STS-45

STS-45

Operator	NASA
Mission duration	8 days, 22 hours, 9 minutes, 28 seconds
Distance travelled	5,211,340 kilometres (3,238,180 mi)
Orbits completed	143
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Space Shuttle Atlantis
Landing mass	93,009 kilograms (205,050 lb)
Payload mass	9,947 kilograms (21,930 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date	24 March 1992, 13:13 (1992-03-24UTC13:13Z) UTC
Launch site	Kennedy LC-39A
End of mission
Landing date	2 April 1992, 11:23 (1992-04-02UTC11:24Z) UTC
Landing site	Kennedy SLF Runway 33
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Perigee	282 kilometres (175 mi)
Apogee	294 kilometres (183 mi)
Inclination	57.0 degrees
Period	90.3 min
Space Shuttle program ← STS-42 STS-49 →

STS-45 was a 1992 spaceflight using Space Shuttle Atlantis. Its almost nine day scientific mission was with a non-deployable payload of instruments.

Crew

Position	Astronaut
Commander	Charles F. Bolden, Jr. Third spaceflight
Pilot	Brian Duffy First spaceflight
Mission Specialist 1	Kathryn D. Sullivan Third spaceflight Payload Commander
Mission Specialist 2	David C. Leestma Third spaceflight
Mission Specialist 3	Michael Foale First spaceflight
Payload Specialist 1	Dirk Frimout, ESA First spaceflight
Payload Specialist 2	Byron K. Lichtenberg Second spaceflight

Backup Crew

Position	Astronaut
Payload Specialist 1	Michael Lampton First spaceflight
Payload Specialist 2	Charles R. Chappell First spaceflight

Mission highlights

View of Atlantis's payload bay

Space Shuttle Atlantis lands at the conclusion of STS-45 mission.

Launch: 24 March 1992, 8:13 am EST. Launch originally scheduled for 23 March, but was delayed one day because of higher-than-allowable concentrations of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in the orbiter's aft compartment during tanking operations. During troubleshooting, the leaks could not be reproduced, leading engineers to believe that they were the result of plumbing in the main propulsion system not thermally conditioned to the supercold propellants. Launch was rescheduled for 24 March. Launch weight: 105,982 kilograms (233,650 lb).

Carried first Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS-1) on Spacelab pallets mounted in orbiter's cargo bay. The non-deployable payload, equipped with 12 instruments from the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Japan, conducted studies in atmospheric chemistry, solar radiation, space plasma physics and ultraviolet astronomy. ATLAS-1 instruments were: Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy (ATMOS); Grille Spectrometer; Millimeter Wave Atmospheric Sounder (MAS); Imaging Spectrometric Observatory (ISO); Atmospheric Lyman-Alpha Emissions (ALAE); Atmospheric Emissions Photometric Imager (AEPI); Space Experiments with Particle Accelerators (SEPAC); Active Cavity Radiometer (ACR); Measurement of Solar Constant (SOLCON); Solar Spectrum (SOLSPEC); Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SUSIM); and Far Ultraviolet Space Telescope (FAUST). Other payloads included Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SSBUV) experiment, one Get Away Special (GAS) experiment and six mid-deck experiments.

Landing: 2 April 1992, 6:23 am EST, Runway 33, Kennedy Space Center. Rollout distance 2,812 metres (9,226 ft). Mission extended one day to continue science experiments. Landing Weight: 93,005 kilograms (205,040 lb).

See also

• Space science
• Space shuttle
• List of space shuttle missions
• List of human spaceflights chronologically
• Nikon NASA F4

Sources

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

• NASA mission summary

External links

• STS-45 Video Highlights