It is also believed to have carried the Heritage (Radiant Agate) infrared early-warning system for ballistic missile detection capability. The SDS-B (possibly codenamed “Quasar”) featured a pair of 14.7-foot-diameter (4.5-meter) dish antennas and a third, smaller dish for Ku-band downlink. Such wide coverage was not possible to geostationary-orbiting satellites. This enabled them to cover two-thirds of the globe, relay spy satellite data of the entire Soviet land mass, and cover the entire north polar region in support of U.S. It has been suggested that the SDS-Bs occupied a high-apogee and low-perigee orbit, ranging from as close as 300 miles (480 km) and as distant as 23,600 miles (38,000 km), and functioning at steeply inclinations which achieved apogee over the Northern Hemisphere. The last Syncom-4 was carried aboard STS-32 in January 1990. Navy, which were deployed from the shuttle in a sideways, frisbee-like motion. Physically, the satellite resembled the Syncom-4-also called “Leasat”-military communications satellites, operated by the U.S. Image Credit: Joachim Becker/Īlmost a decade after Covey’s mission, in the spring of 1998, imagery and videotapes of an SDS-B under construction were released by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), together with the identity of its prime contractor, Hughes. The STS-38 patch, emblazoned with the surnames of Atlantis’ five crew members, highlighted the “seen” and “unseen” aspects of a Department of Defense mission. All told, it is believed that three SDS-Bs were launched by the fleet of reusable orbiters, on STS-28 in August 1989, aboard STS-38 and finally on the final Department of Defense shuttle mission, STS-53 in December 1992.
More recently, it became generally accepted that STS-38 deployed a member of the second-generation Satellite Data Systems (SDS-B) telecommunications relays, inserted into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). However, many years after STS-38, on-orbit images of Atlantis’ vertical stabilizer revealed no trace of the donut-shaped Airborne Support Equipment (ASE) “tilt-table,” which was known to have accommodated all IUS-based cargoes in the payload bay. Its original published designation was “Air Force Program-658” (AFP-658), and initial speculation centered on the possibility that Covey’s crew deployed a Magnum Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) satellite- of similar design to the payload lofted by the astronauts of Shuttle Discovery on Mission 51C in January 1985-atop a Boeing-built Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) booster. As a consequence, STS-38 flew several months later than planned, carrying a payload which remains shrouded in mystery and rumor, even a quarter-century later.
#Radiant defense mission 12 series#
However, a series of hydrogen leaks associated with the 17-inch-diameter (43 cm) disconnect hardware aboard her sister ship, Columbia, prompted fleetwide inspections and a similar problem was identified on Atlantis. For Carl Meade, it was the eve of his 40th birthday, but for all five astronauts it was culmination of months of frustrating delays and the pinnacle of five lifetimes spent dreaming about aviation.Īs described in yesterday’s AmericaSpace history article, Atlantis’ launch was originally targeted for May 1990, but shifted to the mid-July timeframe as the busy shuttle manifest took shape in the first half of that year. Aboard the orbiter for the projected four-day flight were Commander Dick Covey, Pilot Frank Culbertson, and Mission Specialists Carl Meade, Bob Springer, and Charles “Sam” Gemar, and STS-38 would deliver a secretive payload into space to support a gradually escalating international military presence in the Middle East, following the August 1990 invasion of Kuwait by the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. EST on 15 November 1990, Atlantis roared into orbit on the seventh classified shuttle mission for the Department of Defense. Twenty-five years ago, tonight, fire and thunder rattled the marshy landscape of Florida and an artificial sunrise-for just a few minutes-created a new dawn. She became the first orbiter to return to the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in more than 5.5 years when she touched down on 20 November 1990.
As with her launch and the bulk of her on-orbit operations, Atlantis’ landing was also shrouded in gloom.
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