Launch from Cape Canaveral (
KSC); landing on
Edwards
AFB. The launch
was originally scheduled for August 18, 1994, but a Redundant Sequence Launch
Sequencer (
ESLS)
abort due of technical problems occured and a new launch date was set.
Mission "Space Radar Laboratory" (
SRL-2). Radar images
of Earth's surface and volcanic eruption observations were taken. The
SRL payload is
comprised of the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar
(SIR-C/X-SAR), and the Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellite (MAPS). The
German Space Agency (DARA) and the Italian Space Agency (
ASI)
are providing the X-SAR instrument.
The imaging radar of the
SIR-C/X-SAR instruments has the ability to make measurements over virtually any
region at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight conditions. The radar
waves can penetrate clouds, and under certain conditions, also can "see"
through vegetation, ice and extremely dry sand. In many cases, radar is the
only way scientists can explore inaccessible regions of the Earth's surface.
The SIR-C/X-SAR radar data provide information about how many of
Earth's complex systems - those processes that control the movement of land,
water, air and life - work together to make this a livable planet. The science
team particularly wants to study the amount of vegetation coverage, the extent
of snow packs, wetlands areas, geologic features such as rock types and their
distribution, volcanic activity, ocean wave heights and wind speed.
In
addition there have been carried out experiments in biology and materials
science, as Biological Research in Canister (BRIC), flying for the first time,
to examine the effects of microgravity on a wide range of physiological
processes in higher order plants and arthropod animals (e.g., insects, spiders,
centipedes, crustaceans) and Military Applications of Ship Tracks (MAST), to
examine the effects of ships on the marine environment
Due to clouds
over the
KSC the
Space Shuttle was diverted to the Edwards
AFB.