T minus 1 minute 30 seconds and counting.

T minus 1 minute 20 seconds and counting.

T minus 1 minute 15 seconds. The liquid hydrogen tank is at flight pressure.

Coming up on the 1 minute point in our countdown.

1 minute prior to the liftoff of the third space shuttle mission.

T minus 1 minute and counting. The firing system for the sound suppression water system on the pad is armed.

T minus 50 seconds and counting.

T minus 45. We're 14 seconds away from switching command of the countdown from the ground computers to onboard computers. The development flight instrumentation recorders are on.

T minus 33 seconds and counting. The Gox vent arm is fully retracted and we are switching control of the countdown to the onboard computers. T minus 25 seconds. The sequencer on the orbiter is now controlling the final seconds.

T minus 20 seconds.

T minus 15. 14, 13, 12, 10, we're go for main engine ignition. 8, 7, 6, we have main engine ignition.

That was the power.

Roll over, Houston.

Roger, Columbia, rolling.

Houston, now controlling. Mission Control confirms roll maneuver started.

Going to the blue skies.

20 seconds. Thrust looks good.

Roger, sounds good.

26 seconds. Roll maneuver completed.

30 seconds. One nautical mile in altitude. Throttle in engines down now to 68% as programmed.

38 seconds. Plug board status looks good, Mission Control.

42 seconds. Columbia now three nautical miles in altitude.

46 seconds, coming up now and pray to maximum aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle.

55 seconds, passed through Max Q, still looking good. Throttle in engines back to 100%. Giving it a go at throttle up.

Columbia, Houston. You are go at throttle up.

Roger, go at throttle up. Going at you.

Mark, 1 minute 10 seconds. Columbia now seven nautical miles in altitude, four nautical miles down range. Velocity now reading 2700 feet per second.

Go ahead, Houston.

Roger, 460.

Mark, 1 minute 25 seconds. Columbia now 11 nautical miles in altitude, eight nautical miles down range.

You got a free on loop glad, Houston.

Roger, we're looking.

That was Jack Lousma reporting a free-on loop plate.

1 minute 40 seconds, coming up on negative seats where altitude is too high for ejection seat use.

Columbia, Houston, negative seats.

Negative seats.

Mark, 1 minute 55 seconds, Columbia now 21 nautical miles in altitude, 19 nautical miles down range.

CC 50, Houston. 2 minutes 2 seconds, standing by for solid rocket booster separation confirmation.

Okay, there's 103.

2 minutes 15 seconds. Confirm solid rocket booster separation.

Roger, Columbia. We confirm guidance converged.

2 minutes 23 seconds. Onboard guidance is converging as programmed. Columbia is now steering for a precise window in space for main engine cutoff.

2 minutes 30 seconds, standing by for two engine towel capability.

Meko converged at 8:35, Houston.

Roger.

Columbia, Houston. You have two engine towel capability.

Roger, two engine towel.

2 minutes 45 seconds, I'd call up by Capcom Terry Hart says that Columbia now has a two engine auto landing capability at Rota Naval Air Station, Spain.

Columbia now 42 nautical miles in altitude, 58 nautical miles down range.

Okay, Houston, looks like the water boiler is working real good.

Roger. Copy.

Well, the first part of this ride is a real barn burner.

3 minutes 10 seconds, Columbia is three main engines. We got some flakes going by the window we got from just right after liftoff.

Roger, we copy, Jack.

3 minutes, there's blizzard out there, uh lots of white little flakes.

Roger.

3 minutes 30 seconds, Columbia now 51 nautical miles in altitude. Return status check in mission control by flight director Tom Holloway.

3 minutes 40 seconds, Lousma and Fullerton given a go to continue.

Mark, 3 minutes 45 seconds, Columbia now 53 nautical miles in altitude, 104 nautical miles down range.

Really moving out now, velocity now reading 7800 feet per second.

I show the number three APU oil tank climb up there.

Number three APU, we'll take a look at it. 4 minutes 2 seconds, standing by for negative return.

Houston, standby for negative return.

Mark, you're negative return.

Negative return.

4 minutes 12 seconds, with that call up Lousma and Fullerton committed to space travel, they can no longer turn around and return to the launch site.

4 minutes 20 seconds.

Roger, we're still looking.

4 minutes 28 seconds, that was a report of an APU template.

4 minutes 33 seconds, Columbia now 60 nautical miles. Houston, we recommend a water spray boiler number three to Bravo.

