STS 51-C was the fifteenth flight of a space shuttle, the third flight of Space Shuttle Discovery, and the first United States Department of Defense mission. It conducted the fourth landing at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
First mission dedicated to Department of Defense. U.S. Air Force Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) booster deployed and met mission objectives. This mission's accomplishments are classified due to the nature of the work done. The shu...
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STS 51-C was the fifteenth flight of a space shuttle, the third flight of Space Shuttle Discovery, and the first United States Department of Defense mission. It conducted the fourth landing at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
First mission dedicated to Department of Defense. U.S. Air Force Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) booster deployed and met mission objectives. This mission's accomplishments are classified due to the nature of the work done. The shuttle deployed a single satellite, 1985-010B (USA-8).
According to Aviation Week & Space Technology, STS-51-C launched a secret, Magnum ELINT (ELectronic INTtelligence) gathering satellite into geosynchronous orbit. Identical satellites were also launched by STS-33 and STS-38.
Also according to Aviation Week, the shuttle initially entered a 204 km x 519 km orbit at an inclination of 28.45 deg to the equator. It then executed three OMS (orbital maneuvering system) burns, the last on orbit #4. The first burn is to circularize the orbit at 519 km....
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