STS-37, the thirty-ninth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the eighth flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, was a six-day mission with the primary objective of launching the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), the second of the Great Observatories program which included the visible-spectrum Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) and the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope. The mission also featured two spacewalks, the first since 1985.
Crew
Spacewalks
;EVA 1
- Personnel: Apt and Ross
- Date: April 7, 1991 (≈18:00–22:00 UTC)
! Launch
! Landing
|rowspan=8| 150px<br />Seats 1–4 are on the flight deck.<br />Seats 5–7 are on the mid-deck.
|-
! 1
|colspan=2| Nagel
|-
! 2
|colspan=2| Cameron
|-
! 3
| Apt
| Godwin
|-
! 4
|colspan=2| Ross
|-
! 5
| Godwin
| Apt
|-
! 6
|colspan=2 style="background-color:lightgray"| Unused
|-
! 7
|colspan=2 style="background-color:lightgray"| Unused
|}
Preparations and launch
thumb|right|Launch of Atlantis on STS-37
The STS-37 mission was successfully launched from launch pad 39B at 9:22:44 a.m. EST on April 5, 1991, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Resumption of the countdown after the T−9-minute hold was delayed about 4 minutes 45 seconds because of two possible weather-condition violations of the launch commit criteria (LCC). The first concerned the cloud ceiling being less than the minimum of for a return-to-launch-site (RTLS) abort, and the second concerned the possible weather-condition (wind) effects on blast propagation. Both conditions were found acceptable and the launch countdown proceeded to a satisfactory launch to an inclination of 28.45°.
Additional payloads and experiments
Secondary payloads included Crew and Equipment Translation Aid (CETA), which involved scheduled six-hour spacewalk by astronauts Ross and Apt (see above); Ascent Particle Monitor (APM); Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX); Protein Crystal Growth (PCG); Bioserve/Instrumentation Technology Associates Materials Dispersion Apparatus (BIMDA); Radiation Monitoring Equipment (RME Ill); and Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS) experiment. Among the other payloads flown was the first flight of the Bioserve/Instrumentation Technology Associates Materials Dispersion Apparatus (BIMDA) to explore the commercial potential of experiments in the biomedical, manufacturing processes and fluid sciences fields, and the Protein Crystal Growth experiment, which has flown eight times before in various forms.
Astronaut Pilot Kenneth D. Cameron was the primary operator of the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX). It was the first time all five crew members participated as amateur radio operators. This SAREX mission was the first time that the astronauts received fast scan amateur television video from the ham radio club station (W5RRR) at Johnson Space Center (JSC) and three other uplinks. Videos uplinked included footage of the launch and a greeting from Jay Leno.
During the spaceflight, the crew was additionally able to photograph the Kuwaiti oil fires on April 7, 1991, as the Gulf War was ongoing during the spaceflight.
thumb|upright=1|Smoke plumes from a few of the Kuwaiti Oil Fires on April 7, 1991, as seen during STS-37.
Landing
thumb|right|Atlantis touches down at Edwards Air Force Base.
On April 11, 1991, at 06:55:29 PDT, Atlantis landed on runway 33 at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The rollout distance was , and the rollout time was 56 seconds. The landing was originally scheduled for April 10, 1991, but was delayed one day by weather conditions at Edwards and Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The orbiter returned to KSC on April 18, 1991. The landing weight was .
An incorrect call on winds aloft caused Atlantis to land 623 feet (190 metres) short of the lakebed runway's threshold marking. This did not present a problem, since the orbiter landed on the dry lakebed of Edwards, and was not obvious to most viewers. Had the landing been attempted at the Kennedy Space Center, the result would have been a touchdown on the paved underrun preceding the runway and would have been much more obvious. The landing speed was 168 knots equivalent airspeed (KEAS), 13 knots faster than the slowest landing of the Shuttle program, STS-28's 155 KEAS.
Mission insignia
The three stars on the top and seven stars on the bottom of the insignia symbolize the flight's numerical designation in the Space Transportation System's mission sequence. The stars also represented the Amateur Radio term "73" or "Best regards", consistent with the fact that the entire crew had become licensed and operated the SAREX-II experiment while on orbit.
Wake-up calls
NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the Project Gemini, and first used music to wake up a flight crew during Apollo 15. Each track is specially chosen, often by the astronauts' families, and usually has a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or is applicable to their daily activities.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
! Day
! Song
! Artist/Composer
! Played for
|-
| Day 2
| Music by Marching Illini Band
| University of Illinois
| Steven R. Nagel
|-
| Day 3
| "The Marine Corp Hymn"
| U. S. Naval Academy band
| Kenneth D. Cameron
|-
| Day 4
| "Hail Purdue"
| Purdue University Band
| Jerry L. Ross
|-
| Day 5
| "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard"
| Harvard University Glee Club
| Jerome "Jay" Apt
|-
| Day 6
| "La Bamba"
| Brass Rhythm and Reeds
| Linda M. Godwin
|-
| Day 7
| Magnum, P.I. theme with a greeting from Tom Selleck
|
| Linda M. Godwin, "a big Selleck fan"