STS-70

STS-70 was Discovery's July 1995 mission to deploy NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-G, later known as TDRS-7. Terence Henricks commanded the flight, Kevin Kregel served as pilot, and Nancy Currie-Gregg, Donald Thomas, and Mary Ellen Weber flew as mission specialists. Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39B on July 13, 1995, and landed at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility on July 22 after 8 days, 22 hours, 20 minutes, and 5 seconds in orbit. The mission is remembered partly for its unusual prelaunch delay: northern flicker woodpeckers damaged the external tank foam while Discovery was at the pad, forcing repairs and a rollback before the final July launch date. Once in orbit, the primary mission objective was completed when TDRS-G and its Inertial Upper Stage were deployed from Discovery's payload bay about six hours after liftoff. The satellite completed the original first-generation TDRS constellation after checkout and supported NASA communications, tracking, telemetry, and command services. The crew also operated a broad middeck research program. Experiments included biological research in canisters, rodent-development studies, microencapsulation, commercial protein crystal growth, a bioreactor demonstration using colon-cancer cells, visual-function testing, radiation monitoring, ship-track observations, and Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment contacts. NASA reported no significant orbiter problems, and the flight also marked the first use of a new Block I Space Shuttle main engine configuration.