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1986 In Spaceflight
The year 1986 saw the destruction of Space Shuttle Challenger shortly after lift-off, killing all seven aboard, the first in-flight deaths of American astronauts. This accident followed the successful flight of Space Shuttle Columbia, Columbia just weeks earlier, and dealt a major setback to the U.S. crewed space program, suspending the Shuttle program for 32 months. The year also saw numerous fly-bys of Halley's Comet as well as other successes. Launches , colspan="8", January , - , colspan="8", February , - , colspan="8", March , - , colspan="8", April , - , colspan="8", May , - , colspan="8", August , - , colspan="8", September , - , colspan="8", November , - , colspan="8", December , - Deep space rendezvous EVAs References {{DEFAULTSORT:1986 In Spaceflight 1986 in spaceflight, Spaceflight by year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger, Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 16:39:13Coordinated Universal Time, UTC (11:39:13a.m. Eastern Time Zone, EST, local time at the launch site). It was the first fatal accident involving an List of space programs of the United States, American spacecraft while in flight. The mission, designated STS-51-L, was the 10th flight for the Space Shuttle orbiter, orbiter and the 25th flight of the Space Shuttle fleet. The crew was scheduled to deploy a commercial communications satellite and study Halley's Comet while they were in orbit, in addition to taking schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe into space under the Teacher in Space Project. The latter task resulted in a higher-than-usual media interest in and coverage of the mission; the launch and subsequent disaste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RCA Americom
SES Americom was a major commercial satellite operator of North American geosynchronous satellites based in the United States. The company started as RCA Americom in 1975 before being bought by General Electric in 1986 and then later acquired by SES in 2001. In September 2009, SES Americom and SES New Skies merged into SES World Skies. History RCA American Communications (RCA Americom) was founded in 1975 as an operator of RCA Astro Electronics-built satellites. The company's first satellite; Satcom 1, was launched on 12 December 1975. Satcom 1 was one of the earliest geostationary satellites. Satcom 1 was instrumental in helping early cable TV channels (such as Superstation TBS and CBN) to become initially successful, because these channels distributed their programming to all of the local cable TV headends using the satellite. Additionally, it was the first satellite used by broadcast TV networks in the United States, like American Broadcasting Company (ABC), NBC, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naval Ocean Surveillance System
The Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) is a series of signals-intelligence satellites that have conducted electronic signals intelligence for the U.S. Navy since the early 1970s. The first series of satellites were codenamed "White Cloud" or "PARCAE", while second- and third-generation satellites have used the codenames "Ranger" and "Intruder". The system is operated by the United States Navy, and its main purpose was tactical geolocation of Soviet Navy assets during the Cold War. NOSS involves satellite clusters operating in low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ... to detect radar and other electronic transmissions from ships at sea and locate them using the time difference of arrival technique. Satellites :''* One satellite from ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 3
Space Launch Complex 3 (SLC-3) is a launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base that consists of two separate launch pads. Space Launch Complex 3 East (SLC-3E) was used by the Atlas V launch vehicle before it was decommissioned in August 2021 with the final launch taking place on List of Atlas launches (2020–2029), November 10, 2022, at 09:49, while Space Launch Complex 3 West (SLC-3W) has been demolished. Launches from Vandenberg fly southward, allowing payloads to be placed in high-inclination orbits such as polar orbit, polar or Sun-synchronous orbit, which allow full global coverage on a regular basis and are often used for weather satellite, weather, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, and reconnaissance satellites. These orbits are difficult to reach from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, where launches must fly eastward due to major population centers to both the north and south of Kennedy Space Center. Avoiding these would require hugely inefficient maneuve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vandenberg Air Force Base
Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in Key West, Florida * Vandenberg Space Force Base, a United States military installation with a spaceport * Vandenberg (band), a Dutch hard rock band ** ''Vandenberg'' (album), their 1982 debut album * Vandenberg resolution, a United States Congress resolution passed in 1948 {{disambig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlas H
The Atlas H was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas family of rockets, and was used to launch five clusters of Naval Ocean Surveillance System, NOSS satellites for the US National Reconnaissance Office. Two flights also carried Living Plume Shield (satellite), LiPS satellites, as secondary payloads for the United States Naval Research Laboratory. The Atlas H was a stage and a half rocket, using the enhanced Atlas rocket designed for use as the first stage of the Atlas G rocket, which differed from the Atlas H in having a Centaur (rocket stage), Centaur upper stage. This stage was later reused as the first stage of the Atlas I. In practice, an MSD (rocket stage), MSD upper stage was flown on all five launches. Atlas H could put a payload of 3,630 kg (8,000 lb) into low Earth orbit, or a payload of 2,255 kg (4,971 lb) into a geostationary transfer orbit. Launches The At ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SPARTAN 203
Spartan Halley was a failed NASA space mission to capture the ultraviolet spectrum of comet 1P/Halley for 48 hours. This small satellite was also identified as Spartan 203 (Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy 203) and HCED (Halley's Comet Experiment Deployable). It was one of the payloads of the Space Shuttle Challenger for the STS-51-L mission, which exploded during launch. The principal scientist for the mission was Alan Stern. This autonomous sub-satellite was designed by the University of Colorado. It included two spectrometers that provided an angular resolution of in the ultraviolet band, with wavelengths from . A Nikon camera with an f-number of 3 was to be used to determine the orientation of the instruments. Autonomous navigation was provided by solar sensors, a star tracker, gyroscopes along three axes, and dual interactive microprocessors. The main goal of the package was to measure atomic oxygen plus hydroxyl emission from the comet, which were ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christa McAuliffe
Sharon Christa McAuliffe ( Corrigan; September 2, 1948 – January 28, 1986) was an American teacher and astronaut from Concord, New Hampshire who died on the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' on mission STS-51-L, where she was serving as a payload specialist. McAuliffe received her bachelor's degree in education and history from Framingham State College in 1970 and her master's degree in education, supervision and administration from Bowie State University in 1978. McAuliffe took a teaching position as a social studies teacher at Concord High School in New Hampshire in 1983. In 1985, McAuliffe was selected from more than 11,000 applicants to the NASA Teacher in Space Project and was scheduled to become the first teacher to fly in space. As a member of mission STS-51-L, she was planning to conduct experiments and teach two lessons from ''Challenger''. On January 28, 1986, the shuttle broke apart 1 minute 13 seconds after launch, killing all onboard. After her death, several s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster
The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) was the first solid-propellant rocket to be used for primary propulsion on a vehicle used for human spaceflight. A pair of them provided 85% of the Space Shuttle's thrust at liftoff and for the first two minutes of ascent. After burnout, they were jettisoned, and parachuted into the Atlantic Ocean, where they were recoverable booster, recovered, examined, refurbished, and reusable launch system, reused. The Space Shuttle SRBs were the most powerful solid rocket motors to ever launch humans. The Space Launch System (SLS) SRBs, adapted from the shuttle, surpassed it as the most powerful solid rocket motors ever flown, after the launch of the Artemis 1 mission in 2022. Each Space Shuttle SRB provided a maximum thrust, roughly double the most powerful single-combustion chamber liquid-propellant rocket engine ever flown, the Rocketdyne F-1. With a combined mass of about , they comprised over half the mass of the Shuttle stack at liftoff. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
