Spaceflight Now Plus | STS-49 video archive

Mission: STS-49

		Orbiter: Endeavour Crew: Commander Dan Brandenstein, Pilot Kevin Chilton, Mission Specialists Pierre Thuot, Kathryn Thornton, Rick Hieb, Tom Akers and Bruce Melnick Launch: May 7, 1992 Site: Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida Payload: Intelsat 603 retrieval and deploy Landing: May 16, 1992 Site: Runway 22, Edwards Air Force Base, California

Shuttle History Series

		STS-1 - America's first space shuttle mission. STS-3 - Columbia's third test flight. STS-51A - Daring mission to deploy and retrieve satellites in space. STS-31 - Launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. STS-49 - Rescue of Intelsat spacecraft on Endeavour's maiden voyage. STS-105 - Mission to swap International Space station resident crews. STS-108 - Space station crew exchange and Sept. 11 remembrance. STS-109 - Fourth servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope. STS-110 - Space station grows with addition of new truss. STS-111 - A new station crew launched to continue international foothold in space. STS-112 - Launching the outward expansion of the space station's truss backbone. STS-113 - Continuing station construction while exchanging its resident crews.

STS-49: Astronauts rescue Intelsat 603 spacecraft

This retrospective remembers the first flight of space shuttle Endeavour. The maiden voyage set sail in May 1992 to rescue the Intelsat 603 communications spacecraft, which had been stranded in a useless orbit. Spacewalkers attached a rocket booster to the satellite, which later boosted the craft to the correct altitude.

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Shuttle on the pad Shuttle Endeavour sits atop launch pad 39B in the final hours of the countdown awaiting liftoff to being its maiden voyage into space. These views were captured from a helicopter flying around Kennedy Space Center. (52sec file) QuickTime or RealVideo		Launch of Endeavour Space shuttle Endeavour lifts off on its inaugural flight to rescue the stranded Intelsat 603 communications satellite at 7:40 p.m. EDT on May 7, 1992. (2min 35sec file) QuickTime or RealVideo

First rendezvous Spacewalking astronaut Pierre Thout, riding on the end of Endeavour's robotic arm, attempts to snare the orbiting Intelsat 603 communications spacecraft with a specially designed capture bar on May 10. But repeated tries fail as seen in the movie. (4min 59sec file) QuickTime or RealVideo		Second rendezvous The highlights from May 11 as the Endeavour crew tries to retrieve the wayward Intelsat 603 satellite by repeating the planned method of using a capture bar to grab the craft. (7min 08sec file) QuickTime or RealVideo

Intelsat captured The third time was the charm May 13 as the Endeavour crew performed the first three-person spacewalk in history to successfully capture the Intelsat 603 satellite by hand and attach it to a new rocket booster in the shuttle's payload bay. (6min 29sec file) QuickTime or RealVideo		Deployment With the new rocket booster attached, the Intelsat spacecraft is deployed from space shuttle Endeavour following the mission's third spacecraft. The motor later fired to propel the craft from low-Earth orbit for the start of the journey to geostationary orbit 22,300 miles above Earth. (2min 32sec file) QuickTime or RealVideo

Endeavour lands Endeavour completes its first flight with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California on May 16, 1992. (1min 42sec file) QuickTime or RealVideo

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