Sep 29 1988
From The Space Library
September 29-October 3: U.S. crew-assisted space flight resumed after a hiatus of over two years with the successful launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-26 from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39-B in Florida. The first Space Shuttle flight since the Challenger accident in January 1986, STS-26 followed a prolonged period of review and reassessment of the entire Shuttle program and redesign of the Shuttles solid rocket motors (SRNs), which had experienced a catastrophic failure on STS-25. STS-26 had as its primary payload the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-C (TORS-C), which would significantly, expand communications and data links between Earth and the orbiting Shuttles. In addition, Discovery carried the Orbiter Experiments Program Autonomous Supporting Instrumentation System (OASIS), which would record environmental data in the orbiter payload bay during STS flight phases, as well as 11 secondary payloads. The STS-26 mission lasted four days and concluded with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on October 3. The five-man crew for STS-26 included Navy Captain Frederick H. Hauck (Commander), Air Force Colonel Richard O. Covey (Pilot), and Mission Specialists John M. Lounge, Marine Lieutenant Colonel David C. Hilmers, and George D. Nelson. (NASA STS-26 Press Kit, SSR 1988 091A; UPI, Sep 29/88; AP, Sep 29/88; Reuter, Sep 29/88; NY Times, Sep 30/88; W Post, Sep 30/88; W Times, Sep 30/88; USA Today, Sep 30/88)
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