Ode to Big Bird, Part 9: STS-4 and STS-39

Copyright © 2014 by Thomas Gangale
@ThomasGangale

"There's Big Bird and Little Bird, and then there's Turd," an acquaintance remarked in 1982, referring to Hexagon, Gambit, and P-380. P-380 was a suite of "white world" experiments, some of which had been sitting around looking for a ride into space.

In the 7 June 1982 issue of "Aviation Week and Space Technology," Craig Covault wrote regarding the upcoming STS-4 mission:

"The first Defense Dept. shuttle payload is devoted to obtaining scientific data that will be fed into various defense programs. USAF had earlier wanted the mission to carry a large military imaging reconnaissance film camera in the payload bay.

"The plan to test actively the concept of utilizing the space shuttle as a manned military reconnaissance sortie vehicle was not approved by congressional intelligence officials, and USAF moved its attention away from using Mission 4 for anything other than scientific data gathering to enhance future defense systems."

Thus, it seems that the cancellation of a classified program opened up a flight opportunity. Covault identified the experiments flown on STS-4:

• Cryogenic Infrared Radiance Instrumentation for Shuttle (CIRRIS).
  
• Horizon Ultraviolet Program (HUP), sponsored by the Air Force Geophysical Laboratory (AFGL).
  
• Sheath Wake and Charging Experiment, an AFGL experiment.
  
• Passive Cosmic Ray Detector, a Cambridge Research Laboratory instrument.
  
• Shuttle Effects on Plasmas in Space, a Naval Research Laboratory experiment.
  
• Space sextant, a Martin Marietta instrument.
  
• Pallet Alignment Modeling Experiment, associated with the Lockheed pallet that housed the experiment suite.
  

According to Wikipedia, mission commander Ken Mattingly, who was an active-duty naval officer, later described the classified payload as a "rinky-dink collection of minor stuff they wanted to fly." But since STS-4 was the last test mission for the Shuttle program, and thus the real objective of the mission was to evaluate Shuttle performance and procedures to clear to program for operational missions, the payload bay could just as well have been empty with respect to program objectives.

P-380 was my "ice box" project, i.e., how I was gainfully employed while I was awaiting my Byeman clearance. The program was managed in Lockheed/Sunnyvale Building 156. As Craig Covault put it, "USAF had earlier wanted the [STS-4] mission to carry a large military imaging reconnaissance film camera in the payload bay." The 2012 release of Richard J. Chester's history of the Hexagon program mentions Building 156, so it is no longer a secret that the two programs were managed in the same building. This is an example of how declassified and/or unclassified information can be assembled to draw a "black" inference: that STS-4 was intended to carry Hexagon cameras. I believe that the original purpose of the flight remains "black," and if so, its declassification has probably been overlooked simply because the program was canceled. Since it is now out in the open that the Shuttle was designed to carry a fully configured Hexagon vehicle, one wonders why a canceled program to carry KH-9 cameras on a Shuttle pallet would still be classified.

In "The Story of the Space Shuttle," David M. Harland states on p. 154: "The cover of the classified CIRRIS sensor system in Columbia's bay had refused to open, and Ken Mattingly… suggested that he go out and release the cover manually, but permission was denied - the rules stated that astronauts should make spacewalks in pairs, the enable them to assist each other, and as there were only two people onboard the controls could not be left unattended…."

The cover mechanism opened and closed perfectly when it was tested in a shirtsleeve environment at Lockheed. Normally, all experiments are operated during testing in the thermal-vacuum chamber, which simulates the environment on orbit; however, the CIRRIS principal investigator (PI), a professor at Utah State University, prevailed upon Lockheed and Air Force technical managers to not open the cover during the thermal-vacuum test. The PI's concern was that because the instrument's optics were cooled by a source of liquid helium, they might be contaminated by particulates from any outgassing of the payload's other experiments sticking to the cryogenic surfaces. Ever have your fingers stick to the side of a freezer? The physics is similar. Testing the operation of the CIRRIS cover in the thermal-vacuum chamber might have revealed a problem with the thermal deformation of the cover causing it to jam closed. Instead, CIRRIS 1 was entirely uncontaminated by any data on STS-4 and had to be re-flown on the same Experiment Support System (ESS) pallet on STS-39 as CIRRIS 1A… with a redesigned cover mechanism. Every engineer ought to know that it is the thing that you never thought to test that will screw you up.

Debating Dorian and Hexagon
Responses to Anonymous Comments on Hexagon-Dorian
Hexadorian, the Ten-Bucket Abomination
Ode to Little Bird
More Declassified Drawings of Manned Orbiting Laboratory (Dorian)
Ode to Big Bird, Part 8: Dorian and Hexagon
Ode to Big Bird, Part 10: Damien

Thomas Gangale in Outer Space!