STS-62-A was a planned

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mission to deliver a reconnaissance payload (Teal Ruby) into

polar orbit A polar orbit is one in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited (usually a planet such as the Earth, but possibly another body such as the Moon or Sun) on each revolution. It has an inclination of about ...

. It was expected to use ''Discovery''. It would have been the first crewed launch from

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California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, and the first crewed mission to go into polar orbit. The mission designation, STS-62-A, meant: 6=fiscal year 1986, 2=Vandenberg (1=

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), and A=first flight in that fiscal year.

Crew

Post-''Challenger'' accident

The

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of ''Challenger'' and subsequent halt of the

Space Shuttle program The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. I ...

led to the cancellation of the mission. Guy Gardner, Jerry Ross, and Mike Mullane were members of the second post-''Challenger'' mission STS-27 — a classified mission for the DoD — during which the Lacrosse-1 radar reconnaissance spacecraft was allegedly deployed..

References

External links

STS-62-A mission patch draft designs

Article on the Teal Ruby satellite that would have been STS-62-A's payload

National Museum of the United States Air Force page on Teal Ruby
{{All U.S. Space Shuttle Missions Cancelled Space Shuttle missions 1986 in spaceflight