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STS-48 was a Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle

NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System , is the spacecraft currently used by the United States government for its human spaceflight missions....
 mission that launched on September 12, 1991, from Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center

The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA space vehicle launch facility and Launch Control Center on Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard County, Florida, United States....
, Florida
Florida

Florida is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the northeast....
. The orbiter was . The primary payload was the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite
Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite is an orbital observatory whose mission is to study the Earth?s atmosphere, particularly the protective ozone layer....
. The mission landed on September 18 at 12:38am at Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base

Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County, California and Los Angeles County, California in the Antelope Valley....
 on runway 22. The mission was completed in 81 revolutions of the earth and traveled 2.2 million miles. The 5 astronauts carried out a number of experiments and deployed several satellites. The total launch weight was 240,062 lbs and the landing weight was 192,780 lbs.



Mission highlights
Launch: September 12, 1991, 7:11:04 p.m.






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Encyclopedia


STS-48 was a Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle

NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System , is the spacecraft currently used by the United States government for its human spaceflight missions....
 mission that launched on September 12, 1991, from Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center

The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA space vehicle launch facility and Launch Control Center on Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard County, Florida, United States....
, Florida
Florida

Florida is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the northeast....
. The orbiter was . The primary payload was the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite
Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite is an orbital observatory whose mission is to study the Earth?s atmosphere, particularly the protective ozone layer....
. The mission landed on September 18 at 12:38am at Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base

Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County, California and Los Angeles County, California in the Antelope Valley....
 on runway 22. The mission was completed in 81 revolutions of the earth and traveled 2.2 million miles. The 5 astronauts carried out a number of experiments and deployed several satellites. The total launch weight was 240,062 lbs and the landing weight was 192,780 lbs.

Crew

  • John O. Creighton (3), Commander
  • Kenneth S. Reightler, Jr.
    Kenneth S. Reightler, Jr.

    Kenneth Stanley Reightler, Jr. was a NASA astronaut.Reightler was born in Patuxent River, Maryland, but considers Virginia Beach, Virginia, to be his hometown....
     (1), Pilot
  • James F. Buchli (4), Mission Specialist 1
  • Charles D. Gemar
    Charles D. Gemar

    Charles Donald "Sam" Gemar is an United States astronaut with NASA and a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army. He served as a pilot in the armed forces....
     (2), Mission Specialist 2
  • Mark N. Brown
    Mark N. Brown

    Mark Neil Brown is a former astronaut with NASA....
     (2), Mission Specialist 3


Mission parameters

  • Mass
    Mass

    In physical science, mass refers to the degree of acceleration a body acquires when subject to a force: bodies with greater mass are accelerated less by the same force....
    :
    • Orbiter landing with payload: 87,321 kg
    • Payload: 7,865 kg
  • Perigee: 575 km
  • Apogee: 580 km
  • Inclination
    Inclination

    Inclination in general is the angle between a reference plane and another plane or Axis_of_rotation of direction. The axial tilt is expressed as the angle made by the planet's axis and a line drawn through the planet's center perpendicular to the orbital plane....
    :     57.0°
  • Period
    Orbital period

    The orbital Periodicity is the time taken for a given object to make one complete orbit about another object.When mentioned without further qualification in astronomy this refers to the sidereal period of an astronomical object, which is calculated with respect to the stars....
    :     96.2 min


Mission highlights


Launch: September 12, 1991, 7:11:04 p.m. EDT. Launch was delayed 14 minutes by a faulty communication link between KSC and Mission Control in Houston. Launch weight was 240,062 lb (108,890 kg).

The primary payload, the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite
Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite is an orbital observatory whose mission is to study the Earth?s atmosphere, particularly the protective ozone layer....
 (UARS), was deployed on the third day of the mission. During its planned 18-month mission, the 14,500-pound observatory was to make the most extensive study ever conducted of the Earth's troposphere, the upper level of the planet's envelope of life-sustaining gases which also include the protective ozone layer. UARS had ten sensing and measuring devices: Cryogenic Limb Array Etalon Spectrometer (CLAES); Improved Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (ISAMS); Microwave Limb Sounder
Microwave Limb Sounder

The Microwave Limb Sounder experiments measure microwave thermal emission from the limb of Earth's upper atmosphere. The data is used to create vertical profiles of atmospheric gases, temperature, pressure, and cloud ice....
 (MLS); Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE); High Resolution Doppler Imager (HRDI); Wind Imaging Interferometer (WlNDII); Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SUSIM); Solar/Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE); Particle Environment Monitor (PEM) and Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (ACRIM II). UARS's initial 18-month mission was extended several times — it was finally retired after 14 years of service.

Secondary payloads were: Ascent Particle Monitor (APM); Middeck 0-Gravity Dynamics Experiment (MODE); Shuttle Activation Monitor (SAM); Cosmic Ray Effects and Activation Monitor (CREAM); Physiological and Anatomical Rodent Experiment (PARE); Protein Crystal Growth II-2 (PCG II-2); Investigations into Polymer Membrane Processing (IPMP); and the Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS) experiment.

Landing: September 18, 1991, 12:38:42 a.m. PDT, Runway 22, Edwards AFB, CA. Rollout distance: 9,513 feet. Rollout time: 50 seconds. Landed scheduled for KSC, but diverted to Edwards due to bad weather. Orbiter returned to KSC September 26, 1991. Landing Weight: 192,780 lb (87,444 kg).

See also

  • Space science
    Space science

    Space science is an all-encompassing term that describes all of the various science fields that are concerned with the study of the Universe, generally also meaning "excluding the Earth" and "outside of the Earth's atmosphere"....
  • List of space shuttle missions
    List of space shuttle missions

    This is a list of missions flown by space shuttles. As of 2009, only the United States has flown human spaceflight Space Shuttle missions in the Space Shuttle program, while the Soviet Union flew one unmanned flight of the Buran ....
  • List of human spaceflights chronologically


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