4 minutes 40 seconds, Columbia now 61 nautical miles in altitude, 170 nautical miles down range.

4 minutes 55 seconds, Columbia now 62 nautical miles in altitude, 5 minutes 2 seconds, standing by for Press the Miko.

Houston, standby for Press the Miko.

Mark, you're press the Miko with normal throttle.

Roger, two to Miko, thank you.

5 minutes 22 seconds, Press the Miko called by from Capcom Hart, says should Columbia lose but one engine, press on, keep flying forward.

Columbia's engines have enough energy to achieve normal altitude and velocity at cutoff.

5 minutes 35 seconds, Columbia now 63 nautical miles in altitude, 255 nautical miles down range.

Velocity now reading 12,300 feet per second. We're still watching the temps on APU 3. They're still climbing, we'll keep you advised.

Okay, we are also.

Mark, 5 minutes 55 seconds, standing by for single engine talent capability.

Houston, you have single engine tower capability.

Roger, single engine tower.

6 minutes 5 seconds, that report from Capcom Hart indicates if a two engine failure occurred that Lousma and Fullerton are capable of an emergency landing at Rota Naval Air Station, Spain.

6 minutes 20 seconds, Columbia now 63 nautical miles in altitude, 340 nautical miles down range.

Velocity now reading 14,800 feet per second.

Roger, we copy.

That was Commander Jack Lousma, Lousma, reporting another message on APU 3.

6 minutes 45 seconds, Columbia now 62 nautical miles in altitude, 398 nautical miles down range.

Houston, no action required at this time, but be advised we're thinking of shutting down APU 3 after single engine Press the Miko.

Okay, we're cheered.

Mark, 7 minutes, Columbia pitching over now, diving to decrease or increase velocity, decrease altitude, giving Columbia most favorable attitude.

7 minutes 10 seconds, standing by now for single engine isn't in the upper part of our window now boy, it's really a beauty, Terry.

Roger, sounds good, Jack.

Standing by now for single engine Press the Miko call up by Capcom Terry Hart.

7 minutes 25 seconds, Columbia now 60 nautical miles in altitude, 505 nautical miles down range.

Houston, single engine Press the Miko.

Single engine press.

7 minutes 38 seconds.

That report says that Lousma and f Houston, we recommend you secure APU 3, over.

Okay, shut down APU 3.

That was Capcom Terry Hart telling the crew to shut down APU 3.

The single engine Press the Miko call says that the crew can achieve normal engine cutoff targets even if two engines go out.

8 minutes 4 seconds, Columbia now 59 nautical miles in altitude, 630 nautical miles down range.

G forces building for Lousma and Fullerton, coming up to 3 Gs.

8 minutes 18 seconds, Columbia's three main engines slowly being throttled back now. Should be throttled at 68% at 6 seconds before main engine cutoff.

Mark, 8 minutes 30 seconds, standing by now for main engine cutoff. Columbia now Miko, Houston, 25.680 right in the butt. And 285 up.

Roger, sounds like a good one.

8 minutes, Good attitude for SET.

8 minutes 46 seconds, confirm shutdown, Columbia again return to space, not yet return to orbit.

Standing by now for external tank set.

Roger set.

Confirm external tank separation.

9 minutes 2 seconds, Columbia now performing an evasive maneuver, moving below and beyond the external tank.

9 minutes 14 seconds, go, no-go status check and mission control by flight director Tom Holloway for the first Oms burn.

Okay, here's the silver go for Nominal Oms 1 here, do you concur?

Houston, we concur, you're go for Nominal Oms 1, APU shutdown on time.

Roger.

9 minutes 38 seconds, give them a go for Oms 1 and the AP APU shutdown on time.

9 minutes 50 seconds, Columbia now maneuvering to Oms 1 burn attitude.

Using the 2 6000 pound thrust engines, Oms 1 will be positigrade, moving Columbia forward in higher on a flight path, placing Columbia into a limited lifetime orbit.

Report, Columbia now at burn attitude, in burn attitude.

10 minutes 43 seconds, a prop systems controller reports ignition of two good engines.

Columbia doing the first Oms burn now.

Houston, 30 seconds left.

Configure Lous, the burn is looking real good going over the hill, we'll see you in Madrid.

Okay Terry, the burn is looking real good, we'll see you in Madrid.

This is Shuttle Control, Houston, 12 minutes mission elapsed time.

Prop reports cutoff of on the first Oms burn.

We have loss of signal now with Columbia through Bermuda. The next station to acquire will be Madrid.

