When orbiter Atlantis became operational in October 1985, NASA's fleet of four orbiters was complete. But only some three months later Challenger was blasted apart in the Florida skies when lifting off on its tenth mission. With only three orbiters remaining, NASA could not hope to fulfil its launch requirements in the years ahead. For this reason, in August 1987, Congress gave the go-ahead for the construction of a new orbiter to replace Challenger. NASA launched an orbiter-naming programme, inviting student teams from schools throughout the USA to suggest a name for the new orbiter, along with a related classroom project. In the end 71,652 students participated in the programme, and in May 1989 President George Bush announced the chosen name, Endeavour. It was suggested by two teams, from Senatobia Middle School, Mississippi, and Tallulah Falls School, Georgia. Endeavour was the name of the first ship commanded by James Cook, which made her maiden voyage in August 1768. Cook sailed on Endeavour into the South Pacific Ocean and around Tahiti to observe the passage, or transit, of Venus across the face of the Sun. Later on the same voyage he discovered and charted New Zealand, surveyed the eastern coast of Australia and navigated the Great Barrier Reef. The new shuttle orbiter Endeavour arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on May 7, 1991. One year later to the day it was punching its way into the heavens on its maiden flight (STS-49), with an ambitious workload ahead for the seven-astronaut crew. No less than three spacewalks were planned for consecutive days, something that had not been done since the Apollo 17 Moon-landing mission in December 1972. On the first spacewalk astronauts would attempt the capture, repair and relaunch of an Intelsat VI comsat, which had been marooned in low Earth orbit following its launch on a Titan rocket in March 1990. The two other spacewalks planned for STS-49 would be concerned with practising assembly techniques for the upcoming space station Freedom, using a procedure known as ASEM (assembly of space station by EVA methods). In the event the STS-49 astronauts made an unprecedented four spacewalks: three to capture the Intelsat and just one for the ASEM. Intelsat was captured only at the third attempt, and by the extremely low-tech method of three astronauts standing in the payload bay and grabbing it by hand! After attaching a new booster to the Intelsat, it was sprung out of the payload bay and subsequently boosted into its correct geostationary orbit, 35,900 km high. The rescue spacewalk lasted nearly eight-and-a-half hours, beating the previous record established by the Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972. The fourth spacewalk concerned with the ASEM was less successful, the assembly techniques proving much more difficult than anticipated. Because of the delay in capturing the Intelsat, Endeavour's maiden flight was extended by two days. After putting in a near- flawless performance, the new orbiter made a picture-perfect landing at the Edwards Air Force Base in California. As Endeavour's nose touched down, the astronauts deployed a drag 'chute (parachute) to assist braking. This was the first time that the 'chute had been used. 'Chutes were subsequently fitted to the other orbiters as well.
