Liftoff March 2 01:38 EST

Mission Purpose:

NASA managers set March 2, 1995 as the launch date for STS-67, the second Space Shuttle mission of 1995.

• The Space Shuttle Endeavour will launch the second flight of the ASTRO payload, a cluster of unique telescopes in the Shuttle's payload bay which will turn Endeavour into an ultraviolet observatory. The set of mechanized "eyes" will give astronomers a view of the heavens impossible to obtain from the ground.

Mission Update:

• Current Mission Elapsed Time
• Endeavor Lifted off at 22:38 PDT March 1
• At 13:30 pm March 2 stars were acquired with the WUPPE detector and the focussing process had begun
• Mission performance is nominal and data acquisition will commence in about 24 hours
• First Target, a portion of the Cygnus Loop , was acquired for 660 seconds at MET 01/00:19.
• Pointing excursions were noticed and the crew is in the process of trying to correct this. This is an expected occurence early in the mission.

  Day 2:

  At 16:00 PST On March 3 the deepest Ultraviolet exposure over the largest field was taken. The galaxy below, UGC 6151, is in the center of the field. It is a Low Surface Brightness Galaxy which we hope has lots of UV emission. This galaxy will also self-calibrate the field in case we serendipitiously detect other faint, diffuse galaxies over the near one square degree which is being imaged.

  

  The pointing excursion problems that plagued much of the day 2 target acquisition and observations have been mostly corrected. HUT made some preliminary and successful observations of distant Quasars. In addition, the active galaxies NGC 4151 and NGC 1068 were done. WUPPE made successful observations of reflection nebulae associated with NGC 7023

  A major goal of the HUT campaign is to get good data on QSO 1700+64 the most distant object in the Universe. An 1800 second exposure was done and the QSO was detected. Additional observations may then provide enough signal to noise to detected helium ionization edges in the spectrum which would indicate the presence of intergalactic helium at this redshift (z ~5). This would be a verification of a fundamental prediction of Big Bang Cosmology.

  Day 3:

  UIT failed to obtain a deep field in Virgo centered on a LSB galaxy there but did succeed in obtaining several good exposures of galactic Globular Clusters as well as a field in M31. A long exposure in the B1 filter was also made of M67 ( see here for additional information ). An additional exposure was made of NGC 5236 through the B1 and B5 filters.

  HUT obtained additional spectra of NGC 4151 and QSO 1700+64. A 1300 second exposure of MKN 279 was also done as were some other quasars. Markarian 279 is an interacting galaxy with a notable UV excess.

  WUPPE obtained additional data on several hot stars located behind regions of dust in our Interstellar Medium. Stars observed were HD50138, HD10516 and HD197770.

  Day 4:

  HUT obtained a good exposure of the elliptical NGC 3379 to look for UV upturn in its spectrum. A good exposure of QSO 0833+652 was also acquired. The stars YZ-CNC and RS-OPH were also observed. Markarian 3 was also observed. This is a compact galaxy with a notable UV excess. An additional spectrum of the Cygnus Loop Supernovae Remnant was obtained.

  WUPPE started off the day with another exposure on NG C 7023 . The rest of this day belong to HUT and UIT.

  The UIT block begin with the first of a few exposures of SA 57, one of the most studied deep fields in the sky. A very good set of exposures through the A1,B1 and B5 filters were acquired of NGC 3351 . UIT finished the day with exposures of NGCs 5253, 2808, 3115, 1549, 4038, and 1672. Details of these objects can be found here .

  Day 5:

  WUPPE acquired data on the hot stars HD25090 and HD 24992

  HUT obtained more spectra on NGC 4151 and NGC 1068 . HUT also acquired two additional spectra, each of length about 1700 seconds, of the 1700+64 QSO and the search for intergalactic helium.

  UIT got a good image of the Milky Way satellite galaxy Sextans-A and other cool galaxies. This can be seen by going to the UIT update page .

  Day 6:

  UIT update for day 6

  WUPPE acquired a very long exposure of HD62542 and a shorter exposure of HD96548.

  HUT observed the bright elliptical M49 and the star U-Gem. Later in the day HUT made observations of Jupiter, the interacting galaxy pair NGC 6090 and the UV bright galaxy- Markarian 3. Two additional QSOs were also observed.

  Day 7:

  UIT update for day 7

  HUT made additional exposures of the distant qso 1700+64 and the Cygnus Loop. Another QSO was also observed and a very long exposure (> 3000 seconds) was obtained of AM-HER.

  Day 8:

  UIT update for day 8

  HUT acquired additional spectra of NGC 4151, a new spectra of NGC 4631, more data on the Cygnus Loop and a new spectra of MKN 421. HUT ended the day with an exposure of the active galaxy NGC 3516

  WUPPE acquired additional observations of NGC 7023 and data on NCEN-95.

  Day 9:

  UIT update for day 9

  HUT observed the strange blue galaxy Fairall 9 and the elliptical galaxy M60 . Later more observations were made of the QSO 1700+64, the Cygnus Loop, Markarian 478 and 3C273 .

  WUPPE observed the stars HD216658 and HD161961 and HD 216898.

  Day 10:

  UIT update for day 10

  HUT took spectra of SN1006, NGC 6090 , NGC 4151 , and two more QSOS.

  WUPPE acquired data on Mars

  Day 11:

  UIT update for day 11

  This was a busy day for HUT. Spectra were acquired of Markarian 421, more on the Cygnus Loop, more on NGC 6090 , AM-HER, M60 and M87

  WUPPE acquired data on several stars in the SK association as well as the star AB-AUR

  Day 12:

  UIT update for day 12

  HUT began the day with a spectra of the active galaxy NGC 5548 and then later did a field in the Large Magellanic Cloud . Additional targets were NGC346, NGC1360, M60 again and a couple of more quasars.

  WUPPE acquired data on Nova-Aql, NGC3132, HD 5980 and more SK stars.

  Day 13:

  UIT update for day 13

  HUT began the day by acquiring another spectra of 3C273 one of the most nearby quasars. These observations should help to determine if there is more absorption along the line of sight to 3C273 than has already been seen by HST. Additional spectra of NGC 4151 were acquired. HUT also got a spectrum of the VELA pulsar remnant and finished the day with Markarian 66.

  WUPPE acquired data on the stars HD188220, SK69-239 and HR4049.

  Day 14:

  UIT update for day 14

  WUPPE started things off with HD188220 and later got data on the nebulae OMI-SCO and VELA-X1.

  HUT got data on Markian 509, the peculiar star AG-DRA and 3 more quasars.

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