STS-49 Status Report #18

Thursday, May 14, 1992,  8 a.m. CDT

The third time was the charm Wednesday as Endeavour astronauts making the first
three-person space walk in history successfully captured the wayward Intelsat
satellite by hand and mated it to a new booster that will take it to a useful
orbit.

Astronauts Pierre Thuot, Rick Hieb and Tom Akers stood atop a truss triangle in
Endeavour's payload bay as Commander Dan Brandenstein gingerly maneuvered the
shuttle to a position where the trio could grab the satellite, stop its
rotation and attach a grapple fixture.

Robot arm driver Bruce Melnick then grappled the satellite and moved it into
position over the perigee kick motor in the rear of the payload bay.  The
spacewalkers mated the satellite to the booster, and following one false start
astronauts in the crew cabin fired the super zip release mechanism that sent
Intelsat back into its own orbit.

This morning, Intelsat is in a 194 by 202 nautical mile orbit.  Flight
controllers at Intelsat's Washington, DC headquarters are scheduled to fire the
kick motor about 12:15 p.m. CDT and send it on its way toward a 22,000-mile
high geosynchronous orbit.  

The eight-hour, 29 minute space walk was the longest in the history of the U.S.
Space Program and the 100th space walk in the history of manned space flight.
Mission specialists Kathy Thornton and Tom Akers will perform a spacewalk
beginning at 4:10 p.m. today to finish constructing the ASEM truss that was
partially built Wednesday to support the Intelsat capture.  They also will test
mass-handling techniques with the Multipurpose Experiment Support Structure in
the payload bay and over the nose of the orbiter, where Space Station Freedom
assembly will take place in the future.

Endeavour currently is in a 195 by 183 nautical mile orbit, with all systems
functioning well.  The crew was awakened briefly by an overnight alarm.  The
alarm was triggered by a dip in the cabin pressure, which occurred when an
oxygen bleed valve that maintains the 10.2 psi atmosphere was not opened before
the crew went to sleep.  There was no threat to the safety of the crew.  

Mission managers have decided to extend the mission another day to give the
crew ample time to make landing preparations.  Landing is scheduled for 5:34
p.m. Saturday at Edwards Air Force Base.