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8.1 The First Mission: STS-76

The Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis took off from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39-B on March 21, 1996. This mission was the third of nine planned shuttle-Mir linkups and the sixteenth flight for Atlantis. The docking, crew transfers, and rendezvous prepared NASA for the assembly and operation of the International Space Station, which was set to begin in 1999. The flight ended on March 30, 1996, when Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base (due to poor weather at Kennedy.) Members of the KidSat team met the shuttle at Edwards early in the morning on the day it landed.

On the sixth day of the mission, Linda Godwin and Rich Clifford performed a six-hour space walk while Atlantis was docked to Mir. They attached four experiments, known as the Mir Environmental Effects Payload (MEEP), onto the handrails of the Mir Docking Module. This Extra Vehicular Activity(EVA) was one in a series designed to test the equipment and procedures that may be used during the assembly of the International Space Station.

Another special feature of the flight was that it had the distinction of launching the first American woman to Mir, Shannon Lucid, to serve as a Mir station researcher. In addition to KidSat, a payload called the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) was also designed for young students; this experiment had already flown on a number of past flights. SAREX allowed student to talk with crew members via ham radio about mission activities, and life and work in space.

8.1.1 KidSat Operation

The KidSat Flight System was set up by the crew 18 hours after launch. The latest version of the flight software was uploaded and KidSat was declared operational at MET (Mission Elapsed Time) 00/19:24. During the first photograph session, KidSat operated for 12 hours, 53 minutes, and 7 seconds, during which time 153 commands were sent to the camera and 149 images were received. KidSat was set up again after docking with Mir at MET 06/19:48 and operated until just before landing. The camera sent 63 commands and received 63 images before a general protection fault halted operations. The crew restarted the software, and a command file requesting 114 images was uploaded. By then, the K[[subscript]]u[[/subscript]]-band antenna had been stowed (at MET 07/05:10) so all the remaining images were received after landing. The final log file showed no anomalies and all 114 images were recovered. During the second portion of the mission, KidSat operated for 23 hours, 47 minutes, and 18 seconds. The total operating time for KidSat on STS-76 was 36 hours, 40 minutes, 25 seconds, and a total of 326 images were acquired. All the images were electronically transferred to the Data System at JPL in near real time or after landing from JSC. The lighting of the Earth in March and an early morning launch resulted in daylight coverage on the descending portions of the orbit.

Mission operations ran smoothly and efficiently at the Mission Control Gateway (MCG) and at the KidSat/ESC Payload Operations Control Center at JSC. MCG positions were staffed by undergraduate and high school students in three shifts during the flight. The pilot middle schools students, working from their SMOCs, actively participated during all KidSat observing periods by planning, requesting, receiving, and analyzing new images. They will be busy for years analyzing their large collection of images and exploring the Earth.