STS-45

STS-45

Experiments in Atlantis' payload bay
Mission type	Research
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	1992-015A
SATCAT №	21915
Mission duration	8 days, 22 hours, 9 minutes, 28 seconds
Distance travelled	5,211,340 kilometers (3,238,180 mi)
Orbits completed	143
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Space Shuttle Atlantis
Landing mass	93,009 kilograms (205,050 lb)
Payload mass	9,947 kilograms (21,929 lb)
Crew
Crew size	7
Members	Charles F. Bolden, Jr. Brian Duffy Kathryn D. Sullivan David C. Leestma Michael Foale Dirk Frimout Byron K. Lichtenberg
Start of mission
Launch date	24 March 1992, 13:13:39 (1992-03-24UTC13:13:39Z) UTC
Launch site	Kennedy LC-39A
End of mission
Landing date	2 April 1992, 11:23 (1992-04-02UTC11:24Z) UTC
Landing site	Kennedy SLF Runway 33
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Perigee	282 kilometres (175 mi)
Apogee	294 kilometres (183 mi)
Inclination	57.0 degrees
Period	90.3 min
Left to right - Seated: Duffy, Bolden; Standing: Lichtenberg, Foale, Leestma, Sullivan, Frimout Space Shuttle program ← STS-42 STS-49 →

Left to right - Seated: Duffy, Bolden; Standing: Lichtenberg, Foale, Leestma, Sullivan, Frimout

STS-45 was a 1992 Space Shuttle mission using the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Its almost nine-day scientific mission was with a non-deployable payload of instruments. It was the 46th Space Shuttle mission and the 11th for Atlantis.

Atlantis was launched on 24 March 1992, at 8:13 am EST. The launch was originally scheduled for 23 March, but was delayed by one day because of higher-than-allowable concentrations of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in the orbiter's aft compartment during tanking operations. During troubleshooting, the leaks could not be reproduced, leading engineers to believe that they were the result of plumbing in the main propulsion system not thermally conditioned to the cryogenic propellants; the launch was rescheduled for 24 March. Atlantis weighed 105,982 kilograms (233,650 lb) at launch.

STS-45 carried the first Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS-1) experiments, placed on Spacelab pallets mounted in the orbiter's payload bay. The non-deployable payload, equipped with 12 instruments from the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Japan, conducted studies in atmospheric chemistry, solar radiation, space plasma physics and ultraviolet astronomy. ATLAS-1 instruments included the Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy (ATMOS); Grille Spectrometer; Millimeter Wave Atmospheric Sounder (MAS); Imaging Spectrometric Observatory (ISO); Atmospheric Lyman-Alpha Emissions (ALAE); Atmospheric Emissions Photometric Imager (AEPI); Space Experiments with Particle Accelerators (SEPAC); Active Cavity Radiometer (ACR); Measurement of Solar Constant (SOLCON); Solar Spectrum (SOLSPEC); Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SUSIM); and Far Ultraviolet Space Telescope (FAUST). Other payloads included the Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SSBUV) experiment, a Get Away Special (GAS) experiment and six mid-deck experiments.