STS-36 was a

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, during which Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' carried a classified payload for the

U.S. 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 secur ...

(DoD) (believed to have been a

Misty Misty may refer to: Music * ''Misty'' (Ray Stevens album), an album by Ray Stevens featuring the above song * ''Misty'' (Richard "Groove" Holmes album), an album by Richard "Groove" Holmes featuring the above song * ''Misty'' (Eddie "Lockjaw" ...

reconnaissance satellite A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. The ...

) into orbit. STS-36 was the 34th shuttle mission overall, the sixth flight for ''Atlantis'', and the fourth night launch of the shuttle program. It launched from

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 February 28, 1990, and landed on March 4, 1990.

Crew

Crew seating arrangements

Mission summary

''Atlantis'' launched on the STS-36 mission on February 28, 1990, at 2:50:22 EST. The launch was originally set for February 22, 1990, but was postponed repeatedly due to the illness of the crew commander and poor weather conditions. This was the first time since

Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted aft ...

in 1970 that a crewed space mission was affected by the illness of a crew member. The first rescheduled launch attempt, set for February 25, 1990, was scrubbed due to a range safety computer malfunction. Another attempt, set for February 26, 1990, was scrubbed due to weather conditions. The successful launch on February 28, 1990, was set for a classified launch window, lying within a launch period extending from 00:00 to 04:00 EST. The launch weight for this mission was classified. The launch trajectory was unique to this flight, and allowed the mission to reach an

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 ...

of 62.00°, the deployment orbit of its payload — the normal maximum inclination for a shuttle flight was 57.00°. This so-called " dog-leg" trajectory saw ''Atlantis'' fly downrange on a normal launch

azimuth An azimuth (; from ar, اَلسُّمُوت, as-sumūt, the directions) is an angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system. More specifically, it is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north. Mathematicall ...

, and then maneuver to a higher launch azimuth once out over the water. Although the maneuver resulted in a reduction of vehicle performance, it was the only way to reach the required deployment orbit from

(originally, the flight had been slated to launch from

Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USS General Harry Taylor (AP-145), USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in K ...

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 ...

, until the shuttle launch facilities there were

mothball Mothballs are small balls of chemical pesticide and deodorant, sometimes used when storing clothing and other materials susceptible to damage from mold or moth larvae (especially clothes moths like ''Tineola bisselliella''). Composition Older ...

ed in 1989). Flight rules that prohibited overflight of land were suspended, with the trajectory taking the vehicle over or near

Cape Hatteras Cape Hatteras is a cape located at a pronounced bend in Hatteras Island, one of the barrier islands of North Carolina. Long stretches of beach, sand dunes, marshes, and maritime forests create a unique environment where wind and waves shape ...

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

, and parts of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The payload was considered to be of importance to national security, hence the suspension of normal flight rules. As a Department of Defense operation, STS-36's payload remains officially classified. STS-36 launched a single satellite, also described as AFP-731. Other objects (1990-019C-G) reportedly appeared in orbit following its deployment. It was reported that USA-53 was an Advanced KH-11 photo-reconnaissance satellite, using an all-digital imaging system to return pictures. KH-11 satellites are believed to resemble the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...

in size and shape, as the satellites were shipped in similar containers, and had comparable primary mirror diameters. USA-53, nicknamed "Misty", was tracked briefly by amateur satellite observers in October and November 1990. The mission marked another flight of an

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 thermo-luminescent

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-28 STS-28 was the 30th NASA Space Shuttle mission, the fourth shuttle mission dedicated to United States Department of Defense (DoD) purposes, and the eighth flight of Space Shuttle ''Columbia''. The mission launched on August 8, 1989, and travel ...

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 inclinations. ''Atlantis'' landed at 10:08:04 PST on March 4, 1990, at

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 ...

, on runway 23 ending the STS-36. The orbiter's rollout distance was . ''Atlantis'' was towed to the Mate-Demate Device by around 15:00 PST. About 62 in the shuttle's

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) tiles were counted by the debris team after the mission. Tile engineers reported that only one tile required replacement. The brakes and tires performed nominally. Drops of hydraulic fluid were observed in the right main landing gear wheel well, the

liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen (LH2 or LH2) is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point of 33 K. However, for it to be in a fully li ...

disconnect cavity and possibly around two of the main engines.

Mission insignia

The thirty-six stars on the insignia symbolize the flight's numerical designation in the

Space Transportation System The Space Transportation System (STS), also known internally to NASA as the Integrated Program Plan (IPP), was a proposed system of reusable crewed space vehicles envisioned in 1969 to support extended operations beyond the Apollo program. ...

's mission sequence; the stars also form part of a stylized

American flag The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the c ...

, forming the background to an image of a

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

, the American

national bird This is a list of national birds, including official birds of overseas territories and other states described as nations. Most species in the list are officially designated. Some species hold only an "unofficial" status. National birds See al ...

References

External links