Launch from Cape Canaveral (
KSC);
landing on Edwards
AFB. The launch was delayed one hour due to weather
constraints.
Manley L.
Carter, was originally assigned to fly as a Mission
Specialist for this mission, but died seven months prior the
launch.
This mission was the first flight of the International
Microgravity Laboratory
IML-1. This was a pressurized manned Spacelab module,
to explore in depth the complex effects of weightlessness on living organisms
and materials processing. The international crew, divided into Red (David
Hilmers, William
Readdy and Ulf
Merbold) and Blue (Ronald
Grabe, Stephen
Oswald, Norman
Thagard and Roberta
Bondar) teams, conducted experiments on the human nervous
system's adaptation to low gravity and the effects of microgravity on other
life forms such as shrimp eggs, lentil seedlings, fruit fly eggs and bacteria.
Low gravity materials processing experiments included crystal growth from a
variety of substances such as enzymes, mercury iodine and a virus. Other
payloads included 10 Get Away Special (GAS) canisters, a number of middeck
payloads and two Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP) experiments.
Middeck payloads included Gelation of SOLS: Applied microgravity research
(GOSAMR), Investigations into Polymer Membrane Processing (IPMP) and the
Radiation Monitoring Experiment (RME-III).
The crew explored the complex
effects of weightlessness on living organism and materials processing.They
performed 55 experiments on the areas of life sciences, low gravity materials
processing and fluid-physics. Stephen
Oswald made a movie from the surface of Africa and Europe;
this movie should be used for the movie "Destiny in Space".
To complete
all scientific experiments the mission was extended one day.