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KOMPAS.com – Today 39 years ago to be precise, the Space Shuttle Columbia NASA take off for the third mission or what is known as the mission STS-3 dari Launch Complex 39A di Kennedy Space Center, Florida, United States of America.
On March 22, 1982, space shuttle belonging to the United States national space agency (NASA) it slid to Earth’s orbit, boarded by Commander Jack Lousma and the pilot, C. Gordon Fullerton.
The main purpose space mission this is continuing the trials Remote Manipulator System (RMS) or what is also called Canadarm and performs thermal tests on the tail, nose and top by facing the sun with varying times.
Reported Spaceflight Insider, Sunday (22/3/2015) in launch on misi STS-3 This, the plane is already using an orange tank. Where on the previous two missions using a white external tank.
This is because, removing paint is believed to save up to 600 lbs or about 272 kg of usable weight for payloads.
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During the flight into Earth orbit, the crew of NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia was assigned to test the RMS.
This tool is used for the purposes of the SpaceLab which has an experimental palette in place of the load and this RMS is useful for moving and manipulating various experiments on the palette.
In addition, the crew conducted extensive thermal testing at Columbia, exposing various areas of the aircraft to the Sun.
In the experiment, it was found that when the charge chamber door was exposed to the hot sun, the door would bend slightly and could not close properly.
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So that the ship must be rotated to even out the temperature so that the cargo chamber door can return to its original shape.
The loading bay also carries the test tube for the program Small Self-Contained Payload called Getaway Special (GAS).
For the first time, several experiments were carried out on this aircraft’s mid-deck locker. The experiment is an experiment Electrophoresis Equipment Verification Test to study the separation of biological components.
In addition, the third STS-3 mission from the launch of NASA’s Columbia Space Shuttle was also carried out for experimentation Mono-disperse Latex Reactor which is used to produce micrometer-sized and also conducting latex particles Shuttle Student Involvement Project (SSIP).
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During the flight, the crew spacecraft Columbia did run into some minor problems, even though all missions were fulfilled.
At that time, the toilet was not working on the first day and they experienced ‘colorful flushing for eight days’.
The problem still persists when it was found that three communication links were lost and the two astronauts had space disease.
In fact, not only that, these astronauts are required to land at White Sands in New Mexico, USA.
This resulted in inundation and required NASA to move landing gear from Edwards to White Sands by train before and during missions to prepare for landing.
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However, strong winds made the plane land on the seventh day of the scheduled mission and landed successfully on March 30, 1982. Even though it was not finished, NASA still wanted to test the automatic landing program.
They wanted to stay up to 500 feet or about 152 meters, then Commander Lousma would take over the landing. However, this automatic landing was a failure.
“Everything seemed fine in the beginning until a few seconds before.” touchdown, suddenly we saw a vehicle like pitch up and then produce a loud landing sound, “said Charles Bolden, one of the astronauts on the automatic landing team.
Space shuttle Space Shuttle Columbia, STS-3 is the only NASA mission to land at White Sands Space Harbor, today 39 years ago, and is Commander Lousma’s last space flight.
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