Okay, Houston, we got the starboard door open and there goes the port door.

And the Oms pod looks good. Tiles we don't see any marks there at all that weren't there before we left.

Roger.

Houston, 20 seconds left here at Roral. Hawaii is next at 2+54. See you there.

Yes sir.

And we got both the doors open, 317 looks like the sun is coming up.

Roger, we show you on the terminator.

Houston, enjoy the view, you are go for orbit and the fuel cell purge looks good to us, we'll be picking up TV at Milo.

Roger, good news, go for orbit.

I don't know a better place to get it, we got a great view, I just look down, we went just north of Phoenix. Hot snow down in our hills. Okay, Jack.

Roger, sounds great.

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again.

Life I love is making music with my friends, I can't wait to get on the road again.

On the road again, going places that I've never been, seeing things that I may never see again, I can't wait to get on the road again.

Morning Columbia, Crystal team is with you.

Columbia, Houston, through Madrid for 6 minutes, over.

Morning Booster, how are you this morning. Glad to hear from you. Have you got anything urgent for us?

Oh we're just fine down here, Jack. We just have a few messages, nothing unusual, or nothing that will change what you're going to do.

Well, let us give you a little update then. Our sleep last night, as we mentioned, it was not all that it could have been, but it wasn't bad. I was in a headset, and as I mentioned, I noticed every time we got near the northern latitudes over China, and in the Iran and the nose areas, my sleep was interrupted by some static in the headset, which I could not remove by using, by taking down the air ground or by taking down the UHF, and the only way I could get rid of it was to turn my...

