STS-9/Spacelab 1/Columbia

John Young goes into space for a record-setting sixth time

 

Flight Crew: John W. Young (Commander)

Brewster H. Shaw, Jr. (Pilot)

Owen K. Garriott (Mission Specialist)

Dr. Robert A. Parker (Mission Specialist)

Dr. Byron K. Lichtenberg (Payload Specialist)

Dr. Ulf Merbold (ESA Payload Specialist)

Shuttle Orbiter: Columbia (OV-102)

November 28, 1983

Mission Duration: 10 days 7 hours 47 minutes 24 seconds

167 Orbits

Landing: December 8, 1983-Runway 17, Rogers Dry Lake, Edwards AFB, CA

 

 

 

 

The crew of STS-9/Spacelab 1. Standing, L-R: Payload Specialists Dr. Byron Lichtenberg (NASA) and Dr. Ulf Merbold (ESA). Seated, L-R: Mission Specialist Owen Garriott, Pilot Brewster Shaw, Commander John Young, & MS Dr. Robert Parker. Byron Lichtenberg came from Straudsburg, PA. He joined the USAF with a BS in aerospace engineering from Brown in 1970. He flew 138 combat missions in Vietnam while flying F-4s with the 25th TFS out of Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. He didn't make the 1978 round of astronaut selection, but that same year, he saw that Payload Specialist positions were available for Spacelab, so he applied and was accepted. By then, he had an MS in mechanical engineering from MIT, and in 1979, he got his Ph.D in biomedical engineering. Ulf Merbold was the first non-American astronaut to fly with NASA, under the auspices of the European Space Agency (ESA), which was a partner in Spacelab with NASA. Born June 20, 1941, in Greiz, in what would become East Germany, he fled to the West in 1961 at 19. He got his doctorate in physics from Stuttgart University in 1968. He was also a private pilot, experienced in instrument flying, aerobatics, and soaring. Bob Parker, one of the 1967 "XS-11" scientist-astronauts that had to wait 2 decades to fly, was born in New York on Dec. 14, 1936, but grew up in Shrewsbury, Mass.. He had a BA in Astronomy and Physics from Amherst in 1958, and a doctorate in Astronomy from CalTech in 1962. He was also a father of 5. Brewster Shaw, born May 16, 1945, in Cass City, MI, flew F-100s out of Phan Rang in his first tour in Vietnam in 1970, came back to the states to transition to F-4s, and then went back to fly with the 25th TFS at Ubon, where he was Byron Lichtenberg's squadronmate. With bachelor and master of science degrees in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Wisconsin (Madison), he was selected as a pilot astronaut in 1978. STS-9 also featured 2 veteran astronauts. Owen Garriott spent 59 1/2 days on Skylab with Al Bean & Jack Lousma on Skylab III, and participated in 3 spacewalks. And there was the commander, John Young, the man some called "the first real spaceman." STS-9 would be his record-setting 6th space flight. His record reads like a history of American space exploration: he had flown the first Gemini mission, Gemini 3, with Gus Grissom; commanded Gemini 10; flew to the Moon as CMP of Apollo 10; walked on the Moon as CDR of Apollo 16; ran the Astronaut Office in the '70s; and flown the very first Shuttle mission, STS-1. When it comes to space flight, it's safe to say that John W. Young, last of the moonwalkers at NASA & last of the legendary New 9, has "been there & done that." NASA Photo.

 

On Dec. 6, 1980, components for Spacelab 1 arrive at KSC, and are shown being offloaded from a USAF C-5A Galaxy. Spacelab was a joint effort by NASA and ESA, and had been designed in conjunction with the Shuttle almost from the beginning of the program. It was a multipurpose laboratory capable of accommodating equipment & experiments across the spectrum of science & technology. NASA Photo.

 

Feb. 5, 1982: then-Vice-President George H. W. Bush (center) talks with Owen Garriott & Ulf Merbold in Spacelab in the Operations and Checkout Building at KSC. NASA Photo. 

 

Inside Spacelab, c. 1998, just before the module was sent to the Smithsonian. NASA Photo.

 

No, Columbia didn't roll out on Sept. 28 with no payload bay doors. But this NASA cut-and-paste job does show Spacelab's basic orientation in the bay. Columbia had to be taken back to the VAB to replace a cracked nozzle on one of the SRBs, forcing a launch delay. NASA Photo.

