Shuttle pallet satellite
The shuttle pallet satellite was a satellite bus designed to be deployed and then retrieved for return to Earth on NASA's Space Shuttle. It carried a variety of payloads both scientific and military in nature.
It was made by Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm and first flew in 1983. It was carried for the first time during the STS-7 mission and called SPAS-01 carrying 10 payloads.[1] It flew again on the STS-39 mission in 1991 called IBSS-SPAS (Infrared Background Signature Survey – Shuttle Pallet Satellite) for the DOD testing various ballistic missile detection sensors.[2]
SPAS flew for the third time with the STS-51 mission in 1991 called ORFEUS-SPAS (Orbiting & Retrievable Far & Extreme UV Spectrometer – Shuttle Pallet Satellite) with ultraviolet instruments. ORFEUS-SPAS was flown again on the STS-80 mission.[3]
SPAS was flown for the second to last time with the CRISTA-SPAS (Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers & Telescopes for the Atmosphere – Shuttle Pallet Satellite) payload on STS-66 in 1994 mounting several infrared sensors looking at the Earths atmosphere, and that payload flew again on STS-85 in 1997.[4]
Gallery
- ORFEUS-SPAS II after being deployed from Columbia on STS-80
- The first SPAS on the RMS of Challenger during the STS-7 mission
- IBSS-SPAS after being deployed from Discovery's payload bay during the STS-39 mission
- CRISTA-SPAS 1 on Atlantis' RMS before release on the STS-66 mission
References
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and training
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- Space Shuttle design process
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- Payload Assist Module
- International Space Station
- Criticism
- Retirement
- Conroy Virtus
- Hail Columbia (1982 documentary)
- The Dream Is Alive (1985 documentary)
- Challenger (1990 film)
- Destiny in Space (1994 documentary)
- Columbia: The Tragic Loss (2004 documentary)
- Hubble (2010 documentary)
- The Challenger Disaster (2013 film)
- Challenger: The Final Flight (2020 documentary miniseries)
- Space Shuttle America
- Rendezvous: A Space Shuttle Simulation
- Space Shuttle Project
- Shuttle
- Space Shuttle: A Journey into Space
- Space Shuttle Mission 2007
- Orbiter Space Flight Simulator
- When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions
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