STS-27

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STS-27
COSPAR ID1988-106A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.19670Edit this on Wikidata
End of mission
 

STS-27 was a space shuttle mission by NASA using the Space Shuttle Atlantis. It was the 27th shuttle mission, and the 3rd for Atlantis, 2nd after the Challenger disaster. It carried a payload for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Crew

(total flights to date in parentheses)

Mission parameters

Mission highlights

Atlantis launches on STS-27.
Damaged tiles are clearly visible at touchdown.
The mouths of the Ganges seen from Atlantis.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis (OV-104), at the time the youngest in NASA's fleet, made its third flight in a classified mission for the Department of Defense(DoD). It deployed a single satellite, USA-34, which is widely believed to be the first of the Lacrosse radar imaging satellites.

It was the 27th Space Shuttle mission. Launch was originally scheduled Dec. 1, but was postponed one day because of cloud cover and strong wind conditions. Liftoff from Pad B, Launch Complex 39, KSC, on Dec. 2 was at 9:30 a.m. EST. The Orbiter Atlantis touched down Dec. 6 at Runway 17, Edwards AFB, CA, at 6:35 p.m. EST. The total mission elapsed time (wheels stop) was 4 days, 9 hours and 6 minutes.

There has been speculation that an EVA (spacewalk) was performed during this mission. Post-flight interviews with members of the crew (several years later) indicated a problem with the satellite upon release, whereupon a rendezvous with the satellite was effected and repairs performed. If this is true, it would have necessitated a spacewalk, likely performed by Ross and Shepherd. As a classified DoD mission, details or confirmation of such an EVA remain unreleased.

The orbiter's Thermal Protection System tiles sustained unusually severe damage during the flight. A review panel investigation found that the most probable cause was ablative insulating material from the right-hand solid rocket booster nose cap hitting the orbiter about 85 seconds into the flight as seen in footage of the ascent. The crew made an inspection of the vehicle's impacted starboard side using the RMS, but the limited resolution and range of the cameras made it impossible to determine the full extent of the tile damage. This was compounded by the fact that the crew was prohibited from using their standard method of sending images due to the classified nature of the mission. The crew was forced to use an encrypted method of sending images. It's believed that this caused the images NASA received to be of poor quality, causing them to think the damage was actually "just lights and shadows". They told the crew the damage didn't look any more severe than on past missions.[1] One report describes the crew as "infuriated" that mission control seemed unconcerned.[2] Commander Gibson said in an interview he didn't think the shuttle would survive reentry, even after being told by NASA "The damage isn't that severe." Upon landing, over 700 damaged tiles were noted, and one tile was missing. Fortunately, the tile was located over the dense aluminum mounting plate for the L-band antenna, perhaps preventing a burn-through of the sort that doomed Columbia in 2003. STS-27 may qualify as one of the program's "near misses".

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ William Harwood (March 27, 2009). "Legendary commander tells story of shuttle's close call". Spaceflight Now. Written for CBS news Space Place.
  2. ^ http://www.astronautix.com/flights/sts27.htm

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=STS-27&oldid=282731699"