1990 American crewed spaceflight for the Department of Defense
STS-36
|
Names
| Space Transportation System
-36
STS-36
|
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|
Mission type
| DoD satellite deployment
|
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Operator
| NASA
|
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COSPAR ID
| 1990-019A
|
---|
SATCAT
no.
| 20512
|
---|
Mission duration
| 4
days, 10
hours, 18
minutes, 22
seconds (achieved)
|
---|
Distance travelled
| 2,957,913 km (1,837,962 mi)
|
---|
Orbits completed
| 72
|
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|
|
|
Spacecraft
| Space Shuttle
Atlantis
|
---|
Launch mass
| Classified
|
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Landing mass
| 84,900 kg (187,200 lb)
|
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Payload mass
| 19,600 kg (43,200 lb)
|
---|
|
|
|
Crew size
| 5
|
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Members
| |
---|
|
|
|
Launch date
| February 28, 1990, 07:50:22
UTC
|
---|
Rocket
| Space Shuttle
Atlantis
|
---|
Launch site
| Kennedy Space Center
,
LC-39A
|
---|
Contractor
| Rockwell International
|
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|
|
|
Landing date
| March 4, 1990, 18:08:44
UTC
|
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Landing site
| Edwards Air Force Base
,
Runway 23
|
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|
|
|
Reference system
| Geocentric orbit
|
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Regime
| Low Earth orbit
|
---|
Perigee altitude
| 198 km (123 mi)
|
---|
Apogee altitude
| 204 km (127 mi)
|
---|
Inclination
| 62.00°
|
---|
Period
| 88.50 minutes
|
---|
|
|
In-flight Radiation Dose Distribution (IDRD)
|
STS-36 mission patch
Pierre J. Thuot
,
John Casper
,
John Oliver Creighton
,
Mike Mullane
,
David C. Hilmers
|
STS-36
was a
NASA
Space Shuttle
mission, during which
Space Shuttle
Atlantis
carried a classified payload for the
U.S. Department of Defense
(DoD) (believed to have been a
Misty
reconnaissance satellite
) into orbit. STS-36 was the 34th shuttle mission overall, the sixth flight for
Atlantis
, and the fourth night launch of the shuttle program. It launched from
Kennedy Space Center
,
Florida
, on February 28, 1990, and landed on March 4, 1990.
Crew
[
edit
]
Crew seating arrangements
[
edit
]
Seat
[1]
|
Launch
|
Landing
|
Seats 1?4 are on the Flight Deck. Seats 5?7 are on the Middeck.
|
S1
|
Creighton
|
Creighton
|
S2
|
Casper
|
Casper
|
S3
|
Thuot
|
Mullane
|
S4
|
Hilmers
|
Hilmers
|
S5
|
Mullane
|
Thuot
|
Mission summary
[
edit
]
Atlantis
launched on the STS-36 mission on February 28, 1990, at 2:50:22
EST
. The launch was originally set for February 22, 1990, but was postponed repeatedly due to the illness of the crew commander and poor weather conditions. This was the first time since
Apollo 13
in 1970 that a crewed space mission was affected by the illness of a crew member. The first rescheduled launch attempt, set for February 25, 1990, was scrubbed due to a range safety computer malfunction. Another attempt, set for February 26, 1990, was scrubbed due to weather conditions. The successful launch on February 28, 1990, was set for a classified launch window, lying within a launch period extending from 00:00 to 04:00 EST. The launch weight for this mission was classified.
The launch trajectory was unique to this flight, and allowed the mission to reach an
orbital inclination
of 62.00°, the deployment orbit of its payload ? the normal maximum inclination for a shuttle flight was 57.00°. This so-called "
dog-leg
" trajectory saw
Atlantis
fly downrange on a normal launch
azimuth
, and then maneuver to a higher launch azimuth once out over the water. Although the maneuver resulted in a reduction of vehicle performance, it was the only way to reach the required deployment orbit from
Kennedy Space Center
(originally, the flight had been slated to launch from
Vandenberg Air Force Base
in
California
, until the shuttle launch facilities there were
mothballed
in 1989). Flight rules that prohibited overflight of land were suspended, with the trajectory taking the vehicle over or near
Cape Hatteras
,
Cape Cod
, and parts of
Canada
. The payload was considered to be of importance to national security, hence the suspension of normal flight rules.
As a Department of Defense operation, STS-36's payload remains officially
classified
. STS-36 launched a single satellite,
[2]
also described as
AFP-731
. Other objects (1990-019C-G) reportedly appeared in orbit following its deployment.