on your panel off, which I didn't want to do, but I got to hunch what that is and maybe you like to think about that a little.
Um, we got a little cooling in the cabin last night. We started out warm and uh, so we put our heat exchanger full back to where it was, but it did cool off and uh, now we've uh, started to warm up again. We got uh, a little bit of condensation on the two aft windows. Uh, on both windows, they act exhibit a an oval shape of uh, condensation about the five uh, inches by eight inches.
And uh, more significantly, uh, we got a good look at the uh, tile on the nose of the aircraft this morning and I'll tell you about my side and Gordo can tell you about his, but uh, we are missing a few tiles. They appear to be the white tiles.
Uh, if you look out the CDR's front window, um, it looks to be about the third to fourth row, um, uh, directly ahead. There is a uh, white tile, approximately a quarter of an inch in uh, depth.
And it's a little uh, uh, irregular rectangle shape is uh, is about three inches by six inches and the tile ahead is missing and the tile ahead of it has a uh, a uh, one inch triangular sliver taken out of it. Uh, and then up uh, in the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight row or the first row white tile behind the black ones um uh between the thruster and the uh window, there's a square tile missing. uh, appears to be about 3/16 and uh, in depth and about uh, six inches square. And uh, Gordo's got some more inside, too.
Okay, uh, spot me a couple more on this side. Uh, just to the right of the uh, upfiring, the right hand upfiring thruster is a uh, one of the tiles completely missing. And then there are three uh, areas of missing tile between uh, those thrusters and my windshield here. In one case it looks like just an entire tile missing completely and in another case, a tile plus pieces of adjacent uh, tiles are gone in the other two areas. All right.
Okay, we copy all that. Thanks for the information.
Also, uh, cabin is chilly right now. In fact, uh, started out last night warm after we configured to go to warm for sleep and uh, that was very warm on the mid deck uh, and I stripped down to my underwear for a while and then uh, gradually got cooler and right now, uh, we've both got our jackets on.
Okay, we uh, copy that.
Well, we still have those particles uh, emanating from the rear end of the spacecraft and uh, just like a blizzard of uh, particles all being ejected uh, upwards and to the right of the vertical fin as we stand there and look at it.
Copy.
And Columbia, Houston, we've got two minutes left in this pass. Uh, we are not recording voice uh, at this time and we won't be until the next uh, Bermuda pass.
Also, for future planning, the IMU align this morning will be required. The numbers in the CAP are good and a reminder that you should maneuver in a DAP B.
Okay.
Okay, we understand you're happy with our roll attitude, is that right?
That's affirmative.
You may have heard the uh, teleprinter running, we're sending you up a few deltas to uh, the entry procedures.
Okay, and uh, once again, nice job on keeping the uh, alarms from going off last night.
Well, the fellas worked at it. We wish you would have slept a little better but uh, we'll try and keep it quiet for you.
And I'm sure you're thinking uh, on the same lines, but uh, I'm thinking we ought to work in a little uh, tile inspection uh, with the RMS uh, end effector camera this morning.
Roger, we'll be working on that and get back to you. Have you gone to uh, full, full cool yet this morning?
No, we did not, because we're chilly. So we left it uh, pinned to full hot and uh, the heat exchanger flow is is mismatched to try to warm things up there.
Okay, that sounds fine.
And Columbia, Houston, we're 15 seconds LOS. We have nothing further at this time. We'll see you next in Yarga D in 27 minutes.
Okay.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, uh, good evening and good afternoon, space fans. I'd like to tell you what we're doing here in the space shuttle Columbia. We're uh, sitting over the world at uh, about 17,500 mph, now over the United States. And um, we're doing some medical experiments among other things. Uh, this one I have uh, right here is called the electrophoresis experiment. It simply uh, is a electrical way to separate out various chemical agents that uh, cannot be separated out very easily on the ground. And there's a very expensive process. However, in zero G these chemical agents can be separated out and um, used for uh, various pharmaceutical and other medical purposes. This experiment is simply a four run or of uh, another more elaborate one, which can uh, produce more, which will be uh, on a future flight, and has already have been funded the uh, very substantially by one of our uh, US uh, pharmaceutical firms. But basically, what we have here is um, uh, a tube in process.
It's inside of this uh, container.
Tube is just like this and it has a fluid inside it, uh, which is actually a carrier for the uh, agents, which is being separated out. We have a sample that we use to uh, place right in this slot in here, and the sample is uh, contained in a freezer.
Inside this freezer are uh, several small samples, which are used in this electrophoresis experiment. And then, once the experiment is processed and the uh, various chemical agents are are allowed to move along this tube and are separated out. Uh, when the process is completed in about an hour, then the whole sample is frozen and it is uh, then taken and placed back in this cryo freezer for um, analysis back on the ground. But um, this is a four runner of a pharmaceutical experiment and uh, I think that this will be one of the uh, major experiments and one of the major industrial uses of uh, space in the future in the area area of uh, pharmaceuticals, and uh, this is just a four runner of one. And uh, it looks like it's working very well, and uh, we'll have very promising results. I have to uh, I have some red blood cells in this one at this particular time, which are uh, electrically uh, migrating from one end to the other and are separating out these agents, and this sample is contained in this end right here. It's time for me now to take the top off and to uh, examine the uh, the contents and see how this migration has taken place, and maybe I can show it to you on television.
Now, perhaps this is difficult to see for you, but uh, it shows me right here that over a period of about uh, 30 minutes, these red blood cells have migrated already 40 centimeters or, correction, 40 millimeters uh, up this column. And in another 30 minutes, uh, this migration will be complete, and will uh, then be frozen so that it can be analyzed for um, its contents when it gets back to good, back to uh, Earth. And as I said that this is just an example of uh, one kind of pharmaceutical agent that can be used in the uh, combating disease, which is very difficult to uh, manufacture on the ground and very expensive and consume the manufacture very small quantities, but uh, this particular um, experiment, that is going to show us, I believe, that uh, we can manufacture very large quantities at a much lower cost and uh, and thereby be able to combat some of the diseases more effectively on the ground than we uh, are able to do at this present time. So uh, we're glad to have you with us today, and we hope that uh, you will keep following the flight of the Columbia as we go on for the next week.
See. The uh, studio TV technician down to put a brief appearance here.
Sally?
Is that the vampire that goes with the uh, red blood cells?
Something like that.
Jack, that was a super summary and a great description. Said like a true scientist, and we're getting real good pictures of you operating the EEBT.
Fran, I have to put the top back on this. It's actually migrated 42 centimeters an hour and it's only been 30 minutes. And uh, so you can see this is very effective. And in 10 minutes more, I will take a look at it again just to see how well it's doing, but uh, it obviously is working very well. This is a very good piece of equipment, and uh, it looks like it's going to bring us a fair number of results. We have seven other uh, samples to do of uh, different kinds of uh, pharmaceutical agents. And uh, and then I think we'll be ready to uh, build something and use something that's more productive and can be used on a larger scale. Of course, you can do all kinds of neat stunts with zero G. I don't know how many of you people can stand with scissors on the end of a piece of tape like we can here, but uh, you see it's very simple.
I'll try that back on the ground.
Columbia, Houston, it's with you through Indian Ocean for six minutes. Over.
Okay, Sally. Loud and clear.
You're loud and clear also, Gordo, and uh, I have a couple of summary notes here. A summary of your thermal status during the day, and also an assessment of the uh, tile damage that we saw.
Okay, go ahead.
Okay, first of all, as far as the tile goes, we think that there's no concern because of the tiles that are missing. Uh, we've made an assessment using previous flight data, and we think that the maximum structural temperatures aren't high enough to compromise the the strength integrity of the orbiter structure.
Okay, if uh, if I found that otherwise, I don't think we want to know.
Roger that.
Well, you can really see a lot of detail from uh, this altitude, George, compared to Skylab. But in Skylab we could only see freeways if there's some contrast. Here you can just see uh, minor roads even.
And uh, you can see small settlements, and uh, when you get a with a building big enough, well you can uh, see an individual building with a naked eye.
Okay, Jack. Good comment. Thanks.
A lot harder to tell where you're at though, because you're so much closer.
Okay, should be passing the East Coast right now.
Yeah, we just passed the coast.
Which is totally cloudy.
Roger.
Okay, hello there space fans. Here we are in the uh, good ship Columbia. It's speeding over the United States at 150 miles, flying uh, pretty fast, uh about 5 miles per second, but there are some among us who are actually flying faster than we are. And in this box uh, they are not only flying along with us, but they are flying themselves. So they are uh, actually uh, going a lot faster than we I think. But anyway, in this box uh, we have uh, some moths, we have some uh, bees, and we have some flies. We also have some larva moths uh, which are uh, positioned around. Uh, this experiment was um, uh, proposed by a young man from uh, uh, Rose Creek, Minnesota, high school student, who entered a national contest for high school students. And he was one of the one one who won and uh, because of that, he has his experiment on the uh, spaceship Columbia. And there will be several others on other flights in the future in order to simulate the interest among high school science students for the space program. And uh, this is a study in uh, uh, how flying insects behave in a gravity free environment. And uh, we have two kinds of essentially. Uh, one one kind with a very big wing and the other kind uh, in a very light body, and the other kind with a heavier body and a small wing, and so you see we have the two extremes. And uh, most of them most of them have positioned themselves around the uh, uh, periphery of the box or fastened themselves onto something. Unless we agitate them a little bit and uh, make them get going. Now it seems like the moths uh, have are doing a little better than the bees. The bees are uh uh just sort of tumbling around without flapping their wings. But the uh, moths, every once in a while you can see that one flying right there, he uh, seems to have adapted to some degree to a zero gravity. And um, there are a few bees like this one here. He's uh, just floating around. He's taking the easy way out like the Gordo is now. You don't see Gordo flapping his wings in zero G. Uh, so the moths uh, really don't have to do that at all. Uh, these uh, were launched with us, and uh, it looks like most all of them survived. I think that

