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Vance Brand
|
Vance Brand |
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Born on: |
9 May 1931 |
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Join NASA in: |
4 Apr 1966 |
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Current status: |
Retired 1 Apr 1992 |
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Spaceflight |
Position |
Date |
|
ASTP |
Pilot |
15.07. - 24.07.1975 |
|
STS 5 |
Cmdr |
11.11. - 16.11.1982 |
|
STS 41-B |
Cmdr |
03.02. - 11.02.1984 |
|
STS 35 |
Cmdr |
02.12. - 10.12.1990 |
|
|
Spaceflight experience: |
One of the 19 pilot
astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966, Brand initially
was a crew member in the thermal vacuum chamber testing of
the prototype Command Module and support crewman on Apollo
8 and 13. Later he was backup command module pilot for
Apollo 15 and backup commander for Skylabs 3 and 4. As an
astronaut he held management positions relating to
spacecraft development, acquisition, flight safety and
mission operations. Brand flew on four space missions;
Apollo-Soyuz, STS-5, STS 41-B, and STS-35. He has logged
746 hours in space and has commanded three Shuttle
missions. Mr. Brand departed the Astronaut Office in 1992
to become Chief of Plans at the National Aerospace Plane (NASP)
Joint Program Office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,
Dayton, Ohio. In September 1994, he moved to California to
become Assistant Chief of Flight Operations at the Dryden
Flight Research Center, then Acting Chief Engineer, and
currently Deputy Director for Aerospace Projects.
Apollo Soyuz: Brand was launched on his first space flight
on July 15, 1975, as Apollo command module pilot on the
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission. This flight
resulted in the historic meeting in space between American
astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts. Other crewmen on this
9-day Earth-orbital mission were Thomas Stafford, Apollo
commander, Donald Slayton, Apollo docking module pilot;
cosmonaut Alexey Leonov, Soyuz commander; and cosmonaut
Valeriy Kubasov, Soyuz flight engineer. The Soyuz
spacecraft was launched at Baikonur in Central Asia, and
the Apollo was launched 7 1/2 hours later at the Kennedy
Space Center. Two days later Apollo accomplished a
successful rendezvous and docking with Soyuz. The linkup
tested a unique, new docking system and demonstrated
international cooperation in space. There were 44 hours of
docked joint activities which included 4 crew transfers
between the Apollo and the Soyuz. Six records for docked
and group flight were set on the mission and are
recognized by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.
Apollo splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii, on
July 25, and was promptly recovered by the USS New Orleans,
Mission duration was 2l7 hours.
STS-5: Brand was commander of Columbia for STS-5, the
first fully operational flight of the Shuttle
Transportation System, which launched on November 11,
1982. His crew comprised Colonel Robert Overmyer, pilot,
and two mission specialists, Dr. Joseph Allen and Dr.
William Lenoir. STS-5, the first mission with a four man
crew, demonstrated the Shuttle as operational by the
successful first deployment of two commercial
communications satellites from the Orbiter's payload bay.
The mission marked the Shuttle's first use of an upper
stage rocket, the Payload Assist Module (PAM-D). The
satellites were deployed for Satellite Business Systems
Corporation of McLean, Virginia, and TELESAT of Ottawa,
Canada. Two FAI records for mass to altitude were set on
the mission. Numerous flight tests were performed to
ascertain Shuttle performance. STS-5 was the last flight
to carry the Development Flight Instrumentation package to
support extensive flight testing. The STS-5 crew concluded
the 5-day orbital flight of Columbia with the landing
approach through a cloud deck to Runway 22 at Edwards Air
Force Base, California on November 16, 1982. Mission
duration was 122 hours.
STS 41-B: Brand commanded Challenger with a crew of five
on the tenth flight of the Space Shuttle. The launch was
on February 3, 1984. His crew included Commander Robert
Gibson, pilot, and 3 mission specialists, Captain Bruce
McCandless, II, Dr. Ronald McNair, and Lt. Col. Robert
Stewart. The flight accomplished the proper shuttle
deployment of two Hughes 376 communications satellites
which failed to reach desired geosynchronous orbits due to
upper stage rocket failures. This mission marked the first
flight checkout of the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) and
the Manipulator Foot Restraint (MFR) with McCandless and
Stewart performing two spectacular extravehicular
activities (EVA's). Shuttle rendezvous sensors and
computer programs were flight tested for the first time.
The 8-day flight of Challenger ended with the first
landing to the runway at the Kennedy Space Center on
February 11, 1984. Mission duration was 191 hours.
STS-35: Brand again commanded Columbia on the
thirty-eighth flight of the Shuttle, this time with a crew
of seven. The spectacular night launch on December 2, 1990
started a 9-day mission devoted to round-the-clock
observations of stars and other celestial objects. Crewmen
included the pilot, Col. Guy Gardner; three mission
specialists, Mike Lounge, Dr. Robert Parker and Dr.
Jeffrey Hoffman; and two payload specialists, Dr. Samuel
Durrance and Dr. Ronald Parise. The 13-ton payload
consisted of the 3 ASTRO-1 Ultraviolet (UV) Telescopes and
the Broad Band X-ray Telescope. More than 200 Orbiter
maneuvers were required to point the telescopes. This
Shuttle flight, the first dedicated to astronomy, provided
a rich return of science data with emphasis on observation
of very active celestial objects. A night landing was made
on December 10 to Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base.
Mission duration was 215 hours.
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