STS-27
1988 near-disastrous American crewed spaceflight to deploy Lacrosse 1 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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STS-27 was the 27th NASA Space Shuttle mission, and the third flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis. Launching on December 2, 1988, on a four-day mission, it was the second shuttle flight after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of January 1986. STS-27 carried a classified payload for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), ultimately determined to be a Lacrosse surveillance satellite. The vessel's heat shielding was substantially damaged during lift-off, and crew members thought that they would die during reentry.[1][2] This was a situation that was similar to the one that would prove fatal 15 years later on STS-107. Compared to the damage that Columbia sustained on STS-107, Atlantis experienced more extensive damage. However, this was over less critical areas and the missing tile was over an antenna which gave extra protection to the spacecraft structure (and not part of a wing as cited initially). The mission landed successfully, although intense heat damage needed to be repaired.
Names | Space Transportation System-27 STS-27R |
---|---|
Mission type | DoD satellite deployment |
Operator | NASA |
COSPAR ID | 1988-106A |
SATCAT no. | 19670 |
Mission duration | 4 days, 9 hours, 5 minutes, 37 seconds (achieved) |
Distance travelled | 2,916,252 km (1,812,075 mi) |
Orbits completed | 68 |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Atlantis |
Landing mass | 86,616 kg (190,956 lb) |
Payload mass | 14,500 kg (32,000 lb) |
Crew | |
Crew size | 5 |
Members | |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | December 2, 1988, 14:30:34 UTC |
Rocket | Space Shuttle Atlantis |
Launch site | Kennedy Space Center, LC-39B |
Contractor | Rockwell International |
End of mission | |
Landing date | December 6, 1988, 23:36:11 UTC |
Landing site | Edwards Air Force Base, Runway 17 |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric orbit |
Regime | Low Earth orbit |
Perigee altitude | 437 km (272 mi) |
Apogee altitude | 447 km (278 mi) |
Inclination | 57.00° |
Period | 93.40 minutes |
STS-27 mission patch Back row: William M. Shepherd, Richard M. Mullane Front row: Guy S. Gardner, Robert L. Gibson, Jerry L. Ross |
The mission is technically designated STS-27R, as the original STS-27 designator belonged to STS-51-I, the twentieth Space Shuttle mission. Official documentation for that mission contained the designator STS-27 throughout. As STS-51-L was designated STS-33, future flights with the STS-26 through STS-33 designators would require the R in their documentation to avoid conflicts in tracking data from one mission to another.[3]