one of these Larry here will will um will hatch while we're up here. Now the bees don't and the malls don't go hungry. They actually have something to eat. Right down in the lower part of the um box, you see uh uh a vial with uh some sort of a sugar water uh substance in it so something that you might feed to a humming bird, I guess you might say and on the end there's a wick so that when they fly up to it or move up to it somehow, they can get something to eat.

Just uh past South of Afghanistan and as we did so in passing over the Middle East we were reminded that President Reagan dedicated our flight to the people of Afghanistan. This week marks the 207th anniversary of Patrick Henry's famous give me liberty or give me death speech and we are proud that that spirit is alive today in not only America but also in Afghanistan.

Roger. Check. I'm sure they appreciate that.

Okay we'll do that and we got a capture of the bevel. Hey that's good news. Brightened eyes and got all an OMU. That's super and we're seeing the data.

This is Mission Control, Houston, 2 days, 23 hours, 26 minutes mission elapsed time. We're about to reacquire Columbia over the US and we're expecting some good downlink television of the first time that the remote manipulator arm has actually attached on to a payload and deployed it in space. Should be getting that momentarily in the downlink television. Columbia, Houston, with you state side, how do you read?

Okay we're reading you loud and clear. The PDP has been unbirth, it has been taken up the minus the axis and it has been lowered down and we're ready to rebirth it.

Hey that sounds great Jack, and we should have live TV here in about 30 seconds.

And, Columbia, we're getting TV now from camera Delta.

Okay.

Hey getting a good picture on Dallas, Sally.

That's affirmative, Gordo, we are. We're looking at the elbow camera right now, and now we're back on Delta.

Okay.

Okay, I'm sliding it slowly out at this time.