It was reported that USA-53 was an
Advanced KH-11
photo-reconnaissance satellite, using an all-digital imaging system to return pictures. KH-11 satellites are believed to resemble the
Hubble Space Telescope
in size and shape, as the satellites were shipped in similar containers, and had comparable primary mirror diameters.
[3]
USA-53, nicknamed
"Misty"
, was tracked briefly by
amateur satellite observers
in October and November 1990.
[4]
The mission marked another flight of an 5 kg (11 lb)
human skull
, which served as the primary element of "Detailed Secondary Objective 469", also known as the In-flight Radiation Dose Distribution (IDRD) experiment. This joint NASA/DoD experiment was designed to examine the penetration of
radiation
into the human cranium during spaceflight. The female skull was seated in a plastic matrix, representative of tissue, and sliced into ten layers. Hundreds of thermo-luminescent
dosimeters
were mounted in the skull's layers to record radiation levels at multiple depths. This experiment, which also flew on
STS-28
and
STS-31
, was located in the shuttle's mid-deck lockers on all three flights, recording radiation levels at different orbital inclinations.
[5]
Atlantis
landed at 10:08:04
PST
on March 4, 1990, at
Edwards Air Force Base
,
California
, on runway 23 ending the STS-36. The orbiter's rollout distance was 2.41 km (1.50 mi).
[6]
Atlantis
was towed to the
Mate-Demate Device
by around 15:00 PST.
About 62 impacts in the shuttle's
Thermal Protection System
(TPS) tiles were counted by the debris team after the mission. Tile engineers reported that only one tile required replacement. The brakes and tires performed nominally. Drops of hydraulic fluid were observed in the right main landing gear wheel well, the
liquid hydrogen
43 cm (17 in) disconnect cavity and possibly around two of the main engines.
Mission insignia
[
edit
]
The thirty-six stars on the insignia symbolize the flight's numerical designation in the
Space Transportation System
's mission sequence; the stars also form part of a stylized
American flag
, forming the background to an image of a
bald eagle
, the American
national bird
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"STS-36"
. Spacefacts
. Retrieved
February 26,
2014
.
- ^
"AFP-675 (1990-019B)"
. NASA. January 7, 2022
. Retrieved
February 6,
2022
.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
.
- ^
"Chapter XII ? The Hubble Space Telescope"
(PDF)
. June 12, 2003. p. 483. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on June 12, 2003
. Retrieved
February 6,
2022
.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
.
- ^
"The Saga of USA 53 - Found, Lost, Found Again and Lost Again"
. FAS.org
. Retrieved
July 3,
2011
.
- ^
Macknight, Nigel, Space Year 1991, p. 41
ISBN
0-87938-482-4
- ^
Dumoulin, Jim.
"STS-36"
. NASA. Archived from
the original
on May 15, 2021
. Retrieved
July 3,
2011
.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
.
External links
[
edit
]
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Completed flights
| | |
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Status
| |
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On display
| |
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|
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Completed
(crews)
| 1970s
| |
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1980s
|
- 1981
- 1982
- 1983
- 1984
- 1985
- 1986
- 1988
- 1989
|
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1990s
|
- 1990
- 1991
- 1992
- 1993
- 1994
- 1995
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
- 1999
|
---|
2000s
|
- 2000
- 2001
- 2002
- 2003
- 2005
- 2006
- 2007
- 2008
- 2009
|
---|
2010s
| |
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|
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Cancelled
| |
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Orbiters
| |
---|
- †
indicates failure missions.
|
|
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January
| |
---|
February
| |
---|
March
| |
---|
April
|
- Ofek-2
- Unnamed
- Pegsat
,
USA-55
- Kosmos 2064
,
Kosmos 2065
,
Kosmos 2066
,
Kosmos 2067
,
Kosmos 2068
,
Kosmos 2069
,
Kosmos 2070
,
Kosmos 2071
- AsiaSat 1
- USA-56
,
USA-57
,
USA-58
- Foton No.6L
- Kosmos 2072
- Palapa B2R
- Kosmos 2073
- Kosmos 2074
- STS-31
(
Hubble
)
- Kosmos 2075
- Molniya-1 No.71
- Kosmos 2076
|
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May
| |
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June
| |
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July
| |
---|
August
| |
---|
September
| |
---|
October
| |
---|
November
| |
---|
December
| |
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Launches are separated by dots ( ? ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ).
Crewed flights
are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
|