STS-34

Key takeaways

STS-34 belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect STS-34 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of STS-34 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

STS-34 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission using Atlantis. It was the 31st shuttle mission overall, and the fifth flight for Atlantis. STS-34 launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on October 18, 1989, and landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on October 23, 1989. It was also the first shuttle mission since the Challenger disaster to have two female astronauts on board. During the mission, the Jupiter-bound Galileo probe was deployed into space.

Crew

Crew seat assignments

Mission summary

Atlantis lifted off from Launch Complex 39B, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), at 12:53:40 EDT on October 18, 1989. It carried the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft in its cargo bay. The countdown was delayed at T-minus 5 minutes for 3 minutes and 40 seconds to update the onboard computer for a change in the Transoceanic Abort Landing (TAL) site. The TAL site was changed from Ben Guerir Air Base, Morocco, to Zaragoza Air Base, Spain, because of heavy rain at Ben Guerir. The launch was originally targeted for October 12, 1989, the first day of a 41-day launch period during which the planets were properly aligned for a direct flight to Jupiter. The liftoff was rescheduled for October 17, 1989, to replace a faulty main engine controller for Space Shuttle Main Engine No. 2. It was postponed again until October 18, 1989, because of rain-showers within 32 kilometres (20 mi; 17 nmi) of Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. The weather conditions were in violation of the launch commit criteria for a Return To Launch Site (RTLS) landing in the event of an aborted flight. The primary payload, the Galileo spacecraft with its attached Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), was successfully deployed on its journey to Jupiter. STS-34 was only the second shuttle flight to deploy a planetary spacecraft, the first being STS-30, which deployed the Magellan spacecraft. Galileo became the first spacecraft to orbit an outer Solar System planet and to penetrate the atmosphere of an outer planet. Also, the spacecraft was scheduled to make the first extended observations of the Jovian system and first direct sampling of Jupiter's atmosphere, as well as the first asteroid flybys. Several anomalies occurred during the flight, but none had a major impact on the mission. On October 22, 1989, an alarm woke the shuttle crew when the gas generator fuel pump system A heaters on Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) 2 failed to recycle at the upper limits of the system. There were also some minor problems with the Flash Evaporator System for cooling the orbiter, and the cryogenic oxygen manifold valve 2, which was left closed for the rest of the mission. A Hasselblad camera jammed twice, and a spare camera had to be used. Chang-Díaz described his second flight as much more "subdued". Demonstrators protested at launch time against the flight because the Galileo spacecraft, the mission's payload, was powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. Díaz also claimed the flight was almost aborted in orbit three times because of malfunctions, but continued because the alternative was to land Atlantis, carrying Galileo and its generator, at an airport in Senegal, which could have caused an "international incident", according to the astronaut. He identified the deployment of Galileo as another tricky part of the mission as he only had a tight six-second opportunity to succeed. On October 21, 1989, Costa Rican President Dr. Óscar Arias talked in Spanish with Chang-Díaz, a native of Costa Rica, and greeted the other crew members via a special telephone linkup. Arias told Chang-Díaz, "You raise high the name of Costa Rica and Latin America in general". Chang-Díaz also explained the mission's objectives in Spanish to Costa Rican listeners on the ground. Because of high winds predicted at the planned landing time, reentry was moved two orbits earlier. Atlantis landed on Runway 23 at Edwards Air Force Base in California at 16:33:00 UTC (9:33 am PDT local time at the landing site) on October 23, 1989 after a mission duration of 4 days, 23 hours, 39 minutes, and 20 seconds.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with STS-34

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what STS-34 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to STS-34 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about STS-34 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of STS-34

In research: STS-34 appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses STS-34 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: STS-34 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Edwards Air Force Base, Space Shuttle missions, Spacecraft launched in 1989, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for STS-34 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study STS-34 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what STS-34 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain STS-34 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is STS-34 in simple terms?

STS-34 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission using Atlantis. It was the 31st shuttle mission overall, and the fifth flight for Atlantis.

Why does STS-34 matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study STS-34?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on STS-34.