The STS-77 Space Shuttle Program Mission Report summarizes the Payload activities as well as the: Orbiter, External Tank (ET), Solid Rocket Booster (SRB), Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM), and the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) systems performance during the seventy-seventh flight of the Space Shuttle Program, the fifty-second flight since the return-to-flight, and the eleventh flight of the Orbiter Endeavour (OV-105). STS-77 was also the last flight of OV-105 prior to the vehicle being placed in the Orbiter Maintenance Down Period (OMDP). In addition to the Orbiter, the flight vehicle consisted of an ET that was designated ET-78; three SSME's that were designated as serial numbers 2037, 2040, and 2038 in positions 1, 2, and 3, respectively; and two SRB's that were designated BI-080. The RSRM's, designated RSRM-47, were installed in each SRB and the individual RSRM's were designated as 360TO47A for the left SRB, and 360TO47B for the right SRB. The STS-77 Space Shuttle Program Mission Report fulfills the Space Shuttle Program requirement as documented in NSTS 07700, Volume VII, Appendix E. The requirement stated in that document is that each organizational element supporting the Program will report the results of their hardware (and software) evaluation and mission performance plus identify all related in-flight anomalies. The primary objectives of this flight were to successfully perform the operations necessary to fulfill the requirements of Spacehab-4, the SPARTAN 207/inflatable Antenna Experiment (IAE), and the Technology Experiments Advancing Missions in Space (TEAMS) payload. Secondary objectives of this flight were to perform the experiments of the Aquatic Research Facility (ARF), Brilliant Eyes Ten-Kelvin Sorption Cryocooler Experiment (BETSCE), Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC), Get-Away-Special (GAS), and GAS Bridge Assembly (GBA). The STS-77 mission was planned as a 9-day flight plus 1 day, plus 2 contingency days, which were available for weathe...

NASAによるこの報告書は、単なる技術記録の枠を超えた「事実の文学」としての凄みを放っています。一切の虚飾を排した硬質な文体は、広大な宇宙という極限状態に挑む人類の知性と執念を、冷徹なまでに克明に描き出しています。シリアルナンバーの一つひとつに刻まれた精密なリアリズムは、フィクションでは決して到達し得ない、実存の重みと圧倒的な説得力を読者に突きつけます。 本作の真の魅力は、数多の実験や機体各所の挙動が織り成す「組織の意志」にあります。エンデバー号が宇宙という深淵で繰り広げる高度な技術的営みは、未知への探求という普遍的なテーマを象徴しており、そこには理知的な美しさが宿っています。冷徹なデータが積み重なるほどに、その裏側にある熱き開拓者精神が浮かび上がり、読む者の魂を静かに、しかし激しく揺さぶるのです。