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John Glenn and the rest of the STS-95 Space Shuttle Discovery crew successfully completed their 9-day mission on Nov. 7, 1998. The mission lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B in Florida at 2:19 p.m. EST on Thursday, Oct. 29.
More than 36 years after he made history as the first American to orbit the Earth, Sen. John H. Glenn Jr. returned to space as part of a multinational crew with the launch of Discovery. STS-95 involved more than 80 scientific experiments investigating mysteries that spanned the realm from the inner universe of the human body to studies of our own sun and its solar activity.
Back on Feb. 20, 1962, when Glenn flew in his Friendship 7 Mercury capsule, the largest mystery facing the young NASA space program was whether humans could even survive in the hostile environment of space. In the 121 space missions since Glenn's flight during the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Shuttle programs, more than 200 Americans have flown -- and thrived -- in space. Glenn, who inspired many current astronauts to pursue space flight as a career, continues to inspire people of all generations as he returned to space.
The wealth of scientific data accumulated during these space flights validate apparent similarities between the effects of space flight and aging. Glenn was a test subject for specific investigations that mimicked the effect of aging, including loss of muscle mass and bone density, disrupted sleep patterns, a depressed immune system and loss of balance.
Scientific endeavors on the STS-95 mission were not limited to furthering an understanding of the human body, but also expanded our understanding of the closest star to our planet, the sun, and how it affects life on Earth. The Spartan 201 spacecraft was released by the crew on the fourth day of the mission and spent two days flying free. The spacecraft studied heating of the solar corona and the acceleration of the solar wind that originates in the corona and how that phenomenon affects activities both in Earth orbit and on the ground. The sun drives our weather, and energetic eruptions on the sun are capable of disrupting satellites, communication and power systems. The sun also establishes the space environment in which our communications, weather, defense and human spaceflight resources operate. Upon completion of two days of solar observations, Discovery's crew hauled the spacecraft back into the Shuttle's cargo bay and returned it to Earth.
Six astronomical instruments constituted the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker Experiment (IEH-3) that was carried in Discovery's payload bay. These six diverse instruments supported a range of experiments, including studies of stars, remnants of supernovae and star formation. Also tucked in the payload bay was a variety of materials and equipment destined for use during the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, currently scheduled for a mid-2000 launch. Referred to as HOST, the Hubble Space Telescope Optical Systems Test payload demonstrated that actual electronic and thermodynamic equipment scheduled for installation into the telescope performs acceptably in the radiation and zero gravity environment of space.
Discovery also carried a Spacehab module to orbit. Inside Spacehab, almost 30 smaller experiments were conducted by the astronauts, ranging from materials science to plant growth to developing new techniques for delivering vital anti-tumor medications. Sponsored by NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency and the Japanese Space Agency (NASDA), these studies took the best advantage of the unique environment of space to conduct these diverse studies.
The STS-95 mission was led by 42-year-old Curtis L. Brown Jr. (Lt. Col., USAF), making his fifth space flight. Serving as Pilot was Steven W. Lindsey (Lt. Col., USAF), 38, making his second flight. There were three astronauts serving as STS-95 mission specialists. Making his second flight was Mission Specialist-1 Dr. Stephen K. Robinson (Ph.D), who was also the STS-95 Payload Commander and who turned 43 a few days before launch. Serving as the Flight Engineer and Mission Specialist-2 was Dr. Scott E. Parazynski (M.D.), 37, making his third flight. European Space Agency astronaut Pedro Duque, 35, was Mission Specialist-3 and was making his first space flight. The two STS-95 payload specialists, 46-year-old Dr. Chiaki Mukai (M.D., Ph.D.) from the Japanese Space Agency (NASDA) and Sen. John H. Glenn Jr. (Col., USMC, Ret.), 77, both made their second space flight.
The STS-95 mission landed back at Kennedy Space Center at the end of a more than 3-1/2 million mile journey on Nov. 7 just after noon EST.
STS-95 was the 25th flight of Discovery and the 92nd mission flown since the start of the Space Shuttle program in April 1981.