Roger. We see that, Gordo.

Our arms are setting down.

Roger, looking good.

So we got A and B gray, with B is the waterfall.

Roger, we concur.

Okay, we got three grays.

Not bad, quite bad, we got three grays.

Roger, and in record time.

Let's get everything forward and move.

Roger that.

Okay, we got it latched.

Roger, Jack, we see it latched.

And we're seeing a super picture here.

How Sally, I guess the first time you do that has to be a record. I unlatched from I went down from about 3 feet forward I started to watch and it took 6 minutes to get in and get three grays.

6 minutes, we copy.

All right, some general comments on the arm operation if anybody's interested.

Go ahead. I think there are a lot of interested people down here.

Say, it is close to the air bearing floor that it could be. Operation is smooth. There's definitely a little bit of flex and dynamics but in the argument of modes that's where I minimized. For instance I made some little half inch corrections to center the guides up on the slot before raising the arm and I was able to do that. No surprises or if there are any surprises they are all pleasant. I'm really impressed with that piece of machinery.

Hey that's great news and we were impressed too. A piece of information that you might like. We saw when you were when you were grappled to the to the PDP in the birth position, the joint angles all matched very closely with the what we would have expected from those digitals. So that was good news too.

Right, I noticed that too that the predicted were pretty close to the rim of coil. I, when we got the two gray, I just made a little pitch maneuver right while I was down at the bottom of the guide there and got, got the B micro switch to go gray and put the C lifted up and went bubble. And then I just made a little twitch back pitched down and I got all three gray. Everything was absolutely straightforward as far as command and response.

That's great, Gordo, and for your information, the PDP is getting super data out there.

All right.

Columbia, we're 30 seconds to LOS, state side is next at 0052.

See you back in the USA.

What you're looking at, of course, is the half part of the Columbia. Open pay load standard. The the Canadian built arm is bent back so that it's has a camera on the elbow which is showing you the forearm and the wrist, so to speak, of the manipulator arm with the plasma diagnostic package on the end of it, and down in the payload pay you see the other component of the the OSS payload and the environmental contamination monitor there. Of course, the tall vertical spin with the OMS maneuvering system pods on either side, and you can just see the very center engine bell that was used during the boost. On either side of the arm you see two shiny objects, those are the radiators that are helping to keep the spacecraft cool. And of course the wing is right underneath that and you can see the inboard elevons right behind the radiator there are are lifted up, partly in the shade, partly in the sunlight, with a black stripe along the trailing edge.

Roger, Jack. Sure is a nice machine.

A good number of the experiments on this flight are designed to quantify the atmosphere around the orbiters so that future experimenters can better calibrate their instruments so they'll know what to plan on in terms of electrical potential on the orbiter and it's the contaminants in it the environment around it as well as several other properties of the orbiter so that we'll be able to determine how good a experimental platform it really is. And so that's why we have most of the experiments on this on this flight, although there are others that are involved mainly with basic research. The PDP that Gordo is moving right now is moving around in the finding out the fields of electromagnetic radiation around the orbiters, so that we'll be able to crack them and know where they are and what kind of interference might be involved in working some of the experiments in the future.

Roger, Jack, and the experimenters say that they're getting some real interesting data.

The the shaking and rattling sort of ride that Jo and Dick describe is there. Although I was surprised, I expected that to start with SRB ignition and I definitely remember the airplane starting to shake and rattle and chatter at main engine ignition, and I thought, I don't know, it was a little confusion in my mind as to if the SRBs fired or not. But then when they fired, there was no doubt that that was when they fired and then the the whole vehicle was rattling before we even off the pad. And then that that shaking and rattling occurred all the way through first stage, and at staging, we got the big completely enveloping flash that's been described before, and then it was dead smooth after that.

Okay, real good, Gordo. Thank you, 1 minute left here, Bermuda.

Yeah, every about the same thing, the the first stage ride was smoother than I had expected it to be, although it was was rougher than the second stage ride, and I recall the the orange flash that enveloped the windscreen also at SRB SEP, although the SRB SEP the sound seemed very clean as did the ET SEP and as reported before there is any no sound or alert or anything like that when either ET SEP or SRB SEP occurred.

NASA 947, Houston.

947, go.

Roger, we've got about 8 minutes. John, can you give us some data from your last pass?

Well, it was, uh, there's about 2 miles of visibility on runway 17 and 1 runway 23 is covered up in sand. I think we ought to knock this off, over.

Okay, we got you, John. We're copying, concur.

