STS-26
Sign in to saveSTS-26 was the 26th NASA Space Shuttle mission and the seventh flight of the orbiter Discovery. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on September 29, 1988, and landed four days later on October 3, 1988. STS-26 was declared the "Return to Flight" mission, being the first mission after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of January 28, 1986. It was the first mission since STS-9 to use the original Space Transportation System (STS) numbering system, the first to have all its crew members wear pressure suits for launch and landing since STS-4, and the first mission with bailo
Key facts
- Spaceflight.name
- STS-26
- Spaceflight.names_list
- Space Transportation System-26STS-26R
- Spaceflight.image
- TDRS-C.jpg
- Spaceflight.image_caption
- TDRS-C and its IUS in the payload bay of Discovery
- Spaceflight.mission_type
- Return to Flight andTDRS-C deployment
- Spaceflight.operator
- NASA
- Spaceflight.orbits_completed
- 64
- Spaceflight.crew_size
- 5
- Spaceflight.launch_date
- UTC (11:37amEDT)
- Spaceflight.launch_site
- Kennedy, LC-39B
- Spaceflight.launch_contractor
- Rockwell International
- Spaceflight.landing_date
- UTC (9:37:11amPDT)
- Spaceflight.landing_site
- Edwards, Runway17
- Spaceflight.orbit_reference
- Geocentric orbit
- Spaceflight.orbit_regime
- Low Earth orbit
- Spaceflight.orbit_inclination
- 28.45°
- Spaceflight.orbit_period
- 90.60 minutes
- Spaceflight.apsis
- gee
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human spaceflight
- Part of
- Space Shuttle program
- Operator
- NASA
- Followed by
- STS-27
- Follows
- STS-51-L
- Duration
- 349211
- Mass
- 21082
- Orbital period
- 90.6
- Image
- Return to Flight Launch of Discovery - GPN-2000-001871.jpg
- Significant event
- landing
Show 15 more facts
- type of orbit
- low Earth orbit
- Commons category
- STS-26
- UTC date of spacecraft launch
- 1988-09-29
- crew members
- George Nelson
- vessel
- Discovery
- location of landing
- Edwards Air Force Base
- orbits completed
- 64
- UTC date of spacecraft landing
- 1988-10-03
- Commons gallery
- STS-26
- orbital inclination
- 28.5
- periapsis
- 301
- apoapsis
- 306
- start point
- Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B
- carries passengers or cargo
- TDRS-3
- archives at
- Lunar and Planetary Institute
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~11 min read
Encyclopedic overview
14 sectionsContents
- Crew
- Crew seat assignments
- Mission summary
- Payloads and experiments
- List of payloads
- Primary payload
- Secondary payloads
- Damage to thermal protection
- Wake-up calls
- Gallery
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
STS-26 was the 26th NASA Space Shuttle mission and the seventh flight of the orbiter Discovery. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on September 29, 1988, and landed four days later on October 3, 1988. STS-26 was declared the "Return to Flight" mission, being the first mission after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of January 28, 1986. It was the first mission since STS-9 to use the original Space Transportation System (STS) numbering system, the first to have all its crew members wear pressure suits for launch and landing since STS-4, and the first mission with bailout capacity since STS-4. STS-26 was also the first U.S. space mission with an all-veteran crew since Apollo 11, with all of its crew members having flown at least one prior mission.
The mission is technically designated STS-26R, as the original STS-26 designation previously belonged to STS-51-F (also known as Spacelab-2). Likewise all flights with the STS-26 through STS-33 designations would require the R in their documentation to avoid conflicts in tracking data between the old and new flight designations.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “STS-26” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.