Uncrewed spacecraftRecovered
Long Duration Exposure Facility
Materials exposure satellite
The Long Duration Exposure Facility was a retrievable NASA platform carrying 57 materials and space-environment investigations. STS-41-C deployed it in 1984; after nearly six years of exposure, STS-32 photographed, grappled, and returned it in 1990 so researchers could study micrometeoroids, debris, radiation, atomic oxygen, and solar effects.
Uncrewed spacecraft dossier
Vehicle record
- Flights
- At least one documented Shuttle mission
- First flight
- STS-41-C
- Final flight
- STS-41-C
- Vehicle type
- Materials exposure satellite
- Carrier mission
- STS-41-C
- Program
- LDEF
- Archive role
- Payload, upper , experiment, or servicing target
- Status
- Historical mission hardware record