space station node from the payload bay using the RMS arm. She then moved the Unity to a position docked to the Orbiter Docking System in the payload bay in readiness for assembly with the Russian-launched Zarya FGB ISS component. After rendezvous with the Zarya FGB module, on December 6 at 23:47 GMT Endeavour grappled Zarya with the robot arm, and at 02:07 GMT on December 7 it was soft docked to the PMA-1 port on Unity. After some problems hard dock was achieved at 02:48 GMT. Unity and Zarya then formed the core of the future International Space Station. Ross and Newman made three space walks to connect cables between Zarya and Unity, on December 7, 9 and 12. On the last EVA a canvas tool bag was attached to the exterior of Unity to provide tools for future station assembly workers. Docking cables were disconnected to prevent Unity and Zarya from inadvertently undocking. Following an internal examination of the embryonic space station, Endeavour undocked at 20:30 GMT on December 13. The SAC-A and Mightysat satellites were ejected from the payload bay on December 14 and 15. Deorbit burn was December 16 at 03:48 GMT, and Endeavour landed at 04:53:29 GMT, on Runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center.
Payloads included: