Fwd: 21 Years Since STS-58

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: October 19, 2014 9:43:37 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: 21 Years Since STS-58

 

 

AmericaSpace

For a nation that explores
October 18th, 2014

'A Unique Opportunity': 21 Years Since the Controversial Mission of STS-58 (Part 1)

By Ben Evans

Glorious view of the Home Planet from STS-58, with the SLS-2 Spacelab module clearly visible in Columbia's payload bay. Photo Credit: NASA

"John, we're going to fly you one of these days," Launch Director Bob Sieck called over the communications loop on 15 October 1993. The disappointment of another scrubbed launch attempt was evident in his voice. "Just hang in there."

"Nice try," came the call from astronaut John Blaha on Columbia's flight deck, as he and his six crewmates prepared to disembark from the orbiter after 2.5 hours on their backs in bulky, uncomfortable pressure suits, harnesses, and parachutes. It was the second time that they had been through this routine in trying to get into space for what was to be NASA's longest shuttle flight to date, lasting a little over two weeks. For mission STS-58—which finally launched on this day (18 October), 21 years ago—would earn its own reputation, not only for its duration, but for the fact that it controversially featured the first euthanasia and dissection of animals in the microgravity environment.

Originally planned to fly on 14 October, bad weather and the failure of an Air Force range safety command message encoder-verifier scuppered Columbia's chances, with a problematic S-band transponder putting paid to an attempt the following day. A replacement transponder was rushed to the pad, but the Mission Management Team (MMT) was unhappy about exchanging it in the shuttle's crew cabin in the final minutes before launch and asking the crew to replace it in orbit. "Having been there myself," said former astronaut Loren Shriver, then serving as chair of the MMT, "there is no substitute for having a little help from the ground." Shriver's concern centered on the prognosis for a safe to Earth in the event of a contingency; if the transponder failed, it might leave the STS-58 crew out of contact with Mission Control for up to 15 minutes. It ultimately became a moot issue, as the weather closed in and the launch was scrubbed.

In the aftermath, the new transponder was fitted and launch was rescheduled for 18 October. For Rhea Seddon, payload commander of the second Spacelab Life Sciences mission (SLS-2), one of the worst aspects of a shuttle flight were the partial-pressure suits that the astronauts wore for ascent and re-entry. "It was crazy," she told the NASA oral historian. "They had technicians that got you into them prior to launch, but then you had to get yourself into them for landing…and imagine the middeck, weightlessness, and seven suits floating around down there and 14 gloves and 14 boots and cooling garments."

John Blaha leads the STS-58 out to the launch pad. Photo Credit: NASA

During training in the high heat of Florida, Texas, and California, Seddon referred to the process as "suit-wrestling" and the difficulty increased for small astronauts, because they had the same weight of equipment, regardless of size or body weight. Yet it was about more than just bulk. "Those suits were built to be worn by high-altitude pilots," she said, "regular-size guys. If they had problems, they ejected. They didn't have to crawl out and run away. They didn't have to rappel down the side of their vehicle." Her concerns were realized in early May 1993, when she broke four metatarsal bones in her left foot, whilst practising a fully-suited escape from the orbiter. "The STS-58 crew was practicing emergency egress," noted the NASA news release, dated 3 May. "As Dr. Seddon was sliding down the slide, her left foot became pinned under her, causing four minor bones to break." It was fortunate that the injury was minor and that the training was of the refresher nature and therefore could be quickly caught up on after her recuperation.

Seddon was named as payload commander of SLS-2 in October 1991, with a projected launch two years later in July 1993. Her expertise from the SLS-1 mission in June 1991 was a crucial factor in the assignment … and it was an assignment that Seddon had actively sought. "There was some controversy about my being on the next flight," she told the NASA oral historian, "because I was … on the SLS-1 flight and they wanted four other subjects … They wanted to get eight subjects altogether and if I flew, they were only going to get seven subjects, because I was a repeat. They already had data on me. They weighed the pros and cons of that, but I had been following SLS-2 as long as I'd been following SLS-1 and continued to follow it after the first flight." Coupled to that, Seddon had established good working relationships with the SLS investigators and had the benefit of having flown recently. "There were just so many things that came out of SLS-1," she said, "that they wanted to capture and I think they knew that if I wasn't on SLS-2, I would probably be busy with another flight and not be able to help them as much as they liked."

Two months later, in December 1991, veteran astronaut Shannon Lucid (a biochemist) and rookie Dave Wolf (a physician) were named as mission specialists. Seddon was relieved that a decision had been taken by NASA to assign a payload commander for SLS-2. Her previous mission, SLS-1, had worked well, because of the good working relationship she developed with crewmate Jim Bagian. However, having no one in overall authority to make the payload decisions proved "a little awkward." For Seddon, it meant that she could attend meetings, represent her mission's payload, and make "reasonable decisions on our behalf."

STS-58 endured two launch scrubs, prior to a successful third attempt on 18 October 1993. Photo Credit: NASA

Despite being a "rookie" crewman, Dave Wolf brought his own experience to the flight. In March 1992, he was jointly honored as NASA Inventor of the Year, together with Ray Schwarz and Tina Trinh, for the development of a rotating-wall bioreactor. This device provided a ground-based analog for simulating microgravity conditions on cells and tissue cultures. For Wolf, it represented the culmination of six years' work as the chief engineer and program manager for the project.

Also announced to the SLS-2 training complement in October 1991 were three candidates for a single payload specialist position on the flight: physician Jay Buckey, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, electrical engineer Larry Young, the director and professor of the Man-Vehicle Laboratory at MIT, and veterinarian Marty Fettman of the Department of Pathology at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University. In October 1992, Fettman was announced as the primary payload specialist, making him the first professional veterinarian ever to travel into orbit … and with a very specific purpose. "NASA's series of SLS missions play a central role in our program of space biomedical research," explained Lennard Fisk, NASA's Associate Administrator for the Office of Space Sciences and Applications. "The experiments that Dr. Fettman and his fellow SLS-2 crew members conduct will give us valuable information on how living and working in space affects the human body."

Several months after the announcement of the SLS-2 science crew, in August 1992 the three-man "orbiter" team was named. John Blaha would command STS-58, having already flown three times and trained briefly for a spot on the SLS-1 mission. Joining him as Columbia's pilot was Rick Searfoss, one of whose claims to fame in the 1990 astronaut class was that he designed their official "Hairballs" logo and patch. Seated behind and between Blaha and Searfoss on Columbia's flight deck was Bill McArthur, the flight engineer.

Due to the life sciences bias of the SLS-2 flight, the crew timeline was planned as a single-shift operation, and Blaha was clear that although he was responsible for the safety and success of the mission, it would be Seddon—as payload commander—who would take the lead for the biomedical research in the Spacelab module. Unlike many other shuttle commanders, who viewed their role as little more than a truck driver, Blaha saw the mission differently: Their goal was to obtain good science from SLS-2 and he willingly offered himself, Searfoss, and McArthur as subjects for the non-invasive medical experiments. "In other words," said Seddon, "they wouldn't do anything that would make them sick or weak, because they might have to fly us home at any point in time."

The inclusion of veterinarian Fettman on the crew had been on the cards since before the SLS-1 mission, since it would involve extensive physiological examinations with 48 male rats (Rattus norvegicus), caged in a pair of Research Animal Holding Facilities (RAHFs). It would also controversially feature the first-ever in-flight decapitation and dissection of six rats. As the payload commander, and a surgeon by training, Rhea Seddon assigned herself and Fettman to oversee the dissections.

Columbia roars into orbit at 10:53 a.m. EST on 18 October 1993, 21 years ago today. Photo Credit: NASA

Unsurprisingly, this had drawn much public criticism, but according to Fettman and NASA Associate Administrator for Life Sciences Harry Holloway it was an essential tool in measuring ongoing changes in the rats' body tissues during flight. "This is really a unique opportunity to collect biological specimens," said Fettman before launch. "We believe these tissues will provide some answers to questions that potentially will change our interpretation of past observations." It was rationalized that examinations of rats brought home from SLS-1 had been unable to conclusively differentiate between the effects of microgravity exposure and the effects of their re-adaptation to terrestrial conditions. The SLS-2 dissections would enable researchers to more precisely trace tissue changes.

Still, Holloway called for an unscheduled pre-launch assessment of the plans, led by Deputy Surgeon-General Robert Whitney of the Department of Health and Human Services. Holloway denied claims that the assessment was forced upon him by President Bill Clinton's White House or NASA Administrator Dan Goldin. Whitney's investigation described NASA's animal-care provisions as "superb" and commended the agency's use of the fewest number of rats as possible to satisfy the needs of more than a hundred investigators.

Another source of controversy, at least within the astronaut corps, surrounded Dave Wolf, although it would not enter the public consciousness until after the mission. The story was explored by Bryan Burrough in his book Dragonfly, but apparently involved an FBI "sting," called "Operation Lightning Strike," in which the unfortunate Wolf had become entangled. Although the astronaut was exonerated from blame and had not—as some journalists erroneously claimed—accepted bribes, the incident harmed his career for several years.

None of this had surface when Wolf accompanied his crewmates out to the launch pad on 18 October 1993 and roared aloft at 10:53 a.m. EST. Paying tribute to the hundreds of thousands of individuals responsible for bringing a shuttle flight together, Blaha remarked at the post-mission press conference: "I really think nothing but the highest of all the people who make this happen."

The longest flight ever undertaken in shuttle history was underway.

 

 

Copyright © 2014 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved

 

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AmericaSpace

For a nation that explores
October 19th, 2014 

'The Choreography Was Incredible': 21 Years Since the Controversial Mission of STS-58 (Part 2)

By Ben Evans

Columbia roars into orbit at 10:53 a.m. EST on 18 October 1993, 21 years ago yesterday. Photo Credit: NASA

Twenty-one years ago, yesterday, on 18 October 1993, the longest flight ever attempted in shuttle history—the 14-day STS-58 mission, carrying the second Spacelab Life Sciences (SLS-2) research payload—was launched into orbit. Aboard Columbia were astronauts John Blaha, Rick Searfoss, and Bill McArthur, together with physicians Rhea Seddon and Dave Wolf, biochemist Shannon Lucid, and veterinarian Marty Fettman. As described in yesterday's AmericaSpace history article, SLS-2 attracted a measure of controversy, in that it represented the first human space mission to feature the euthanasia and dissection of animals as part of a medical investigation in the microgravity environment.

Shortly after Columbia entered orbit, Lucid and Fettman began taking the first blood samples and Wolf took their blood pressures to acquire data on early adaptive processes to the microgravity environment. The findings correlated data from the June 1991 SLS-1 mission by revealing a slightly lower central venous pressure than had been predicted in ground-based studies, coupled with a larger volume in the heart's left ventricle than would be expected with the lower pressure. This shed new light upon the basic physiology of the human heart in space.

Immediately after the Spacelab module had been opened for business, Rhea Seddon—SLS-2's payload commander, with responsibility for the scientific success of the mission—took ultrasound measurements of Lucid's heart with a new echocardiograph imaging device. Both Lucid and Fettman had launched into orbit with catheters threaded into their arms, which ran to the tips of their hearts. Lucid's catheter was removed late on 18 October, followed by that of Fettman the following day. Data dropouts from the echocardiograph led to the crew resorting to the portable American Flight Echocardiograph (AFE), which Wolf had helped to design in his pre-astronaut days.

The encircling double helix of DNA pays homage to the life sciences bias of STS-58 in the crew's official patch. The patch was designed by Rick Searfoss. Image Credit: NASA

Within hours of activation, SLS-2 was already shaping up to be a tremendous success. NASA had invested $175 million in the payload, which featured 14 major experiments, of which eight focused on the crew and six on the rats. Of the 48 Rattus norvegicus carried aboard the mission, six would be euthanized and dissected, with body tissues preserved for distribution to U.S., French, Russian, and Japanese medical scientists as part of an extensive biospecimen-sharing project. In fact, Russia had long been courted as a partner in space sciences and microgravity research and in 1993 was being approached to play a leading role in the International Space Station (ISS) effort.

