Image: NASA
STS-87
Mission Profile
| Launch date | 1997-11-19 |
|---|---|
| Launch site | Kennedy Space Center, Launch Complex 39B, Florida |
| Launch vehicle | Space Shuttle |
| Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) |
| Target | Low Earth Orbit |
| Type | Crewed |
| End date | 1997-12-05 |
| Recovery | Runway landing — Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility, Runway 33, Florida |
| Duration | 15 days, 16 hours, 35 minutes |
| Partners | NSAU (Ukraine), NASDA (Japan) |
Overview
Columbia's sixteen-day STS-87 flight, launched November 19, 1997, carried the fourth United States Microgravity Payload — a pallet of furnaces and physics experiments probing how metals solidify and flames behave without gravity — and a crew of firsts. Mission specialist Kalpana Chawla, on her first flight, became the first Indian-born woman in space; payload specialist Leonid Kadenyuk flew as the first astronaut of independent Ukraine, tending plant-biology experiments. On November 21 the mission hit trouble: the Spartan-201 solar observatory failed to begin its attitude-control pirouette after release, and a regrapple attempt left the free-flyer slowly tumbling. NASA improvised a fix worthy of the early program — on November 25 (UTC), Winston Scott and Takao Doi floated into the payload bay and captured the spinning, 3,000-pound satellite with their gloved hands, steadying it for berthing during a 7-hour 43-minute spacewalk that also made Doi the first Japanese astronaut to walk in space. A second EVA on December 3 flight-tested AERCam Sprint, a free-flying camera sphere designed for inspecting the future space station. Columbia landed at Kennedy on December 5 after more than fifteen and a half days aloft. Chawla returned to space on Columbia's final flight, STS-107, in 2003.
Crew
Kevin Kregel
Commander
Third spaceflight
Steven Lindsey
Pilot
First flight; later flew STS-95 and commanded the final Discovery mission, STS-133
Kalpana Chawla
Mission Specialist
First spaceflight; first Indian-born woman in space; lost aboard STS-107 in 2003
Winston Scott
Mission Specialist
STS-72 veteran; performed both EVAs, including the barehanded Spartan-201 capture
Takao Doi
Mission Specialist
NASDA astronaut; first Japanese astronaut to perform a spacewalk
Leonid Kadenyuk
Payload Specialist
First astronaut of independent Ukraine (NSAU); conducted the Collaborative Ukrainian plant-biology experiments
Key Milestones
1997-11-19
Columbia launches from LC-39B; Kalpana Chawla becomes the first Indian-born woman in space and Leonid Kadenyuk the first astronaut of independent Ukraine
1997-11-21
Spartan-201 solar observatory fails to start its attitude-control pirouette after release; a regrapple attempt leaves it slowly tumbling
1997-11-25
Scott and Doi capture Spartan-201 by hand during a 7-hour 43-minute EVA — the first spacewalk by a Japanese astronaut and the first staged from Columbia
1997-12-03
Second EVA (4 hours 59 minutes) flight-tests the AERCam Sprint free-flying inspection camera
1997-12-05
Columbia lands at Kennedy Space Center Runway 33 after 15 days, 16 hours
Key Achievements
Kalpana Chawla became the first Indian-born woman in space
Takao Doi performed the first spacewalk by a Japanese astronaut
Winston Scott and Takao Doi manually captured the tumbling Spartan-201 satellite by hand
Leonid Kadenyuk flew as the first astronaut of independent Ukraine
First flight test of the AERCam Sprint free-flying inspection camera
Legacy & Significance
STS-87 is remembered for two very different stories. The barehanded capture of Spartan-201 became a textbook case of orbital improvisation — two suited astronauts physically wrestling a satellite to a stop — and AERCam Sprint pioneered the free-flying inspection robots now envisioned for every crewed platform. Above all, the flight introduced Kalpana Chawla, whose journey from Karnal, India to Columbia's flight deck made her a hero across South Asia; after her death on STS-107, scholarships, satellites and streets were named in her memory, and her legacy is invoked by every Indian astronaut who has flown since.
