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STS-42

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Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission:

Low Earth Orbit Launch Complex 39A Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

STS-42 was a Space Shuttle Discovery mission with the Spacelab module. The main goal of the mission was to study the effects of microgravity on a variety of organisms.

Space Shuttle

Family:
Configuration:

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 name was Space Transportation System (STS). Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011.

Specifications
  • Stages
    2
  • Length
    56.1 m
  • Diameter
    8.0 m
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
    2030.0 T
  • Thrust
    28200.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Space Shuttle
  • Family
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Space Shuttle
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $450000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    27500.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Space Shuttle Discovery


In-active Human Rated Crew On-board: 7 Crew Capacity: 7 Payload Capacity: 27500 kg
Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Serial Number: OV-103

Space Shuttle Discovery (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-103) is one of the orbiters from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully operational orbiters to be built. Its first mission, STS-41-D, flew from August 30 to September 5, 1984. Over 27 years of service it launched and landed 39 times, gathering more spaceflights than any other spacecraft to date. Discovery became the third operational orbiter to enter service, preceded by Columbia and Challenger. It embarked on its last mission, STS-133, on February 24, 2011 and touched down for the final time at Kennedy Space Center on March 9, having spent a cumulative total of almost a full year in space. Discovery performed both research and International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions. It also carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. Discovery was the first operational shuttle to be retired, followed by Endeavour and then Atlantis.

Space Shuttle Details

Crew


Ronald J. Grabe

Commander - configurations.Country.None - ( NASA )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: June 13, 1945
Age: 81

Stephen S. Oswald

Pilot - configurations.Country.None - ( NASA )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: June 30, 1951
Age: 75

Roberta Bondar

Payload Specialist - configurations.Country.None - ( CSA )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: Dec. 4, 1945
Age: 80

Ulf Merbold

Payload Specialist - configurations.Country.None - ( ESA )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: June 20, 1941
Age: 85

William F. Readdy

Mission Specialist - configurations.Country.None - ( NASA )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: Jan. 24, 1952
Age: 74

David Hilmers

Mission Specialist - configurations.Country.None - ( NASA )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: Jan. 28, 1950
Age: 76

Norman E. Thagard

Mission Specialist - configurations.Country.None - ( NASA )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: July 3, 1943
Age: 83

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA)

Administrator: Jared Isaacman Founded: 1958 Successes: 122 Failures: 20 Pending: 5

Agency Type:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. NASA have many launch facilities but most are inactive. The most commonly used pad will be LC-39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

INFO WIKI

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Launch Complex 39A


Long March 2D
Success
11 hours, 26 minutes ago
PIESAT-2 13-16
Launch Complex 9 - Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

4 X-band synthetic-aperture radar Earth observation satellites for the Chinese Earth observation satellite company PIESAT.


Electron
Success
18 hours, 54 minutes ago
Owl By The Dozen (StriX Launch 12)
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.


Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M
Success
2 days, 5 hours ago
Glonass-K1 No. 20 (?)
43/3 (43L) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Satellite serial number and Cosmos designation not confirmed. Glonass-K are the third generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite n…


Kuaizhou 11
Success
2 days, 19 hours ago
SpaceTY-51 & 52
Launch Area 95A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

2 Earth observation radar satellites built by the Chinese satellite manufacturer SpaceTY.


Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 21 hours ago
USSF-259
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

USSF-259 is a classified mission for the United States Space Force. It is possibly a batch of classified LEO satellites based on SpaceX’s Starshield …


Long March 12
Success
2 days, 21 hours ago
SatNet LEO Group 25
Commercial LC-2 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…


Soyuz 2.1b
Success
3 days, 8 hours ago
Progress MS-35 (96P)
31/6 - Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.


Gravity-1
Success
4 days ago
SpaceSail Polar Group #16
Yellow Sea (launch location 5) - Haiyang Oriental Spaceport

9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites with Ku, Q and V band payloads for the G60 constellation operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies with …


Zhuque-2E Block 2
Success
4 days, 15 hours ago
SpaceSail Polar Group #15
Launch Area 96A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

10 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites with Ku, Q and V band payloads for the G60 constellation operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies with…


Vega-C
Success
4 days, 20 hours ago
Sentinel-3C & FLEX
Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV) - Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana

Sentinel-3C is the third satellite in the Sentinel-3 constellation, which provides high-accuracy optical, radar and altimetry data for marine and lan…