STS-62-A was a planned

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mission to deliver a reconnaissance payload (Teal Ruby) into

polar orbit A polar orbit is one in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited (usually a planet such as the Earth, but possibly another body such as the Moon or Sun) on each revolution. It has an inclination of abo ...

. It was expected to use ''Discovery''. It would have been the first crewed launch from

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California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and the first crewed mission to go into polar orbit. The mission designation, STS-62-A, meant: 6=fiscal year 1986, 2=Vandenberg (1=

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), and A=first flight in that fiscal year.

Crew

Post-''Challenger'' accident

The

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of ''Challenger'' and subsequent halt of the

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led to the cancellation of the mission. Guy Gardner, Jerry Ross, and Mike Mullane were members of the second post-''Challenger'' mission

STS-27 STS-27 was the 27th NASA Space Shuttle program, Space Shuttle mission, and the third flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis, Space Shuttle ''Atlantis''. Launching on December 2, 1988, on a four-day mission, it was the second shuttle flight after the ...

— a classified mission for the DoD — during which the Lacrosse-1 radar reconnaissance spacecraft was allegedly deployed..

References

External links

STS-62-A mission patch draft designs

Article on the Teal Ruby satellite that would have been STS-62-A's payload

National Museum of the United States Air Force page on Teal Ruby
{{All U.S. Space Shuttle Missions Cancelled Space Shuttle missions 1986 in spaceflight