NASA Photo ID: STS056-28-002      File Name: 10073216.gif 
 
Film Type: 35mm CN                Date Taken: 04/17/93 
 
Title: STS-56 remote manipulator system (RMS) recaptures SPARTAN-201 above OV-103 
 
Description: 
 
STS-56 remote manipulator system's (RMS') end effector grapples the Shuttle  
Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy 201 (SPARTAN-201) against 
the  blackness of space and above the payload bay (PLB) of Discovery, 
Orbiter  Vehicle (OV) 103.  SPARTAN-201, a free-flying payload, is designed 
to study  the solar wind and part of the sun's corona.  The project was 
conceived in  the late 1970s to take advantage of the opportunity offered 
by the Space  Shuttle to provide more observation time for the increasingly 
more  sophisticated experiments than the five to ten minutes provided by 
sounding  rocket flights.  The RMS lifted SPARTAN-201 from its support 
structure and  released it into space on the mission's third day.  Depicted 
here, the  recapture occurred on the mission's sixth day.