STS-33

STS-33

COSPAR ID	1989-090A
SATCAT no.	20329
End of mission

STS-33 was the fifth space shuttle mission for the Department of Defense. Due to the nature of this mission, specific details are classified. The Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, KSC, on November 22, 1989 at 7:23 p.m. EST.

Crew

Position	Astronaut
Commander	Frederick D. Gregory Second spaceflight
Pilot	John E. Blaha Second spaceflight
Mission Specialist 1	F. Story Musgrave Third spaceflight
Mission Specialist 2	Manley L Carter, Jr. First spaceflight
Mission Specialist 3	Kathryn C. Thornton First spaceflight

Crew Notes

S. David Griggs, the originally scheduled pilot for this mission, died in a plane crash 5 months prior to the shuttle launch.

Mission parameters

• Mass:
  • Payload: Magnum ELINT satellite ~ 3,000 kilograms (6,600 lb)
  • Booster: IUS upper stage ~ 18,000 kilograms (40,000 lb)
• Perigee: 207 kilometres (129 mi)
• Apogee: 214 kilometres (133 mi)
• Inclination: 28.5°
• Period: 88.7 min

Mission highlights

Launch of STS-33 was originally scheduled for 20 November, but was delayed because of suspect integrated electronics assemblies which control ignition and separation of the Shuttle's solid rocket boosters. It was the ninth flight of Discovery and the 32nd Space Shuttle mission. STS-33 was the third night launch of the Space Shuttle program, and the first since Shuttle flights resumed in 1988. Landing was scheduled Nov. 26, but was postponed for a day because of strong winds at the landing site.

Liftoff

Discovery deployed a single satellite, USA-48 (NSSDC ID 1989-090B). According to Aviation Week, this was a secret Magnum ELINT (ELectronic INTtelligence) gathering satellite headed for geosynchronous orbit, like that launched by STS-51-C, making this mission essentially a duplicate of the earlier flight.

Also according to Aviation Week, the shuttle initially enters a 204 kilometres (127 mi) x 519 kilometres (322 mi) orbit at an inclination of 28.45 deg to the equator. It then executes three OMS (orbital manoeuvering system) burns, the last on orbit #4. The first burn is to circularize the orbit at 519 kilometres (322 mi).

The satellite was deployed on the 7th orbit and then ignited its rocket motor at the ascending node of the 8th, to place it in a geosynchronous transfer orbit.The classified payload was deployed successfully and boosted into its operating orbit by the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) booster according to an Air Force announcement. This was the 8th IUS launched aboard the shuttle and the seventh deployed.

Discovery landed on a concrete runway at Edwards AFB, CA, on November 27 at 7:30 p.m. EST, after a mission duration of 5 days, 0 hours and 6 minutes.

Note: STS-33 was the original designation for the mission that became STS-51-L, Challenger’s last flight that ended in tragedy. After the disaster, NASA recycled the numbering system back to STS-26, which was the 26th shuttle mission and first after Challenger. There is no connection between Challenger’s STS-33 and this STS-33R.S. David Griggs, a veteran of STS 51-D, was to have been the pilot of this mission. He was killed in the crash of a vintage WWII aircraft in June 1989 while training to serve as pilot on STS-33, and is commemorated on the mission insignia with a single gold star on the blue field [1]. He was replaced by John Blaha. Sonny Carter, a Mission Specialist on this flight, was killed in a commercial plane crash on April 5, 1991 [2] while training to fly on STS-42.

Gallery

• 
  Launch
• 
  Rare view of Discovery's tail from STS-33.
• 
  Wing and horizon.
• 
  STS-28 Robbins Medallion

See also

• Space science
• Space shuttle
• List of space shuttle missions
• List of human spaceflights chronologically

External links

• NASA mission summary
• STS-33 Video Highlights