Matchbook
Object number2018.27.64
Date1983
OriginGermany
MediumPaper; Metal
Credit LineGift of Jay Apt
DescriptionPaperboard matchbook containing eighteen matches.DimensionsHeight x Width x Depth (closed): 1.875 × 1.5 × 0.375 in. (4.8 × 3.8 × 1 cm)Height x Width x Depth (open): 3.813 × 1.5 × 0.375 in. (9.7 × 3.8 × 1 cm)
InscriptionsSide that opens has orange text at top "SPAS-01" and black text at bottom "Shuttle Pallet / Satellite / STS-7".
Reverse has orange text at top "SPAS-01" and white below "The first reusable free- / flying satellite. / The age of recoverable / space vehicles has begun. / MBB / Space Division / P.O. Box 801169 / D-8000 München 80 / West-Germany".
MarksWhite text on bottom fold "20 Zünder".
Historical NotesSPAS-01 matchbook owned by Jay Apt. During Shuttle mission STS-7, Jay Apt served as the orbit 1 shift Payload Systems officer in the JSC Mission Control Center (MCC) Multi-Purpose Support Room (MPSR) supporting the orbit 1 shift Payloads Officer, James Gauthier. It was Apt’s second mission in MCC after coming to JSC in October 1982. These matchbooks were a gift from the German team responsible for the Shuttle pallet satellite (SPAS). After operating in payload bay, SPAS was deployed by Dr. Sally Ride operating the remote manipulator system (RMS) and flew near the Shuttle until the crew maneuvered the Shuttle close to SPAS and retrieved it with the RMS. Apt felt it was ironic that the SPAS team at Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) gave matches as a preflight gift, since SPAS suffered a thermal issue in flight. Noticing that the temperature of the SPAS control computer was rising while in the payload bay after being powered on, Apt and Rockwell Collins engineer Graham W. Collins began graphing the temperature as a function of time. They showed the hand-drawn graph via closed-circuit television to Payloads Officer James Gauthier and discussed it on the Payloads flight controller communications loop. The lead flight director, Tommy W. Holloway, joined the discussion and asked for Payloads recommendation as to whether SPAS was safe to deploy. Apt and Collins recommended to Gauthier that, since the temperature vs. time curve was leveling off, the computer’s temperature should remain within limits. On that basis, Holloway ordered that the satellite be deployed. While deployed, SPAS took the first photograph of the Shuttle in orbit, SPAS also took photographs of locations on Earth; targeting for those photos was enabled by a ground-track program Apt wrote and ran on an HP 9825/9862A desktop calculator/plotter in the MPSR.
Previous owner
Dr. Jerome Apt III
Related institution
Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm
Related person
Graham W. Collins
Related person
Tommy W. Holloway
Related person
James Gauthier
Related person
Dr. Sally K. Ride
Related institution
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
On View
Not on view
1983
1983
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