Indeed, in August 1991, when President George H.W. Bush and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev met in Moscow to talk about potential co-operation in human space exploration, it was suggested that a physician-cosmonaut might fly SLS-2, in exchange for a NASA astronaut making a long-duration visit to Mir. "The missions will increase knowledge about life sciences and data will be shared by both countries," explained Flight International on 14 August. "They are also seen by some observers as the first step towards joint flights to Mars." Although there were no Russians on SLS-2, cosmonauts were included in two other flights and they subsequently flew regularly on shuttle missions to Mir and the ISS.

Rhea Seddon and the members of the SLS-2 science team took frequent blood draws from the rats' tails during the early stages of the mission and performed additional radioisotope and hormone or placebo injections to measure plasma volumes and track protein metabolism. This was part of a study into how red blood cell masses changed in weightlessness. Ultimately, the six unlucky rats destined to meet their maker in orbit were decapitated by Fettman and Seddon on 30 October, using a modified laboratory dispatcher. Pre-flight studies had already concluded that it was best to decapitate, rather than anaesthetise the rats, because the latter would have degraded their neural tissues and impaired subsequent observations. "Things went pretty well," Marty Fettman recounted, after the six-hour procedure ended. "We're happy to accomplish this. It was a big day for us."

Despite the science, the mood aboard the shuttle was sombre. At one stage, only Seddon and Fettman were at work inside the Spacelab module. Commander John Blaha poked his head over Fettman's shoulder once or twice to check on their progress, and was quickly gone. After landing, the rat tissues were used as part of a series of neurovestibular and musculoskeletal investigations to explore changes in their gravity-sensing organs and the effect of microgravity upon their limb muscles and bones. "Gravity," said backup payload specialist Larry Young, "is as profound a factor on the evolution and development of biology on Earth as oxygen and water. Yet we know so little about its influence, because, until the Space Age, we simply couldn't get away from it."

Rhea Seddon spins Marty Fettman in the rotating chair during one of the SLS-2 experiment runs. Photo Credit: NASA

It was originally to take a dozen or so organs from each rat and then dispose of the carcass, but NASA issued a Research Announcement for interested scientific parties to use the other body parts. "It became known as the Parts Program," Seddon remembered, and the astronauts found that it was no more difficult to remove eyeballs and lungs and insert them into little bags of fixative to preserve them. "Some had to be frozen," she said, "and some of them had to be refrigerated and some of them just needed to be put in the fixatives." Significantly, the inner-ear mechanisms had to be placed into fixative within two minutes of dissection, and with the inner ear buried deep within the skull, this required immense skill from Seddon and Fettman. Limb muscles, too, had to be attached to muscle clamps and fixed within 10 minutes. "It was just the choreography that was incredible," Seddon added, "and Marty was just terrific at this stuff."

In addition to the rat research, a series of joint U.S./Canadian experiments explored motion sickness and human vestibular changes. For SLS-2, the hardware included a rotating chair mounted in the center aisle of the 23-foot-long (7-meter) Spacelab module, which examined changes in the astronauts' reflexive eye motions. Seddon was the first to use the chair on 21 October, as part of studies of the vestibulo-ocular reflex in the eye, which enables us to see whilst we are in motion. Other experiments featured a rotating dome, placed over the astronauts' heads, whose interior face was coated with a pattern of dots which seemed to "rotate" in an opposite direction. The subject used a joystick to indicate their perceived direction and velocity. Dave Wolf also donned a special skull-cap, the Acceleration Recording Unit, which was instrumented with motion sensors and used to record the time and severity of space sickness symptoms. Investigators hoped that if the science crew wore the cap throughout their working day it might enable them to correlate instances of sickness with periods of provocative head movement.

Studies of muscular atrophy included the ingestion of amino acids, labelled with non-radioactive isotopes of nitrogen, enabling the astronauts to track protein metabolism. Urine, saliva, and blood samples were routinely acquired to determine the rates of protein synthesis and catabolism. Other experiments upon the rats looked at the performance of their hind limbs in microgravity, which showed an almost 40 percent reduction of muscle fibres at the end of the 14-day mission. The rats tended to rely more heavily on their forelimbs for bipedal locomotion and used their hind limbs only as grasping aids. After their return to Earth, they exhibited slow motions and an abnormally low body posture, all of which pointed clearly to a weakened muscular state, fatigue, and co-ordination difficulties. Moreover, muscle protein "turnover" in rats is much more rapid than in humans, and two weeks of weightless exposure for them was roughly equivalent to two months for a human.