 

  

Oct. 5: John Young (shown) & Brewster Shaw are in one of NASA's Gulfstream II Shuttle Training Aircraft (STAs), practicing landings at the Shuttle Landing Facility. Brewster is in the right seat; the helmet of a NASA observer is visible on the left. NASA Photo.

 

11:00 AM EST, Nov. 29, 1983: Columbia lifts off from Pad 39A with Spacelab 1-and John Young is on his way into space for the 6th time, his 4th as Commander. NASA Photo.

 

Spacelab 1 in Columbia's payload bay. NASA Photo.

 

Crewmembers gather around a TV monitor in the Spacelab module. L-R: Bob Parker, Byron Lichtengberg, Owen Garriott  & Ulf Merbold. Altogether, 73 experiments were carried out in astronomy, physics, atmospherics, Earth observations, life sciences, materials sciences, space plasma physics and technology. During this mission, Owen Garriott also spent some time on a ham radio set, talking to radio operators around the world. NASA Photo.

 

 

Phan Rang, Vietnam. Somewhere down there is the air base from which Brewster Shaw flew F-100s during his first tour in Vietnam almost 14 years earlier. NASA Photo.

 

 

A man in his element: John Young in the Commander's seat of a spacecraft in orbit. NASA Photo.

 

 

Columbia touched down on Rogers Dry Lake Runway 17 at Edwards at 3:47 PM Pacific Time, Dec. 8, 1983. The landing had been delayed 8 hrs when 2 general purpose computers and Inertial Measurement Unit 1 all failed. John and Brewster brought Columbia in for a safe landing-but unknown to anyone, there was a hydrazene leak, causing 2 of the 3 APUs to catch fire just before landing. The fire continued after the wheels stopped, eventually burning itself out-and causing major damage to the compartment. The computer faults were traced to microscopic debris in the circuits. NASA Photo.

Video: Infra-red STS-9 landing (M)

The APU fire can be seen flickering at the base of the fin

 

 

The crew of STS-9 calls it a mission. From the top of the stairs to the bottom: Byron Lichtenberg, Owen Garriott, Ulf Merbold, Bob Parker, Brewster Shaw, and John Young. Byron Lichtenberg flew once more, STS-45 in 1992. He left NASA to found a company whose space experiments flew on the Russian space station Mir. He also flew with Southwest Airlines, and flew A-10 Warthogs with the Massachusetts ANG. STS-9 was Owen Garriott's last flight. He would have flown on STS-61-K, but that was one of the missions cancelled after the Challenger disaster. He left NASA in 1986 after 21 years and 2 flights to serve as Vice President, Space Programs for Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville, AL. Ulf Merbold flew with NASA again on STS-42 in Jan. 1992, and then went into space with the Russians aboard the Soyuz TM-20 mission to Mir in Oct. 1994. Bob Parker flew once more on STS-35 (Vance Brand's last mission) in 1990, and became the Director of Policy and Plans for the Office of Space Flight at NASA HQ in Washington D.C. Brewster Shaw commanded STS-61-B in Nov. 1985 and STS-28 in Aug. 1990. He then became Deputy Director, Space Shuttle Operations, NASA HQ, stationed at KSC. NASA Photo. 

 

Few astronauts will ever have a career as long, varied, and exciting as that of John Watts Young. While every member of the crew was scheduled for missions that got cancelled after Challenger, John lost his chance to fly a 7th time; he would have commanded STS-61-J in Aug. 1986, and would have launched the Hubble Space Telescope. And he might have even gone an 8th time after that before turning 60 on Sept. 24, 1990. As it was, the man who had been on the Moon when the Shuttle was announced (and who had made his first spaceflight when many of his colleagues were in gradeschool) held various technical & administrative positions with NASA. He became an outspoken critic of agency policies and practices before and after Challenger; some say this hurt his chances of flying again. Nevertheless, John Young's record of 6 space flights has only recently been broken. He is the only man to have flown Gemini, Apollo, & the Shuttle, and he walked on the Moon. John Young wrapped up his spectacular career with 34.82 days in space-3 of 'em on the Moon. A shy but intelligent and talented man, John Young is a true American hero.