The shuttle pallet satellite was a satellite bus designed to be deployed and then retrieved for return to Earth on NASA's

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 ...

. It carried a variety of payloads both scientific and military in nature. It was made by Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm and first flew in 1983. It was carried for the first time during the

STS-7 STS-7 was NASA's seventh Space Shuttle mission, and the second mission for the Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. During the mission, ''Challenger'' deployed several satellites into orbit. The shuttle launched from Kennedy Space Center on June 18, ...

mission and called SPAS-01 carrying 10 payloads. It flew again on the

STS-39 STS-39 was the twelfth mission of the NASA Space Shuttle ''Discovery'', and the 40th orbital shuttle mission overall. The primary purpose of the mission was to conduct a variety of payload experiments for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). ...

mission in 1991 called IBSS-SPAS (Infrared Background Signature Survey – Shuttle Palette Satellite) for the DOD testing various ballistic missile detection sensors. SPAS flew for the third time with the STS-51 mission in 1991 called ORFEUS-SPAS (Orbiting & Retrievable Far & Extreme UV Spectrometer – Shuttle Palette Satellite) with ultraviolet instruments. ORFEUS-SPAS was flown again on the

STS-80 STS-80 was a Space Shuttle mission flown by Space Shuttle ''Columbia''. The launch was originally scheduled for 31 October 1996, but was delayed to 19 November for several reasons. Likewise, the landing, which was originally scheduled for 5 Dec ...

mission. SPAS was flown for the second to last time with the CRISTA-SPAS (Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers & Telescopes for the Atmosphere – Shuttle Palette Satellite) payload on

STS-66 STS-66 was a Space Shuttle program mission that was flown by the Space Shuttle ''Atlantis''. STS-66 launched on 3 November 1994 at 11:59:43.060 am EDT from Launch Pad 39-B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. ''Atlantis'' landed at Edwards Air Force ...

in 1994 mounting several infrared sensors looking at the Earths atmosphere, and that payload flew again on

STS-85 STS-85 was a Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' mission to perform multiple space science packages. It was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 7 August 1997. A major experiment was the CRISTA-SPAS free-flyer which had various telescopes on ...

in 1997.

Gallery

File:ORFEUS-SPAS-2.jpg, ORFEUS-SPAS II after being deployed from ''Columbia'' on STS-80 File:STS-7_SPAS-1.jpg, The first SPAS on the RMS of ''Challenger'' during the STS-7 mission File:STS-39_SPAS-II.jpg, IBSS-SPAS after being deployed from ''Discovery''s payload bay during the STS-39 mission File:CRISTA-SPAS-1.jpg, CRISTA-SPAS 1 on ''Atlantis'' RMS before release on the STS-66 mission

References

Satellites by type {{space-stub