The last run was so bad that it disengaged SAM due to turbulence. First time I've ever seen that.

Copy that.

Uh, John, thank you very much. We'll be signing off here.

I'm sorry, you guys.

Not your fault.

Thanks for the call, John.

Columbia, Houston, through Ascension, over.

Read you loud and clear through the car, Homie, Steve.

Got you loud and clear, Jack.

Okay, we're getting suited up here, getting our heads on, it is. And uh, looks like we're uh running out of the timeline.

That sounds great, and uh, when you have some free moments, we'll talk a little bit more about the winds and the weather at Northrup.

Okay, go ahead with the winds and the weather at Northrup.

Uh, we believe the winds aloft are about the same as we gave you on the pad. If there are any updates, I'll get those to you a little later. The surface winds are remaining out of the south, I believe I read to you earlier 160 at 10. Uh, they did have one gust to 26 knots, but it was out of the south, and uh, they're prevailing at 7 to 10 knots. Uh, John has flown some passes with a right turn to 17, and his recommendation is that you follow guidance, uh, the tail wind may tend to overshoot you slightly on final, but guidance will get you back just fine. However, he does recommend uh leading the speed brake, per the message, at .95 uh getting it to manual and

match in Autos command. Then at 0.9 Mach, uh get it to 100%. Over.
Okay, I remember that. Now, do it. And uh you'll see me do it. They were running, you let me know.
Okay.

Nice.
This is shuttle control. It's 7 days, 23 hours, 10 minutes mission lapse time.
Columbia is 42 seconds away from acquisition through Yargady.
2 minutes 26 seconds from deorbit.

Columbia Houston through Yargady for 7 minutes standby.
Okay, Houston, uh we're in a burn attitude. We've got the on visual on press and all as well.
Roger.
Ignition here we got a good burn going.
Roger.
My sound burn so far here.
Roger.
RGA 85.
Good burn Houston and we got cut off uh residual .27.01.070 minus.
Very good, Jack.
And you stood ever so low there the APU1 start up just fine and sitting there checking along.
We copy, very good. 1 and a 1/2 minutes left in this past quarter.
Okay.

Columbia, the weather at Northrip is excellent. The surface winds are nearly calm at this point, 30 seconds LOS next is Aurora in 2 minutes.
Okay, we'll see you in Aurora, Steve.

Columbia Houston through Aurora Valley for 2 minutes configure AOS.
Okay, we got track clear.
Roger.

Columbia Houston, you are go for maneuvers, a reminder to close the vent doors and remain configured AOS through the entry, over.
Roger, I go for maneuvers and close the vent doors. AOS to the entry.
That's a firm. We're 30 seconds LOS. Uh we may pick you up a little bit uh in 15 minutes at Hawaii. If not, we'll see you in 23 minutes over the states.
Roger.
Have a good one.

Columbia Houston through Hawaii.
We're processing data through Hawaii.
Columbia Houston through Hawaii over.
Okay, we're through Hawaii. We got a good wire 2.7 and uh we're uh coincidently call as well.

Sounds good.
Thanks, pal. Now, just as soon as we started picking up the atmosphere it uh started uh very lightly and uh now there's a wider and wider.

E-Con come E-Com confirms three good APUs from the data he saw.
We're processing data again after the key hole in Hawaii.
Showing an altitude of 254,000 ft.
A velocity of 24,367 ft/s.

Okay, uh you still got uh RCS jet leaks on uh, well.
Roger, Columbia, those are false leak indications, over.

Columbia Houston, reselect those jets, over.

We've had LOS at Hawaii.
Next uh
AOS 11 minutes 21 seconds.

We're 24 minutes from touchdown.

We have two C-band contacts and we're now 200,000 ft.
Mach 17.
Range to go 874 miles.
We're processing data.
Columbia Houston through Buckhorn, configure AOS.
Okay, we're green and loud and clear. Uh we got the PTI so far, and uh take a look at our uh ground tracking now, please.
Roger, uh Energy and ground track are good and nav is great, Jack.
That's good news, Steve. Thank you.

This is shuttle control. We had uh acquisition of signal more than 2 minutes earlier than...
...GR contact, go ahead.

More than 2 minutes earlier than the predicted end of blackout.
Columbia, 186,000 ft now, Mach 15.
Range 677 miles.
14 minutes to touchdown.

