STS-56

Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox spaceflight

STS-56 was a NASA Space Shuttle Discovery mission to perform special experiments. It was Discovery's 16th flight. The mission was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on April 8, 1993.

CrewEdit

Template:Spaceflight crew

Crew seat assignmentsEdit

citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Launch	Landing	File:Space Shuttle seating plan.svg Seats 1–4 are on the flight deck. Seats 5–7 are on the mid-deck.
1	Cameron
2	Oswald
3	Foale	Ochoa
4	Cockrell
5	Ochoa	Foale
6	Unused
7	Unused

Mission highlightsEdit

Template:LaunchAttempt The primary payload of the flight was the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science-2 (ATLAS-2),<ref name="STS-56 Mission Report">Template:Cite report</ref>Template:Reference page designed to collect data on the relationship between the Sun's energy output and Earth's middle atmosphere and how these factors affect the ozone layer. It included six instruments mounted on a Spacelab pallet in the cargo bay, with the seventh mounted on the wall of the bay in two Get Away Special (GAS) canisters. Atmospheric instruments included the Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy (ATMOS) experiment, the Millimeter Wave Atmospheric Sounder (MAS), and the Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SSBUV/A) spectrometer (on the cargo bay wall). Solar science instruments were the solar spectrometry instrument SOLSPEC,<ref name="SOLSPEC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the Solar Ultraviolet Irradiance Monitor (SUSIM), and the Active Cavity Radiometer (ACR) and Solar Constant (SOLCON) experiments.<ref name="STS-56 Mission Summary">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:PD-notice</ref>

ATLAS-2 is one element of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program. All seven ATLAS-2 instruments first flew on ATLAS-1 during STS-45, and flew a third time in late 1994 on STS-66.<ref name="STS-56 Mission Summary" />

On April 11, 1993, the crew used the remote manipulator arm (Canadarm) to deploy the Shuttle Point Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy-201 (SPARTAN-201), a free-flying science instrument platform designed to study velocity and acceleration of the solar wind and observe the Sun's corona. Collected data was stored on tape for playback after return to Earth. SPARTAN-201 was retrieved on April 13, 1993.<ref name="STS-56 Mission Summary"/>

The crew also made numerous radio contacts to schools around the world using the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX II), including brief radio contact with the Russian Mir space station, the first such contact between Space Shuttle and Mir using amateur radio equipment.<ref name="STIsummary">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Template:PD-notice</ref>

Other cargo bay payloads were the Solar Ultraviolet Experiment (SUVE), sponsored by Colorado Space Grant Consortium and located in a GetAway Special canister on the cargo bay wall.<ref name="STS-56 Mission Summary"/>

The middeck payloads were the Commercial Materials Dispersion Apparatus Instrumentation Technology Associates Experiment (CMIX), the Physiological and Anatomical Rodent Experiment (PARE), Space Tissue Loss (STL-1) experiment, the Cosmic Ray Effects and Activation Monitor (CREAM) experiment. the Hand-held, Earth-oriented, Real-time, Cooperative, User-friendly, Location-targeting and Environmental System (HERCULES), Radiation Monitoring Equipment (RME III), and an Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS) calibration test.<ref name="STS-56 Mission Summary"/>

GalleryEdit

STS-56 Launch - GPN-2000-000748.jpg

Launch of STS-56
STS056-90-034 - SPARTAN-201 free-flying (Retouched).jpg

SPARTAN-201
STS056-91-054 - Payload bay view with ATLAS pallet (Retouched).jpg

Payload bay view with ATLAS pallet

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:Space Shuttle Discovery Template:All U.S. Space Shuttle Missions Template:Orbital launches in 1993