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ArchivesText SizeSTS-59 Mission: Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-1)
Space Shuttle: Endeavour
Launch Pad: 39A 
Launched: April 9, 1994 at 7:05 a.m. EDT
Landing Site: Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
Landing: April 20, 1994, 9:54:30 a.m. PDT
Runway: 22 
Rollout Distance: 10,691 feet
Rollout Time: 54 seconds
Revolution: 183
Mission Duration: 11 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, 30 seconds
Returned to KSC: May 2, 1994
Orbit Altitude: 121 nautical miles
Orbit Inclination: 57 degrees
Miles Traveled: 4.7 million 

Crew Members

                    

Image above: STS-59 Crew photo with Commander Sidney M. Gutierrez, Pilot Kevin 
P. Chilton, Payload Commander Linda M. Godwin and Mission Specialists Jay Apt, 
Michael R. Clifford and Thomas D. Jones. Image Credit: NASA 

Launch Highlights

 Launch originally set for April 7 was postponed at the T-27 hour mark for one 
day to allow for additional inspections of metallic vanes in the space shuttle 
main engine (SSME) high pressure oxidizer preburner pumps. Launch on April 8 
scrubbed due to weather, high crosswinds and low clouds at Shuttle Landing 
Facility (SLF) and clouds at launch pad. Countdown April 9 proceeded smoothly.

Mission Highlights

Primary payload was the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-1), located in payload bay; 
activated by crew and operated by teams on ground. SRL-1 included the Spaceborne 
Imaging Radar-C and the X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) and an 
atmospheric instrument called Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites 
(MAPS). The German Space Agency (DARA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) 
provided the X-SAR instrument. SIR-C/X-SAR covered approximately 38.5 million 
miles of the Earth, the equivalent of 20 percent of the planet. More than 400 
sites were imaged, including 19 primary observation sites (supersites) in 
Brazil, Michigan, North Carolina and Central Europe. Thirteen countries were 
represented in the project with 49 principal investigators and more than 100 
scientists, coordinated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Some 133 hours 
of data were collected. The MAPS experiment measured the global distribution of 
carbon monoxide in the troposphere, or lower atmosphere.

Get-Away Special (GAS) experiments were sponsored by New Mexico State 
University, Matra Marconi Space (France), and the Society of Japanese Aerospace 
Companies.

Consortium for Materials Development in Space Complex Autonomous Payload-IV 
(CONCAP IV), carried in GAS hardware in the payload bay, was developed by the 
University of Alabama-Huntsville. It produced crystals and thin films through 
physical vapor transportation.

Middeck experiments included Visual Function Tester-4 (VFT-4), Space Tissue 
Loss-4 and -5; and Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX).

Mission also marked first flight of Toughened Uni-Piece Fibrous Insulation, 
known as TUFI, an improved thermal protection tile. Several test tiles were 
placed on orbiter's base heat shield between three main engines. 

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