This is really a beautiful flying machine, Steve.
Uh it's great to hear, Jack. We show you passing Mach 14 at 179,000 ft.
That's confirmed, and we got the coast to California in sight. Back there. About to go over LA in about Mach 16, uh correction, about Mach 13.
I think we're booming right over the commander and chief slash right now, Steve.
Roger, energy and ground track are nominal.

We show them crossing the coastline now.
Wait, stand by for our Mark at 12.
Stand by.
Mark, 12,000 ft/s.
Altitude, 167,000 ft. Range, 440 miles.
We have AOS at White Sands, now.
12 minutes to touchdown.
Passing through 162,000 ft.
Range 410 miles.
Mach 10.6.
Should be crossing the border into the United States about now.
At 156,000 ft.
Speed breaks are coming out.
Roger.
350 miles to White Sands.
150,000 ft.
Columbia, so we're boom and right over Phoenix at Mach 9 and 150,000 ft.
Roger, that checks.
Passing Phoenix.
Altitude now 147,000 ft.
Mach 8.3, range 290 miles.
Still right on ground track, right on energy.
Hey Steve, we're passing David-Monthan. I can see it down there. I got one track down, not two, tracking on lock.
Roger, stand by.
135,000 ft.
Mach 7.
Range 230.
Tacan is good on board at one tenth uh for ratios.
Roger, Columbia Houston, take Tacan.
Okay, taking.
Columbia has a go for Tacan to help provide range and bearing information.
124,000 ft now.
Mach 6.2, range 186 miles.
Approaching the state line between Arizona and New Mexico, now.
Flash and battle.
Roger.
Control looks solid at 112,000 ft, Mach 5, range 146 miles.
Columbia is over New Mexico now.
Passing uh north of uh Silver City.
Altitude, 103,000 ft at Mach 4.3, range 112 miles.
7 and 1/2 minutes to touchdown.
Looks like Tacan 2 had a momentary hiccup there and uh scaled out in. I'll just leave it alone.
Copy that, passing 97,000. Now positive seats.
BPAs.
Positive seats means the crew could use ejection seats if necessary. They are now below the altitude.
Roger.
Out of 90,000 ft at Mach 3, range 74 miles.
The data looks good on board.
Stand by.
Columbia Houston, take air data.
Okay.
Columbia taking air data now at 81,000.
We have a television picture of Columbia on the monitors.
79,000 ft, Mach 2.5, range 58 miles.

Columbia Houston, nav, energy and ground track are all good. Have an update on winds and weather when you're ready.
Go ahead.
A little buffer around Mach 2.
Roger, a high scattered cirrus deck over the field. Surface winds 180 at 11, Altimeter 3003, over.
3003 and ready to win.
68,000 ft, Mach 1.6, range 40 miles.
Columbia is just passed Truth or Consequences. Uh crossed over Interstate Highway 25, heading toward White Sands.
4 minutes 40 seconds from touchdown.
60,000 ft, Mach 1.4.
Everything looking good at Mach 1 at 50,000 ft, range 27 miles.
Columbia Houston, reminder on the speed brake, 100%.
Okay, I got them.
Mach 0.9 and speed breaks going to 100% now.
3 and 1/2 minutes from touchdown.
38,000 ft.
Range 20 miles.
Columbia chase is coming aboard at 28.5.
We read 33, Dick.
Okay, we read it now.
30,000 ft.
Everything looking good.
Air speed 285.
We're passing now passing 26,000. Looks good.
Two and a 1/2 minutes to touchdown.
13 miles range.
Turning right now, into runway 17.
At 20,000 ft.
Air speed 295.
Range 10 miles.
Columbia Houston, winds 190 at 14.
Winds on your go.
Out of 15,000 ft.
2 populated, Houston.
Air speed 275.
Columbia, go for auto to inner glide slope.
Go for auto at 12,000 ft.
Okay, we're in auto, Houston.
Columbia now in auto land.
Out of 10,000 ft at 288.
Body flaps in trail.
Roger.
5,000 ft.
Air speed 280.
Range about 3 miles.
3 flare, Houston.
Roger.
1,000 ft.
Air speed 292.
Still in auto.
50 ft. Gear coming.
It comes the gear.
Gear down 20.
Comes 5-4 touchdown.
Nose gear 10.
Nose gear 5.
4.
3.
3.
Touchdown.
10,000 are some equals.

All right.
The the mission lapse time of touchdown unofficially 8 days 0 hours 4 minutes 49 seconds.
Okay wheels are stopped, Houston.
Okay Columbia, welcome home. That was a beautiful job.

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