This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0000504265 Reproduction Date:
Left to right - Front: Bluford, Voss; Back: Walker, Cabana, Clifford
STS-53 was a Space Shuttle Discovery mission in support of the United States Department of Defense. The mission was launched on 2 December 1992 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Discovery carried a classified primary payload for the United States Department of Defense, two unclassified secondary payloads and nine unclassified middeck experiments.
Discovery's primary payload, USA-89 NSSDC ID 1992-086B is also known as "DoD-1", and was the shuttle's last major payload for the Department of Defense. The satellite was the third launch of a Satellite Data System-2 military communications satellite, after USA-40 on STS-28 and STS-38's deployment of USA-67.
Secondary payloads contained in or attached to Get Away Special (GAS) hardware in the cargo bay included the Orbital Debris Radar Calibration Spheres (ODERACS) and the combined Shuttle Glow Experiment/Cryogenic Heat Pipe Experiment (GCP).
Middeck experiments included Microcapsules in Space (MIS-l); Space Tissue Loss (STL); Visual Function Tester (VFT-2); Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activation Monitor (CREAM); Radiation Monitoring Equipment (RME-III); Fluid Acquisition and Resupply Experiment (FARE); Hand-held, Earth-oriented, Real-time, Cooperative, User-friendly, Location-targeting and Environmental System (HERCULES); Battlefield Laser Acquisition Sensor Test (BLAST); and the Cloud Logic to Optimize Use of Defense Systems (CLOUDS).
The five stars and three stripes of the insignia symbolize the flight's numerical designation in the Space Transportation System's mission sequence.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
International Space Station, Nasa, Space Shuttle Atlantis, Apollo program, European Space Agency
International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope, Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, Space Shuttle Endeavour, Sts-41-d
Apollo program, International Space Station, Soviet Union, Mars, Space Shuttle
United States Department of the Navy, United States Army, United States Air Force, Title 10 of the United States Code, Defense Intelligence Agency
Apollo program, Russia, Nasa, United States, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Soviet Union, Russia, United States, Canada, United Kingdom
International Space Station, Nasa, United States Army, Space Shuttle, Expedition 2
United States Navy, Texas, United States Naval Academy, Nasa, United States
Nasa, United States Air Force, United States, Pennsylvania State University, Space Shuttle
Nasa, Space shuttle, Space Shuttle Columbia, Star Trek, Kennedy Space Center