STS-28 was the 30th

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

mission, the fourth shuttle mission dedicated to

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

(DoD) purposes, and the eighth flight of Space Shuttle ''Columbia''. The mission launched on August 8, 1989, and traveled during 81 orbits of the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

, before landing on runway 17 of

Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County and a southern arm is in Los Angeles County. The hub of the base is E ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, on August 13, 1989. STS-28 was also ''Columbia''s first flight since January 1986, when it had flown STS-61-C, the mission directly preceding the ''Challenger'' disaster of

STS-51-L STS-51-L was the 25th mission of the NASA Space Shuttle program and the final flight of Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. Planned as the first Teacher in Space Project flight in addition to observing Halley's Comet for six days and performing a ...

. The mission details of STS-28 are classified, but the payload is widely believed to have been the first

SDS-2 The Satellite Data System (SDS) is a system of United States military communications satellites. At least three generations have been used: SDS-1 from 1976 to 1987; SDS-2 from 1989 to 1996; SDS-3 from 1998 to the present. It is believed that ...

relay

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. C ...

. The altitude of the mission was between and . The mission was officially designated STS-28R as the original STS-28 designator belonged to

STS-51-J STS-51-J was the 21st NASA Space Shuttle mission and the first flight of Space Shuttle ''Atlantis''. It launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on October 3, 1985, carrying a payload for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and landed a ...

, the 21st Space Shuttle mission. Official documentation for that mission contained the designator STS-28 throughout. As

was designated STS-33, future flights with the

STS-26 STS-26 was the 26th NASA Space Shuttle mission and the seventh flight of the orbiter ''Discovery''. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on September 29, 1988, and landed four days later on October 3, 1988. STS-26 was decla ...

through

STS-33 STS-33 was a NASA Space Shuttle program, Space Shuttle mission, during which Space Shuttle Discovery, Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' deployed a payload for the United States Department of Defense (DoD). It was the 32nd shuttle mission overall, the ...

designators would require the R in their documentation to avoid conflicts in tracking data from one mission to another.

Crew

Crew seating arrangements

Mission summary

Space Shuttle Columbia lands following STS-28 in 1989

Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' (OV-102) lifted off from Pad 39B, Launch Complex 39 at

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, on August 8, 1989. The launch took place at 8:37:00 a.m. EDT. During STS-28, ''Columbia'' deployed two satellites: USA-40 and USA-41. Early reports speculated that STS-28's primary payload was an Advanced KH-11 photo-reconnaissance satellite. Later reports, and amateur satellite observations, suggest that USA-40 was instead a second-generation

Satellite Data System The Satellite Data System (SDS) is a system of United States military communications satellites. At least three generations have been used: SDS-1 from 1976 to 1987; SDS-2 from 1989 to 1996; SDS-3 from 1998 to the present. It is believed that ...

(SDS) relay, similar to those likely launched on

STS-38 STS-38 was a Space Shuttle mission by NASA using the Space Shuttle ''Atlantis''. It was the 37th shuttle mission, and carried a classified payload for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). It was the seventh flight for ''Atlantis'' and the se ...

and STS-53. These satellites had the same bus design as the LEASAT satellites deployed on other shuttle missions, and were likely deployed in the same fashion. The mission marked the first flight of a

human skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...

, which served as the primary element of "Detailed Secondary Objective 469", also known as the In-flight Radiation Dose Distribution (IDRD) experiment. This joint NASA/DoD experiment was designed to examine the penetration of

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...

into the human cranium during spaceflight. The female skull was seated in a plastic matrix, representative of tissue, and sliced into ten layers. Hundreds of

thermoluminescent Thermoluminescence is a form of luminescence that is exhibited by certain crystalline materials, such as some minerals, when previously absorbed energy from electromagnetic radiation or other ionizing radiation is re-emitted as light upon hea ...

dosimeters A radiation dosimeter is a device that measures dose uptake of external ionizing radiation. It is worn by the person being monitored when used as a personal dosimeter, and is a record of the radiation dose received. Modern electronic personal dos ...

were mounted in the skull's layers to record radiation levels at multiple depths. This experiment, which also flew on STS-36 and

STS-31 STS-31 was the 35th mission of the NASA Space Shuttle program. The primary purpose of this mission was the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) into low Earth orbit. The mission used the Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' (the tenth missio ...

, was located in the shuttle's mid-deck lockers on all three flights, recording radiation levels at different

orbital inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Earth ...

s. During the flight, the crew shut down a thruster in the

reaction control system A reaction control system (RCS) is a spacecraft system that uses thrusters to provide attitude control and translation. Alternatively, reaction wheels are used for attitude control. Use of diverted engine thrust to provide stable attitude contr ...

(RCS) after receiving indications of a leak. An RCS heater also malfunctioned during the flight. Post-flight analysis of STS-28 discovered unusual heating of the

thermal protection system Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the entr ...

(TPS) during re-entry, caused by an early transition to turbulent

plasma Plasma or plasm may refer to: Science * Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter * Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral * Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics Biology * Blood pla ...

flow around the vehicle. A detailed report identified protruding gap filler as the likely cause. This filler material was the same material that was removed during a

spacewalk Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmen ...

during

STS-114 STS-114 was the first "Return to Flight" Space Shuttle mission following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster. Space Shuttle Discovery, ''Discovery'' launched at 10:39 Eastern Time Zone, EDT (14:39 Coordinated ...

, the Space Shuttle's post- ''Columbia'' disaster Return to Flight mission, in 2005. The Shuttle Lee-side Temperature Sensing (SILTS)

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

camera package made its second flight aboard ''Columbia'' on this mission. The cylindrical pod and surrounding black tiles on the orbiter's vertical stabilizer housed an imaging system, designed to map thermodynamic conditions during reentry, on the surfaces visible from the top of the tail fin. Ironically, the camera faced the port wing of ''Columbia'', which was breached by superheated plasma on its disastrous final flight, destroying the wing and, later, the orbiter. The SILTS system was used for only six missions before being deactivated, but the pod remained for the duration of ''Columbia''s career.Shuttle Infrared Leeside Temperature Sensing
/ref> ''Columbia's'' thermal protection system was also upgraded to a similar configuration as ''Discovery'' and ''Atlantis'' in between the loss of ''Challenger'' and STS-28, with many of the white LRSI tiles replaced with felt insulation blankets in order to reduce weight and turnaround time. One other minor modification that debuted on STS-28 was the move of ''Columbia's'' name from its payload bay doors to the fuselage, allowing the orbiter to be easily recognized while in orbit. ''Columbia'' landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, at 9:37:08 a.m. EDT on August 13, 1989, after a mission lasting 5 days, 1 hour, 0 minutes, and 8 seconds.

Gallery

References

External links