STS-26 was the twenty-sixth space shuttle mission and the seventh flight of the orbiter Discovery. It was the return to flight mission after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. It was the first to have all of its crew members wear pressure suits for launch and landing since STS-4 and the first mission with bailout capability since STS-4. It was also the first all-veteran crew mission since Apollo-11 with all of its crew having flown at least on prior mission.
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.
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
Date of
Birth: April 11, 1941
Age: 84
Date of
Birth: Aug. 1, 1946
Age: 78
Date of
Birth: July 13, 1950
Age: 74
Date of
Birth: June 28, 1946
Date of Death:
March 1, 2011
Date of
Birth: Jan. 28, 1950
Age: 75
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 WIKICarried 6 satellites to Sun-synchronous orbit, including commercial Earth observation satellites Taijing-3-04 & Taijing-4-02A: * Taijing-3-04 * T…
A batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Chinese communication geostationary satellite for unknown purposes.
4 small satellites for LEO Internet of Things (IoT) communication purposes.
RISAT-1B is the third in the series of radar imaging RISAT-1 satellites of ISRO using an active C-band SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar), providing all-…
Synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company iQPS.
6 satellites from satellite manufacturer SpaceTY, including 3 multi-spectral Earth observation satellites and 3 technology demonstration satellites f…
A batch of 26 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
A batch of 28 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
12 satellites from ADASPACE testing in-orbit data processing capabilities for other satellites with artificial intelligence assistance, as well as in…