The STS-58 crew gathers for an informal portrait inside the Spacelab module. Photo Credit: NASA

Other experiments focused on the astronauts' cardiovascular and regulatory systems. Data from SLS-1 highlighted increases in heart rate, size, and output, which researchers attributed to the initial increase in central blood volume caused by fluid shifts within the body. Three SLS-2 studies assessed the functional capabilities of the system by monitoring the astronauts' cardiac outputs, heart rates, arterial and venous blood pressures, blood volume, and the amount and distribution of blood and gases in the lungs. Cardiovascular "deconditioning" had long been recognized as a problem after the return to Earth. Astronauts complained of light-headedness, an increased heart rate, and decreased pulse pressure. Echocardiograph data, together with the catheters, an exercise bicycle, and a Gas Analyser Mass Spectrometer supported much of this research.

Unusually for a Spacelab mission, STS-58 followed a single-shift system, although the whole crew typically put in 14-hour working days or more. In view of the long flight, and in line with Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) protocols, each astronaut received several periods of free time to relax. "The crew members are an important part of these investigations," stressed SLS-2 Mission Scientist Howard Schneider. "We want to assure ourselves that we continue to study the physiological effects of space flight and not the physiological effects of fatigue! If the crew is up there and is overly stressed, we don't get good science."

In aid of his own free time, Pilot Rick Searfoss took a huge atlas of the world in his personal effects. "Rick really wanted to focus on that," Seddon told the NASA oral historian. "He didn't have an awful lot of other things that he needed to do, other than managing the orbiter and when we asked he would come back and do some experiments for us. He was really our [photography] specialist and he got some really great pictures on that flight." Every so often, from Columbia's flight deck, Searfoss would call Seddon upstairs to the windows to take a look at the southeastern United States, as her home state of Tennessee came into view. It was difficult to get a good glimpse of her hometown, Murfreesboro, but she managed to pick out the curvaceous lines of the Cumberland River in Nashville and the parallel lines of the I-24 and Nashville Highway. STS-58's 39-degree-inclination orbit had been designed in part to keep the astronauts' sleep-wake cycles approximately the same throughout the flight and to effect a landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The crew could see all the way up to Long Island and Cape Cod, as their orbital track carried them across the United States' eastern seaboard, and even saw the Himalayas on a number of occasions.

Columbia touches down at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on 1 November 1993. Photo Credit: NASA

During the mission, John Blaha—who had offered during training to be the crew's on-board videographer—spoke for all of them when he declared that "we have a beautiful planet" and "we ought to take care of it and we ought to take care of ourselves." As STS-58 entered its final days, it was becoming clear that it would come close to the 13 days and 19 hours record set by the first EDO mission in July 1992. In order to keep their flying skills sharp for the return home, Blaha and Searfoss took turns on a computer program known as the Portable In-flight Landing Operations Trainer (PILOT), which consisted of a high-resolution color display and hand controller and offered them both the "look" and "feel" of the orbiter. Housed in a middeck locker when out of use, PILOT was assembled on the console in front of the pilot's seat and its joystick was attached to the top of Searfoss' own hand controller. The astronauts also participated in the customary Lower Body Negative Pressure suit runs to better prepare their bodies for the punishing onset of terrestrial gravity.

Early on 1 November, the final SLS-2 experiments were concluded and then Dave Wolf supervised the deactivation of the Spacelab module in time for the first landing opportunity at Edwards. Several hours later, Blaha fired Columbia's Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines to commence the hour-long glide back to Earth. He guided the vehicle perfectly onto concrete Runway 22 at 8:05 a.m. PST (11:05 a.m. EST) to end a mission of 14 days and 12 minutes, which established STS-58 as the longest shuttle mission to date and the United States' fourth-longest human space flight at the time, after the three Skylab missions. For the astronauts, and particularly the science crew, it was the start of a week of post-mission medical experiments. NASA put them up in a resort called "Silver Saddles" and despite the discomfort of frequent blood draws—"We began to look like drug addicts," joked Seddon, "because they kept drawing blood from us"—it was a pleasant time, being able to relax in the evenings and eat with their families.

Copyright © 2014 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved

 

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